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The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork lens modified the best way I do panorama images.
For my most up-to-date long-term images venture, I made a dramatic change in how I produced images: I shot nearly solely with a single focal size prime lens: the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork lens. I used this fastened focal size, medium telephoto prime lens nearly solely for panorama images over the course of greater than two years: no zooming, a slim 23.3° subject of view, and a quick f/1.4 aperture.
Utilizing this lens solely was fairly presumably, one of the difficult, but rewarding experiences in my images profession. With the trials encountered and classes realized from this lens, I don’t suppose I’ll ever take a look at images the identical means once more.
As a lot the lens itself as the best way I used it, having available the longest f/1.4 lens out there for my digicam took my longest operating images venture and introduced it to the extremes that I hunted for its execution. That is my panorama expertise evaluation of essentially the most ridiculous digicam lens that I’ve ever owned and the way it modified my images ceaselessly.
The Monster
Clearly designed for low depth of subject portraits, Sigma actually calls the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork the “Bokeh Grasp”. To many photographers throughout the web, it’s recognized by one other identify resulting from its hefty construct: the “Bokeh Monster“. And my, what a monster it’s.
I knew that the Sigma 105mm can be massive after I ordered it, however after I first pulled it out of the field, I used to be completely shocked at how massive and heavy it was.
This lens is dense. Its entrance lens factor makes use of an enormous 105mm diameter filter thread. With all that tumbler packed into such a decent bundle, it weighs 3.62 lbs (1.64 kg). That’s much more than my tremendous telephoto zoom, making it the heaviest single piece of drugs in my whole private assortment of cameras and lenses.
Landscapes?
The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork will not be marketed as a panorama lens. Normally when purchasing for a panorama lens, we’d attain for a brilliant vast angle 18mm or 14mm.
I doubt there are lots of photographers that will even think about using the Sigma 105mm for taking pictures something however portraits. It’s categorized by Sigma as a “Wedding ceremony and Portrait” lens. In the event you filter Sigma’s web site for “Panorama” the 105mm Artwork will get omitted from the record.
So why on Earth would I purchase this lens for panorama images?
I centered my choice to get the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 particularly for capturing massive format panoramas: extremely excessive decision images made typically from tens to lots of of particular person images stitched collectively. After I was looking for the proper bigger aperture astrophotography lens for my excessive decision panorama venture, one lens appeared constantly find yourself on the prime of my wishlist: The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork.
Massive format panoramas depend on taking pictures quite a few separate frames in a big mosaic whereas utilizing a protracted lens, just like the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork. The longer lens permits for a bigger aperture and finer decision, making for a lot increased decision and decrease noise outcome, particularly when a number of frames are lastly mixed right into a panorama. I shoot my massive format panoramas with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 mounted to my customized assembled DIY massive format panorama head which permits me to extra exactly rotate the digicam at set diploma markers.
There have been plenty of traits that I used to be searching for that particularly attracted me to the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork for panoramas: it’s a medium telephoto, it has a really quick f/1.4 aperture and as Sigma places it, “distinctive peripheral brightness”. Mainly, for an f/1.4 lens, it has minimal vignetting or mild falloff when in comparison with different f/1.4 lenses. For top decision panoramas, that was one of the fascinating traits so as to enhance the digital panorama stitching workflow when taking pictures wide-open at f/1.4. The much less mild falloff there’s, the better it’s to extra seamlessly mix panorama frames. Having the ability to shoot at f/1.4 for astrophotography with minimal vignetting was additionally a vital trait in selecting this lens.
In the event you’ve used another Sigma Artwork lens, the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 will appear and feel very acquainted as far match and end is anxious. The “Artwork” line of lenses are Sigma’s premium tier of digicam lenses and the 105mm Artwork isn’t any exception. It’s fairly presumably one of many nicest lenses I’ve had the pleasure of utilizing. It is vitally properly completed with a mixture of composite and metallic construct. It includes a very massive reversible cylindrical lens hood that’s lined with a rubber rim and locks on to the lens with a knurled thumbscrew.
The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork was initially designed with DSLR techniques in thoughts and the Sony E-mount model includes a deeper lens mount flange to fulfill up with the quick flange distance of the Sony mirrorless system. This cantilevers the lens out from Sony our bodies, noticeably including to the heft of the system as a complete and making the entire package really feel somewhat unwieldy. Steadiness-wise, you don’t mount the lens to a digicam, you mount your digicam to the lens, particularly when utilizing it with a small Sony mirrorless digicam. It appears to be like ridiculous when paired with my smallest full-frame digicam.
