Hard or Soft ?

[leeboy22001]

Excuse the pun ! , can a lens be too sharp ? Have just received the Fuji 35mm today bought from a tp member and its sharp.. very sharp ! But at the same time it looks too sharp !? I have other photo's taken with other not so sharp lenses and in a way some of them kind of look better softer, more natural ! I understand many years ago in the 70s/80s soft focus was the fashion, what's the thoughts of others on this topic

 

[LongLensPhotography]

You can always destroy the image in photoshop should you wish. I'd rather have the option, and my clients always prefer hard sharp.

 

[droj]

I don't think that a lens could be too sharp. What you might see on a screen, or as the result of processing, could be. That's not the same thing.

 

[Pablosammy]

Are you shooting RAW? If not, make sure in-camera sharpening isn't turned right up (or try turning down a bit) and then you can tweak to your heart's content afterwards.

 

[leeboy22001]

I shoot RAW and jpegs, I also have sharpness set to 0.

 

[Brazo]

The modern trend is to produce ultra sharp lenses, take the sigma art series.

Tack sharp but they do lose some of the character and rendition that lenses of a different era used to display.

 

[markmullen]

You can soften a sharp image, sharpening a soft image is rarely successful.

 

[AJQS]

Excuse the pun ! , can a lens be too sharp ? Have just received the Fuji 35mm today bought from a tp member and its sharp.. very sharp ! But at the same time it looks too sharp !? I have other photo's taken with other not so sharp lenses and in a way some of them kind of look better softer, more natural ! I understand many years ago in the 70s/80s soft focus was the fashion, what's the thoughts of others on this topic

What you're seeing is the effect of modern coatings on micro contrast, I don't like it much either, and the solution is to turn clarity down in PP. I too think that older lenses look better, smoother.

 

[leeboy22001]

What you're seeing is the effect of modern coatings on micro contrast, I don't like it much either, and the solution is to turn clarity down in PP. I too think that older lenses look better, smoother.

Thanks for explaining why , older lenses do have less contrast, I guess due to lack of coating, but I kind of like it, also the older lenses give photos, especially portraits a look of elegance !