Pro glass

The Nikon D300 (and its bigger brothers) are incredible performers in low light. One can shoot at ISO 1600, and even higher, without fear of luminance or color noise spoiling the frame. Even up at ISO 3200 on the D300, the noise is easily managed with small adjustments in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. Unfortunately, even with that capability, being limited to a maximum aperture of f/5.6 when fully zoomed on my consumer-grade zoom lenses has made it a challenge to get photos in dim auditoriums. It also makes portraiture more difficult by requiring more light from the strobes and having too large a depth-of-field.

An iPhone picture

Since I'm doing much shooting in dim auditoriums and am looking to start trying to do some portraiture professionally, I decided to take the plunge and buy the first item on my drool list, the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens. This is a professional grade beast that seems universally loved by the shooters who have it. If nothing else, I'll build up my left arm just holding the thing!

Technically, it features a couple of huge advantages. First, unlike my other zooms, its maximum aperture doesn't change as it zooms. It's a solid f/2.8 across the board. This gives me a full 2 stops more light through the lens when it's racked out to 200mm. Second, it has Nikon's latest generation vibration reduction technology (VR II) which lets me shoot without a tripod at much slower shutter speeds than would otherwise be possible. Nikon's marketing materials claim VR II allows you to hand-hold 4 stops slower than would be possible without VR II. Most of the reviews I've read contend that's pretty accurate.



Artistically, the difference in depth-of-field between f/2.8 and f/5.6 can be huge in a portrait or in wildlife photography. It enables the use of selective focus to guide the viewers eye into your photo. Since there was no chance of getting my usual model to sit still long enough to do a comparison shot, I used an icicle embedded in the snow on my deck to create an example instead.

The photo on the left was shot at f/2.8; on the right, f/5.6.  In each case, I focused on the icicle. Notice how the shallower depth-of-field on the left causes the tree and antenna tower behind the icicle to go out of focus, making them less distracting. As you can see below, this effect can lead the eye to the most important part of a portrait: the eyes.

165mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/60
Exposure +1.00 in Lightroom

NOTE: All of these were shot with ambient light, no flash. All have been adjusted for white balance in Lightroom. Any other post-processing tweaks are noted in the captions. And, as always, click on the image to see a larger version.

Even in a shot that is not framed as tightly as the one above, selective focus can draw the viewer to the eyes. The hand in the foreground is just enough out of focus that the viewer knows what it is without being distracted by it.

120mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/60

Pulling back even further, selective focus becomes an absolute necessity to keep the busy background from overpowering the main subject of the frame. This frame also shows the value of a 200mm lens for portraiture. Shooting at 200mm prevents the geometric distortion of the subject's features that happens at shorter focal lengths (e.g. 50mm).

200mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/60
Lightroom: Exposure +1.0, Fill +45, Noise Reduction +35
(most of the noise came from increasing fill in Lr and was not in the capture)

Finally, it works even for animals, allowing the capture to zero in on the eyes and leave the surroundings, and even the less relevant body, just enough out of focus to highlight the face.

122mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/60