Man in glasses waits at the station with umbrella; Shibuya, Tokyo
This was the last shot I took the other night before calling it a day and getting me, my cold body and wet cameras onto the train to go home. A nice catch to round off the day; fella by the train station, checking his phone, waiting in the rain. I was right up behind him focussing on the raindrops on his umbrella. Bokeh City. Mmmmm. :-)
Plane of focus is from the rim of his glasses up through the umbrella.
No cropping.
Nikon D300
Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF D @ f/1.4
A collection of my pics of people with umbrellas and parasols in
Japan:
japanorama.co.uk/2009/08/26/umbrellas-and-parasols-of-japan/
Comments and faves
tony.eckersley, kabren, mimi yoon, Lauren Peralta, and 108 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Eric Flexyourhead (41 months ago | reply)
Pretty damn incredible, Alfie. The waterdrops on the umbrella are totally captivating and that creamy smooth bokeh is simply stunning.
longoak75 (41 months ago | reply)
really a nice detail and composition ..... very interesting your photos!
Grakus Art (41 months ago | reply)
nice nice :P lovely detail and focous on center area of umbrella
majomo-photography (41 months ago | reply)
Alfie, can I ask a typically dumb question.
Is the only difference with your 85mm and my 50mm 1.4 the length??
or does the fact that the 85 mm is HUGE mean that more light gets in, even though it is a 1.4 , the same as my smaller 50mm??
Dumb question
rockin_thefreeworld (41 months ago | reply)
Wow. This is a really neat shot! I love the raindrops on his umbrella!
Alfie | Japanorama (41 months ago | reply)
Mongo: yes, the front element on the 85 is bigger than on your 50 and inside the two lenses are very different. The main difference being the curved, 9-bladed aperture diaphragm in the 85mm which gives a circular not polygonal opening. These differing aperture shapes are one of the reasons the bokeh betwene the lenses differs.
All this said, your 50mm is an awsome lens and focusses much quicker than the 85mm but focussing speed is not really my top concern with this lens.
Generally - and especially with the shots from my 300mm f/4 - as you increase the focal length of a lens, the perspective changes and there is some compression of that perspective. This also increases the effect of the large aperture in producing bokeh. Also, like with this shot, if you focus close-ish in on something and there is background detail far away [the man's head and the lights] that background detail looks more out of focus than it would if there were less depth to the scene. And although the 300mm only has f/4 as its max aperture, if I shoot it a certain way then the focal length, perspective compression, camera-to-subject-to-background -distance all conspire to produce bokeh that would not normally be associated with an f/4 lens.
This 85mm lens - but any large aperture lens - is really at its best when you either focus very close [where depth of field is at its minimum]. Even if you are focussing long, keep plenty of distance between one subject and the item you want defocussed and that will increase the bokeh.
nataliekrovetz (41 months ago | reply)
sweet.
c.lemon (41 months ago | reply)
Very nice shot !
LenaGams (41 months ago | reply)
This is a real DARK PHOTO
and surely deserve a DARK AWARDS
Your photo is highly appreciated at:
I LOVE DARK PHOTOS
lille abe (41 months ago | reply)
brilliant capture!
what a colour Alfie!
seeit_snapit (41 months ago | reply)
Ditto to what Eric Flexyourhead said! :)
geedub11 (41 months ago | reply)
I just love the composition in this shot.
Makes me wonder if I would have approached the same situation in the same manner!
sanny c [deleted] (41 months ago | reply)
Yes, I share geedub11's thoughts and sentiments. Great eye Alfie!
write.lovelies (40 months ago | reply)
this is just lovely! Love the mood and tone of this photo!
idlr (40 months ago | reply)
nice!
tlate hiin (38 months ago | reply)
beautiful composition!
Vincent Stoessel (36 months ago | reply)
I love your photos. I can't favorite all of them because there are too many but I would if I could. I hope you are getting paid a great deal of money for what you do.
Alfie | Japanorama (36 months ago | reply)
Ha, thanks ghettojava. The money is coming. It's a tough world as a freelance photographer but I feel that the big-time is around the corner :-)
Tobias Walter (33 months ago | reply)
very nice image, great composition and colour!
TutkuTokol (23 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Oriental Stylism, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
This photo was invited and added to the Oriental Stylism group.
jitz_black out (19 months ago | reply)
wow!
indigoson (19 months ago | reply)
Wonderfully simple composition. It's very strong. Love it.
*EDIT* It's been three days, and I can't get this image out of my head. Nicely done!
Photo--Graphy (13 months ago | reply)
Great capture