A self-portrait using a defocus lens

Self portrait, May 2006.
Nikon D2X, AF DC-Nikkor 135mm 1:2 D.

For my Nikon cameras I have so-called defocus lens, an AF DC-Nikkor 135mm 1:2 D. The interesting thing with this lens is that it has a variable spherical aberration compensation. The effect of this setting is to vary the rendering of the foreground and background out-of-focus areas. At extreme settings, softness at the plane of focus is also introduced.

The Defocus control on the DC-Nikkor lens.

For this self-portrait I used my living room lamps, the D2X on a tripod, and an infrared remote release. I set the aperture to 2.0, defocus to 2.8 R (rear) to get some softness.

Original image

Original image loaded into LightZone

Quite soft, isn't it? It does look blurry from a distance, but the sharpness is there.

Since I was going to turn the photo into black and white I didn't have to worry so much about color balance, just the overall lighting. I wanted soft light with some drama, and after trying a few variation I settled for this setup.

Convert to black and white

Channel Mixer added, with default settings.

For portraits I like to use mostly the green channel, so the default settings in Channel Mixer are pretty good. The whole photo lacks a bit of a snap though, and the face is too dark - problems with conflicting solutions.

Adding some density

ZoneMapper added, with two locks to pull down shadows for more drama.

To address the lack of snap and drama, I added a ZoneMapper and pulled down two locks in the shadow tones. Perhaps a bit too sinister - I can be a bad boy, but not that bad :) The face needs more light.

Fill light

Second ZoneMapper added, masked to the face with semi-wide feathering.

A second ZoneMapper was added, and masked to the face, with an appropriate soft feathering. I wanted to add more light to the midtones, so I locked the two top zones. Then I pulled the low midtones up, finally followed by another lock for shadows pulled up even more to reduce shadow around the eyes.

Sharpening

Closeup of actual pixels before sharpening.

An interesting quality of this lens is the gradual transition from softness to blur when rear defocus is used. The in-focus softness responds really well to sharpening, allowing for that crisp look in the eyes fading back to softness over the ears and into a creamy blur in the background.

Softening is wide, in actual pixels, so the sharpening radius should be wide. Essentially, the sharpening increases local contrast which will compensate for softness while keeping the blur.

Closeup after sharpening.

I did the actual sharpening in full view - the purpose of the sharpening was to add snap to the photo, not to try to maximize perceived resolution. The closeup above shows the effect of my sharpening on details.

There is an objectionable effect on the highlights in the watch face - see below. After making the final image I found that changing the blend mode for the Sharpen tool to Midtones will reduce the aftefacts around the watch and make a smother transition into blown highlights.

Final image

Final image.