70-200VR II Behaviour

JJPhotos

Hi all,

Long time, no post. It's been a busy few years!

Anyway, I've recently purchased a used 70-200 VRII and, just today, took a few shots of some snowy hills in the Northern Cairngorms. Whilst doing some post processing in Silver Efex I noticed the slightly odd curve which shows up when the contrast is boosted. In the first shot the sun is at about 90 degrees to the lens and in the second it is at about 45degrees. Unfortunately the lens-hood did not come with the lens (though I have one on order) so I'm wondering if this is an effect of the low sun and the angle of incidence exacerbated by the lack of proper shading.

Would any of you be able to shed light on this please?

WestEndFoto

I think that you are simply capturing what is there and the increased contrast is highlighting it. I think it looks quite nice actually. I doubt your lack of hood is an issue. That will mostly protect against flare and this is not flare.

If you don't like it try locally reducing the contrast. If you are ambitious, you can also try some dodging and burning.

You might also try a polarizer on the lens.

JJPhotos

Thanks WestEnd. When you say that you think it's something that was actually 'there', do you mean in the sky or just something that is a feature of the lens' behaviour?

It just seemed a bit too perfectly curved to my eye but I think I know what you mean.

Cheers,

JH

framer

What's the body?

framer

JJPhotos

It's a D810, Framer.

WestEndFoto

JJPhotos said:

Thanks WestEnd. When you say that you think it's something that was actually 'there', do you mean in the sky or just something that is a feature of the lens' behaviour?

It just seemed a bit too perfectly curved to my eye but I think I know what you mean.

Cheers,

JH

You can never be sure, but I have seen this stuff before. I think it is something in the sky, how the light is reflecting, like a rainbow but not a rainbow in this case.

Rx4Photo

Sometimes those canned programs like Silver Effects will produce strange outcomes when you start moving sliders. If you use Lightroom or another general editor, see what happens when you convert to B&W in that editor and boost contrast. Personally, to me it looks a little too perfect to be an atmospheric phenomenon.

spraynpray

Hmmm, I say it is not a natural occurrence because of the greatly different angles to the sun and directions of view. I say it is some kind of artifact, probably caused by the lack of the hood, or the lens has had something happen to it during its previous ownership. Just my opinion and I freely admit I don't have this lens but I do a fair amount of photography into the light and have seen some funny effects over the years.

paulr

JJ Photos. Perhaps if you take a similar image with a polerizer filter on and see if that makes any difference. I have this lens and have not had this problem.

starralazn

i dont shoot much landscapes (including the sky with a large dof) with my lens, but i can say it is very prone to flare .... with a crappy filter . but yeah, def not flare..

JJPhotos

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I don't actually have a circ polariser but I have a Hoya UV on the front. I'll take it off, do a few test shots tomorrow and then report back.

I've been doing motorsport shots all day today and the lens is performing fine otherwise- sharpness across the frame, VR, focus etc all seem to be fine.

Cheers,

JH

Ironheart

@JJPhotos you didn't say whether you started with a raw or JPEG. If JPEG I would expect this type of posterization, especially in the sky, due to the limited 8-bit color space. If you are going to do post processing always best to start with raw. If this is raw, let me know and I can offer some other things to try.

retread

I have this lens and a clear hoya protector, not a cheap one, on it. I don't remember ever having this trouble. I always use a hood.

JJPhotos

Hi guys,

Well...I can't replicate the 'curve' issue in shots taken of clear-blue skies over the last couple of days. So either there is an intermittent fault (everyone's favourite) or it was just a one-off phenomenon.

If it pops up again I will let you know.

Ironheart - I was shooting RAW and outputting as JPEG for publication on Flickr/embedding here. The oddity was visible on my screen even in RAW and at all levels of magnification in LR and PS.

Ironheart

Mind posting the raw file to Dropbox? It's always fun to dig into these "one offs"