Help me to understand what is going on here

[SashaT]

I was at a nature center with my family this past Sunday. I decided to take some (65) photos while I was there of various things. It a few of my pictures I noticed something odd as far as some type of distortion patterns. What is odd to my new to this mind is that the patterns are only in a few of the pictures. I was using my Nikon 55-200 lens at the time and the conditions were early afternoon with light rain/snow. I will post some examples of some pictures that do and do not have the issue. All of the examples were shot with the same lens. The first two of the waterfall have been edited in lightroom and are examples of ones without the issue; the last shot the one example with the issue was only converted from RAW to jpeg with no editing. All EXIF data is intact as well, the camera body I used is a D7100.



Thank you!

 

[oldhippy]

Maybe camera shake, slower speed, exaggerates this. Didn't check IFIX, so it's a guess. Ed

 

[Braineack]

don't see what you're referring to.

I have a feeling it's #3, but all I see is a lens that produces harsh/unpleasant bokeh coupled with a hand held 200mm shot at f5.6 with a low shutter speed exaggerating the issue.

 

[Dao]

The unpleasant look of the out of focus blur is the characteristic of that particular lens. Different lens design yield different result. To min. the effect, you may need to use a different lens or try to adjust it in PS. Create multiple layers and blur / or blur with gradient and then apply layer mask and brush the sharp part back. It is hard to explain here in writing. So the easier way is try a different lens.

 

[hirejn]

I see what you're talking about. That's the way the lens works. Highly patterned backgrounds will have that even on some expensive lenses. The 70-200 2.8 has it. To get rid of it you have to throw the background more out of focus. It's not an issue with most serious photographers because we normally use long lenses to throw out the background and be selective about backgrounds. But with shots like you're taking of the duck you'll get that pattern because it's partially in focus. This image is an example of a background thrown out of focus with the 70-200; this one as well.

 

[SashaT]

Thank you guys, looks like a different lens is the answer for me. It would seem from reading different threads here that the 70-300 VR would be a good inexpensive replacement for my 55-200. Something that I would also want to use while in the backcountry on my fly fishing trips.