Fortunately, Sigma additionally outfitted it with with a steel tripod collar that’s machined with an Arca-Swiss fashion dovetail mount for mounting the lens instantly into any Arca suitable tripod head. The tripod collar may be loosened to permit the lens to rotate 90 levels for portrait orientation taking pictures.
The lens options Sigma’s HSM (Hyper-Sonic Motor) autofocusing system which could be very quiet and absolutely inner to the lens, however can also be comparatively sluggish when in comparison with extra trendy stepper motor pushed linear focus drives. There’s a single swap on the lens for switching from autofocus to guide focus. The guide focus ring is absolutely mechanical and linear in its rotation which makes guide focus very straightforward to carry out by really feel, particularly when in comparison with extra trendy fly-by-wire focusing techniques. Since I used to be usually taking pictures landscapes with this lens, I nearly solely used guide focus. It additionally includes a conventional focus scale window for judging distances. Total, the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 seems like a really good conventional SLR lens design, simply pushed to the extremes of specification.
Capturing Iceland with the Sigma Artwork 105mm f/1.4 Artwork Lens
Let me take you alongside on the journey I had taking pictures with this lens on a month-long go to to Iceland. I traveled with my spouse, Diana and several other buddies alongside Hringvegur, the Ring Street, across the nation and through our time there, I attempted to shoot solely with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork.
My spouse and I traveled to Iceland within the late spring, approaching the summer season solstice, when the times have been lengthy and there was almost no evening: solely an prolonged nightfall that flows again into daybreak with out ever getting absolutely darkish. With the darkest situations solely coming effectively after midnight, there was no astrophotography available in Iceland this time.
I recall in our first few days considering that the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork felt too unwieldy each time I needed to shoot with it. I puzzled usually if I had made a mistake shopping for it, simply given its measurement. The arrange time and the taking pictures time particularly to attempt to make these massive panoramic pictures was definitely not essentially the most enjoyable with such a big and heavy lens. It’s laborious to disclaim that the one main drawback with Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork is its monstrous measurement. Oh however the images it makes!
Maybe it was extra the method I selected that was the burden: taking pictures large multi-row panoramas, usually with extra that 30 frames is a tedious affair. However on reflection, I simply love that I put the hassle in to carrying this lens in all places and for taking the time to shoot so many panoramic frames, even when for only a single picture. I like the images I made with the 105. There’s a sure indescribable high quality to panoramic images from the Sigma 105mm Artwork.
Even when taking pictures my massive format panoramas, the Sigma 105mm Artwork’s shallow depth of subject is commonly instantly obvious: foregrounds easy out and get misplaced, directing consideration in the direction of the mid-ground and background, giving a panorama a extra portrait-like really feel. My early panorama tasks with the lens ended up being precisely that: portraits of Icelandic mountains. I suppose it’s a portrait lens in any case.
Iceland has its justifiable share of well-known mountains like Kirkjufell, Vestrahorn, and, in fact, Eyjafjallajökull, however on our month lengthy journey, I saved stopping to {photograph} this one random mountain alongside Snæfellsnesvegur (Snæfellsness Street).
I later realized by Peakery that it’s known as Fagraskogarfjall and it ended up being one among my favourite topics throughout our first week.
I had the intention of creating ultra-wide angle landscapes with and was pressured to suppose just a little in another way when taking pictures with a telephoto lens . One of many major adjustments was in attempting to compose. Since I wasn’t taking pictures on a 14mm, I now not had a viewfinder that might present me the ultra-wide subject of view I needed within the remaining shot. A lot of the problem find success with this lens was find the best way to compose a photograph that was greater than 10 instances as vast as what the viewfinder might really present me. One of many easiest methods to ease the problem of framing was to give attention to easy, centered, almost symmetrical compositions.
One of many selections I needed to make taking pictures landscapes with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork was whether or not or to not cease down. Capturing close to vast open immediately offers the shot a distinctly quick depth of subject and a extra portrait-like really feel, particularly if I included a big portion of foreground within the shot. The problem with taking pictures at f/1.4 was deciding whether or not or to not try to shoot a big portion of foreground, understanding that it might be largely out of focus.
