Vignetting on D600

<p>Hi There!</p>

<p> So far pretty happy with my D600. Except for the huge difference in the LCD color(green tinge) compared to the actual image.</p>

<p>I had a question regarding vignetting. I guess its more of a full frame question than specifically related with the D600. I have been shooting with a D90 (Cropped sensor) and the D600 is my first camera. I use it with the nikon 85 1.4 D and sigma 50 1.4 mostly shooting wide open. I noticed the vignetting is definitely much higher on the D600 compared to my D90, I guess because of the bigger sensor. My question was how do you generally handle that? I shoot raw so I can fix it in Lighroom, but do you generally shoot a stop higher to avoid the vignetting in camera rather than having to fix each image in Post?<br>

Also, while searching online, some posts mentioned that the vignetting is much more when shooting wide open. Not sure why that would happen?</p>

<p>Any advice please.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Sun</p>

<p>You can shoot stopped down further or you can fix in post. Either should provide good results.</p>

<p>Vignetting on most every lens is higher wide open. That's a lens thing, not a camera thing.</p>

<p>Vignetting is an absolute non-issue if you have software that corrects for it (numerous programs offer this feature).</p>

<p>Also, there should be a vignetting correction open within the menus if the menu system is like the D800. Perhaps someone who has one can post where it is.</p>

<p>A Lenses performance is generally worse at the edges. The two lenses you mention are full-frame lenses. On a DX camera, you will be cropping out those edges where the performance is not so good.</p>

<p>Just curious... are you experiencing light or moderate vignetting (meaning light which is normal or moderate which may not be)?</p>

<p><em>"when shooting wide open. Not sure why that would happen?"</em><br>

This article explains why vignetting occurs:</p>

<p>http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/lens_vignetting.html</p>

<p>I am not sure why stopping down a lens corrects the problem but I am sure someone here can.</p>

<p>> Vignetting is an absolute non-issue if you have software that corrects for it (numerous programs offer this feature). <br>

With bad cases of vignetting, correction may often reveal noise, cause channel clipping, and such.</p>

<p>Elliot, when you are stopping down you are masking off the outer area of the lens. So the light doesn't hit the sensor from extreme angles anymore.</p>

<p>The sensor photosites themselves are also less sensitive to light rays that comes from an angle so digital cameras have more vignetting than film. Some (most?) cameras will correct that to some degree after reading the values from the sensor. So the raw file is actually half cooked when shooting at large apertures.</p>

<p>Bob Atkins' explanation of Cos^4 law is a bit misleading. Light doesn't "spread out" towards the corners of the image because it has further to travel.</p>

<p>The real explanation of vignetting is very easy to see for yourself, simply by looking through the back of any lens. The diagram below shows what you'll see as you tilt or rotate a lens away from you. When the lens is rotated the aperture appears to become elliptical instead of remaining perfectly circular. Naturally this reduces its effective area, and so the amount of light is reduced. The area of an ellipse is given by pi*r1*r2, and as its minor radius gets smaller its area reduces in proportion, and with it the amount of light transmitted.</p>

<p>Strictly, the Cos^4 law for vignetting only applies to simple lenses. The effect can be reduced by cunning optical design that "twists" the aperture toward the edge of the image circle. If the Cos^4 "law" couldn't be broken we wouldn't have any fisheye lenses, and ultrawides would be almost unusable. Like the eyes in a good portrait painting are supposed to follow you around the room, so the aperture of a good lens tends to point toward the perimeter of the image circle.</p>

<p>Edit: "The sensor photosites themselves are also less sensitive to light rays that comes from an angle so digital cameras have more vignetting than film." - depends on the design of the sensor's microlens array. In addition, film's emulsion thickness is effectively greater at steep angles of incidence, as is its surface reflectance. On the whole I don't think there's much difference in the effect of vignetting between modern digital sensors and film. Of course, if you use negative film and print it using an enlarger, then enlarger-lens vignetting has the effect of lightening corners instead of darkening them.</p><div></div>

