Sports

The Cyclist.

2018, Beyond 200 feet of My House™, Favourite, Inspiration, Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4, Leica M10, NYC, Portrait, Q&A, Sports, Street, Teaching point

This is an uncropped image.  Technically, it’s a difficult sort of shot to achieve focus, not just because of the motion of the cyclist and the small margin of error involved in photographing at f/1.4, but also because the cyclist is situated a little to the right of centre, away from the focus patch of the rangefinder.  To deal with this, some experience and (admittedly) luck, is involved.

Incidentally, the same three issues (quick motion — especially with the subject coming towards the camera, shallow depth of field, and hitting critical focus at the periphery of the frame) can equally frustrate even the most sophisticated autofocus systems.  Interestingly, in these situations I seem to have more success with rangefinders.

Now, if only the distracting car behind her wasn’t there, I might have been satisfied with this image.

—Peter.

↑ Leica M10 + Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4.

Blue.

2018, Favourite, Inspiration, Nikon, Nikon 105mm f/1.4 E, Nikon D850, Portrait, Q&A, Sports, Teaching point, Within 200 feet of My House™

↑ Nikon D850 + Nikon 105mm f/1.4 E.

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Edit.

I thought it would be interesting to post the same image with lens corrections (distortion and vignetting removed):

↑ Nikon D850 + Nikon 105mm f/1.4 E.

(distortion and vignetting corrected)

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The vignetting at f/1.4 is very noticeable (the distortion is rather minimal, so you won’t see much of a difference in that respect); whether to correct the vignetting or not is of course a matter of preference.

—Peter.