Even taking pictures stopped-down absolutely to f/16, the shut foregrounds of my panoramas would nonetheless be mildly out of focus, making it that rather more necessary to discover a distinct apparent topic, somewhat than only a scattered vast sweeping panorama. One small subject I bumped into with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 was the utmost f/variety of f/16. With out an ND filter, it wasn’t actually doable to shoot any slower than 1/eighth of a second, even within the overcast lighting of the day. I might normally favor to make use of a shutter time longer than 1/4th for taking pictures flowing water and for a big waterfall like Skogafoss, a full half second or longer would have been preferable for a smoother falling water impact. Had I been capable of cease all the way down to f/22 and even f/32, that will have been preferable, particularly given the price of a typical ND filter for a 105mm thread diameter.
Numerous the method like tripod leveling, focusing, composing, and taking pictures all took for much longer when attempting to seize a really massive scene with a telephoto lens and it jogged my memory very a lot of establishing a studio portrait session, somewhat than a typical vast angle panorama. With massive format panoramas, you possibly can’t shoot, verify and re-compose. As a substitute, it requires correct pre-visualization, cautious digicam placement, and even just a little little bit of planning.
So the Sigma 105mm constrained refined every panorama taking pictures session into this very portrait-like taking pictures course of and I believe that was the very first thing modified the best way I began to see. Despite the fact that my objective was to seize vast angle pictures with a panorama stitching methodology, I began to suppose extra like a portrait photographer, however within the context of panorama taking pictures.
Generally, composing landscapes like a portrait was exceptionally straightforward, particularly in Iceland. There are such a lot of distinguished, iconic landscapes in Iceland that make nice “portrait” topics.
Seeing large panoramas at 100% magnification whereas publish processing is likely one of the issues I really like most about creating these images. I really like discovering smaller crops of the entire panorama that work on their very own as a standalone picture, as if re-visiting the placement to view it once more in additional element than my reminiscence might ever ship. The Sigma 105 Artwork delivers exceptionally sharp outcomes on this utility.
Attempting to compose these portrait-like landscapes modified the best way I might usually go to an iconic location like Skogafoss, Kirjufell or Svartifoss. I discovered myself spending rather more time simply having fun with being within the place, somewhat than always trying by my digicam, taking pictures one composition after one other, hoping for one thing I appreciated to point out up.
As a substitute, I’d wander and wait. Look forward to the one proper spot, take it in and analyze it earlier than unzipping the backpack, deploying the tripod and mounting the lens to the tripod head. I’d say that this slower strategy of taking pictures is one thing akin to movie images.
With movie, you’ve got a restricted variety of pictures in your roll. That one limitation creates a profoundly totally different taking pictures expertise when in comparison with typical digital images. Reasonably than taking pictures away within the hopes of getting one thing good, there’s all of the sudden incentive to suppose extra about composition earlier than even pulling out the digicam.
Capturing these massive format panoramas with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork sort of pressured me into the identical way of thinking as if I have been taking pictures on precise massive format movie. When a panorama has 30-60 frames, it could take as much as 5-10 seconds shoot every body of the panorama and which means it takes as much as 10 minutes simply to shoot one composition. Like taking pictures with a view digicam, each step of shot preparation was key. Simply the considered losing a full 10 minutes of labor is sufficient incentive to verify and double verify that I appreciated my composition, focus and publicity earlier than I begin taking pictures.
Closing
I usually debated with myself as as to if the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 was or was not the best instrument for this panorama venture. I might say that for many situations like this, I might definitely have used a smaller, lighter, cheaper and fewer sharp medium telephoto lens. The Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork is larger than I’d prefer it to be. I suppose what I actually want was is that if this lens was initially designed in a extra compact physique for mirrorless cameras. Maybe Sigma will ultimately launch a shorter quick 105mm design made particularly for mirrorless cameras. In the event that they did, I’d promptly commerce this lens for it if it meant carrying a smaller total package.
However having a lens that carried out close to flawlessly optically whereas additionally providing an unprecedented f/1.4 aperture let me neglect in regards to the weight of my digicam bag and allowed me to make images that will in any other case have been inconceivable. In the event you’re searching for a lens that produces pictures not like the rest, the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork definitely delivers… should you can deal with the heft.
Now, Lonely Speck normally focuses totally on astrophotography and, in fact, almost all my pictures from my time in Iceland have been shot throughout the daytime. There merely wasn’t sufficient precise nighttime at that excessive of a latitude within the late spring for me to really make the most of the low-light functionality I had initially hunted for this lens. Within the subsequent a part of this lens evaluation (coming quickly), I’ll present you what’s was prefer to shoot panorama astrophotography with the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Artwork lens and why it was really a magical lens for capturing the celebrities. Thanks for coming alongside.
Gear
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That is the gear that I used to shoot all of the images from this publish
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-Ian and Diana
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