Bokeh Concerns

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bkp944

bkp944

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I have a new-to-me Nikon 500mm F4 ED VR LENS. On my 1st outing, I was using it with a TC-14E III teleconverter.

Please look over this picture:

ELK_8211_BCG.jpg
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and the 100% crop of the background:

ELK_8211_Crop.jpg
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Is my rookie mistake of using F8 cause a lot of this busy background? I originally had it set for 5.6, but got distracted by the Elk :(

Thanks for commenting,
Brian
 
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bkp944 said:
Is my rookie mistake of using F8 cause a lot of this busy background?
Click to expand...
That would be my guess. It's pretty rare that I'll shoot a single wildlife subject at anything other than wide open which would be f/4 on that lens or f/5.6 with the teleconverter mounted. Also, is that top image the full frame out of the camera or was there some cropping to get to that image size? The bokeh in that top image looks a lot like what happens when you crop deeply into an image which for something like an Elk means the subject was pretty far from your position and relatively close to the background.

But yes, unless you really need more DoF, for instance to keep the eyes sharp on multiple subjects shooting wide open will help throw the background further out of focus.
 
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Thanks for the fast reply. This wasn't deeply cropped, but shot with a D4s, only 16MP. So any cropping probably hurts. Sounds as if I just need to pay better attention.
 
Still a nice looking closeup on a bull though. Looks like it might have been some harsh mid day light so maybe a few things stacking up against you on the bokeh
 
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All in all, still a wonderful shot! My first thought was with Harry.G in regard to heat refraction. Could you also burn the background some as to settle the bright colors? It could keep it from being as distracting, or even lower the exposure a step in your software.
 
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I too first thought of heat refraction. Nonetheless if you have access to Topaz DeNoise I have seen it work wonders on softening out background impurities and noise like you have in this photo. I too would only be shooting the 500mm f4 wide open, that's the whole reason for having glass like that! Nice shot anyhow!
 
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Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions! I'll try working with the background some and see how it turns out.

The picture was taken around 11am and I wasn't thinking about heat diffraction on that upper 30's degree morning. But, the sun was bright and it now makes sense that heat diffraction and harsh lighting were factors (in addition to my mistakes) hurting bokeh.

I was shooting with a 1.4X teleconverter, so the best I could achieve was F5.6. I originally had the camera set for that, but I somehow managed to accidentally change it.

I need to practice, practice, practice, and pay attention!!!!

Thanks again.
 
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I don't consider this problem to be completely caused by your aperture. That's part of the issue, but it's mainly a post processing artifact. I've seen the same thing in some of my images when there is a busy out of focus background. I've seen this show up at default with all LR settings at 0 or neutral.

Take a look at any settings that add clarity, texture or sharpening on a global basis. That can include the Camera Profile which includes embedded clarity based on your Picture Control choice. You could start with Camera Neutral or Camera Flat if needed. For the background, you can add noise reduction to create blur, but you can also make sure your edits are applied just ot the elk and not applied to the background. With those horns it can be a tedious edit - but you don't need to be perfect if your brush has soft edges.
 
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I see that more often than I'd like with my long primes. I think it's a combination of a busy BG and heat distortion. I've had heat waves on days where the temps never reach freezing or from 60 degree water in a river into 40 degree dry air.
 
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