Vintage soviet lens portraits

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stevebuk

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Steve
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Hi all,

I've recently added a couple of old M42 manual focus lenses to my Fuji X-T1 kit. Having a lot of fun with manual focus and love some of the effects and bokeh / flare from these oldies. I'm more of a landscape person and these were grabbed when the kids allowed me five minutes with them on holiday. Any tips and advice most welcome.


These are from my Tair 11A 2.8 / 135mm

1)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

2)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

3)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

4)


Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

These last three are with my 1970's Helios 44-2. I love the weird swirly effect, but some may not!

5)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

6)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

7)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.
 
I like them, they look great to me!
 
stevebuk said:
Hi all,

I've recently added a couple of old M42 manual focus lenses to my Fuji X-T1 kit. Having a lot of fun with manual focus and love some of the effects and bokeh / flare from these oldies. I'm more of a landscape person and these were grabbed when the kids allowed me five minutes with them on holiday. Any tips and advice most welcome.


These are from my Tair 11A 2.8 / 135mm

1)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

2)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

3)

Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

4)


Tair-11A 2.8/13 (1989) by Steve Babb, on Flickr

These last three are with my 1970's Helios 44-2. I love the weird swirly effect, but some may not!

5)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

6)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

7)

1977 HELIOS 44-2 by Steve Babb, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.
Click to expand...
The first batch are great but I like the swirly thing not one bit, gives me vertigo :)

The lighting on 3 is particularly successful. You've lit the mask of the face well and there's a nice rim & hair light going on too. What did you use?
 
Hi Steve. I couldnt tell what lens took what image and wouldnt know the differances any how, so I take your word for that :) What I will say is that I think the outcome is great on all of them. You sure know how to find and use light & if you added some you know how to do that very well too.

Very envious !!!

Gaz
 
Makes no odds to me if you took them with a Casio QV-10 and a lens you'd ground yourself from the bottom of a milk bottle. 1,2,3 and 6 are just stonking good portraits.
 
It just goes to show, you don't need all the latest kit to produce great images. As me old mum says " many a good baths been had in an old tub" Well done mate!
 
Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I was quite pleased with them, and surprised at the sharpness these old lenses deliver, along with a dreamy effect that seems to work well for portraits. I also took some with my Fuji 60mm 2.4 macro and much prefer these. The fuji lens is sharper and more clinical but these I prefer.

The lighting was all guess work to be honest. More look than judgement. Moving them around until I liked it! I then added some fill flash using just unmodified fill flash using a Nissin i40 in manual, again adjusting the power until I liked the effect. I was quite surprised it didn't look more harsh.
 
4 is my favourite, nice capture of personality.

I love using my collection of takumars on xt-1. Will be interesting to see how they fair on xt-2
 
Steve, wOw, excellent portraits indeed, the money shot for me is No:3, that bokeh is simply exquisite, and the light on his face/hair is superb. That image would look brilliant printed professionally large size.

Best regards;
Peter
 
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