<p>In most cases I don't "do" anything to the vignetting, it is the image drawn by the lens and I use it as it is. In some cases, however, when shooting with a white snow or white wall as background, I correct it in software as needed so that the background appears homogeneous if the picture requires it. I dislike lenses with very sharp drop in luminosity towards the corners; I prefer a more gradual transition. I also avoid lenses that ahve a lot of vignetting (i.e. 2+ stops) as the noise starts to build up towards the corners and the image is not homogeneous after (attempted) correction. I don't recall ever being bothered by the vignetting on the 85/1.4D but I used that lens stopped down to f/1.8 or more.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

<p>I guess, I was shooting against white seamless at 1.4 so the corners were a little pronounced, but not that bad, I guess, it also might be something I am not used to since I have been using a cropped sensor only before this. I was able to tone it down a bit in lightroom. Just wanted to make sure, that I was not doing anything incorrect. Against a white background, I somehow am not a very big fan of vignette, In a more natural surrounding outdoors or indoors, I guess, vignette wouldn't be that obvious. </p>

<p>I am surprised you get vignetting with those FX lenses even wide open. If you have a filter on them, take it off and see if that makes the problem go away. if you want a filter, get the thin version with a minimal ring. B+W sells them. Download Nikon Capture NX2, free for 30 days i believe, and find the vignetting removal setting. Try that and see what happens, with and without the filters. I have not discovered vignetting with my D 600, but i do not have those two lenses. Joe Smith</p>

<p><em>"With bad cases of vignetting, correction may often reveal noise, cause channel clipping, and such."</em><br /> <br /> You are correct, but the usual cause of this type of vignetting is typically a lens hood or filter issue rather than the lens optics.</p>

<p>Joseph, most lenses have a bit of vignetting.</p>

"I am surprised you get vignetting with those FX lenses even wide open"

<br>

"the usual cause of this type of vignetting is typically a lens hood or filter issue rather than the lens

optics"

<br> <br>

 

Sorry, but both of the above statements are quite incorrect. Very significant vignetting will always occur

with an f/1.4 or faster lens wide open on FX. You will even observe some vignetting with those lenses in

the DX frame at f/1.4

 

<br> <br>

The Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D has almost 1.5 stops of vignetting wide open on FX. (That is to say that the extreme corners will be about 1.5 stops darker than the center). By f/2.8 its about 2/3rds of a stop. The Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 AF-D lens has more than 2 stops of vignetting wide-open. Again, by f/2.8 it's almost undetectable; about half a stop. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens is similar, with almost 2 stops of vignetting wide-open that drops precipitously by f/2.8

 

<br> <br>

I have not used the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens, but hear that it has very well controlled vignetting wide-open. I have not personally used the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 either, but it also said to have the most controlled vignetting of a fast 85mm lens. Well-controlled for an f/1.4 lens means about one-stop vignetting.

 

<br> <br>

Normally, vignetting is not a significant issue. In fact, I often prefer it for portraiture as it draws the viewers attention towards the center of the image. And if you are photographing flat art or archiecture, you want to be stopped down anyway for sharpness and due to field curvature.

 

<br> <br>

But shooting with a fast lens, wide-open, in a studio, against a constant white backdrop is definitely a

situation where vignetting could be very noticable. Fortunately, modern cameras have a vignette control

function that automatically compensates for vignetting in JPEGs by boosting the effective ISO in the

corners. You can do the thing to a RAW file in post processing. Since your background is white

anyway, you won't have to worry about shadow noise at all, especially since presumably you are

shooting at very low ISO, and a high shutter speed if you are using a backdrop, lights and f/1.4 No big

deal, but good to know where it comes from.

<p>Vignetting that is so bad that it reveals noise when corrected is typically something else other than 'normal' vignetting which is always easily correctable through software without visible signs of being corrected (increase in noise in the corrected areas).</p>