Jardin des géants, 30.04.2016

[Airy]

From today's walk with Df + Zeiss 25/2.

[Airy]

and three more; the last one, shot wide open, illustrates the field curvature "issue" with this Zeiss : focus was set on the tree trunk (maybe slightly missed), but the building at the very left and right looks sharp...

[Akira]

The color compositions of monochrome and yellow/green looks chic.  I like the overall atmosphere of the first set.  The flowers in the second image of the second set looks a bit peculiar and mysterious in the subdued lighting.

[Airy]

Some mild play with (de)saturation was at work. I suspect the 25/2 to be slightly warm / yellowish, albeit much less than the 50/2 MP. The close-up shots tend to be underexposed; I'd set exposure compensation at +1EV if the scene is homogeneous. Here I chose to leave them "as is".

[Akira]

The desaturation trick sounds interesting.  Do you set the Picture Control of your Df to "Stamdard"?  I always set it to "Neutral" with the sharpening adjusted to zero.  So, I've never really in need of desaturate anything...

As for the tendency to underexpose in closeups, Zeiss glasses may not transfer the distance infomation to the camera even with the chips on ZF2 versions.

[Airy]

Concerning the distance info, your explanation sounds right. I was not aware of that, nor do  understand why (given TTL exposure) the meter should be fooled into underexposing.

The Df was set to neutral with sharpening maximised (+9) as usual, to ease focussing in LV and sharpness check when reviewing the shots but, as far as I know, this does not affect the RAW files - only the in-camera jpeg. I always shoot RAW, and this is also the case here.

I only desaturated the greens (and the yellows to some extent) in the building shots to "neutralize" the green cast caused by the pond. In the first shot, I reduced the blue luminance, to somewhat obscure the sky reflections and increase the contrast.

[Akira]

The Df was set to neutral with sharpening maximised (+9) as usual, to ease focussing in LV and sharpness check when reviewing the shots but, as far as I know, this does not affect the RAW files - only the in-camera jpeg. I always shoot RAW, and this is also the case here.

Maximizing sharpening sounds interesting.  I will try it.  The RAW file shouldn't be affected unless you develop it using the in-camera setting in the editor.

[Airy]

The max sharpening trick is a recommendation I read a few years ago, in relation with the not-so-good interlaced LV of the D800.

I do not generally use in-camera settings, but a specific Df profile (payware) that, by experience, is better balanced than the default Adobe rendering.

[John Geerts]

Max. sharpening is very useful indeed. 

I notice some yellowish, or does the reflection and the light play a part in it?

[Airy]

On the building shots, I could not remove all the yellowish / greenish cast from the water reflection. Otherwise the lens has a slightly warm rendering, as I mentioned, albeit less conspicuous than the 50/2 MP's.

[Akira]

Airy and John, the maximizing the sharpening trick worked nicely.  And, rather strangely, the sharpening setting is not reflected in ACR, even when I select the "camera neutral" profile, which is rather preferable.

[charlie]

Airy and John, the maximizing the sharpening trick worked nicely.  And, rather strangely, the sharpening setting is not reflected in ACR, even when I select the "camera neutral" profile, which is rather preferable.

If I am not mistaken, none of the Picture Control settings are used when opening NEF's in ACR. Sharpening and all other Picture Control settings are only applied to NEF's if you open them using Nikon software. 

[John Geerts]

Yes, Picture Controle settings influence the In-Camera-options (Display - LiveView) and JPG, but have should have no effect on the RAW-file it's self.

[Akira]

The NEF file itself is not affected by the Picture Control setting.  But ACR recognizes the camera when it opens the NEF, and all options of Picture Control profile appears in the Camera Profile pulldown menu under the camera icon.  D7000 doesn't have "Flat" Picture Control and there is no "Flat" option in the pulldown menu.  D750 has it, and there is "Flat" option there.  If you select a different profile, the rendition of the image is affected acoordingly.

[John Geerts]

Thanks for the explanation Akira. So it does effect the lower-end cameras?