tobey_bilek

<p>I don`t understand 1/10 mm to large. You can file the outside of the Leitax or have SK Grimes machine off some.</p>

<p>Wht are you supprised at Leica glass. Already owning it, you should realize its advantages. Now if you remove the AA sensor filter, that would be amazing. Someday try an M8 that does not have one. One can only sharpen 1/2 the amount you normally do.</p>

<p>xxxd </p>

<p>I would leave it alone.</p>

<p>But if you want, a gradient can be used to fade a color in. Gradients can be adjuste for rate of change and other things like circular and linear gradients. </p>

<p>I would try to paint in some color to the washed out sun. Use the color picker to sample a shade that is not washed out using a soft edged brush of low opacity a little at a time.</p>

<p>This would have been a perfect HDR image, one exposure like you have and one about 3 stops darker so the sun is not washed out. You can try two scans and make a psuedo HDR. One Scan like you have, one that hopefully holds the sun.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tutorials-video.htm">http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tutorials-video.htm</a> </p>

<p>Look at the one on blended exposure.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>You already have my favorites, 50 2.0, 105 2.5, 80/200 4.0.</p>

<p>Add a 35 2.0, 24 2.8, original Nikkors if you want wides. The 135 2.8 and 200 4.0 are also nice, but get AiS versions.</p>

<p>I use all these on a D700 as mine have been Ai ed or were that way from the factory. To my eye all these original Nikkors take better pics than the more modern lenses. All my auto focus Nikkors tend to rest in a drawer unless I am doing a rare sports shoot of the grand kids. Then the AF is worth the loss of image charactor. They are not bad lenses, just a personel proference. Most will not see the differnce. </p>

<p>Before you buy anything, try the 55/200 in the 55/85 range. You will find it works vey well. Don`t waste any money until you get more experience.</p>

<p>If you want to blur backgrounds, this can be done in photoshop.</p>

<p>The perfect portrait range is full format D700/D3/D3X with 85 or 105 lenses. This is the only significant step you can make to raise quality by a large amount.</p>

<p>There is nothing magic about a portrait lens compared to any other lens except it allows a better perspective of facial features from around 5 feet. The 55/200 will do the very same thing. It is all about where you stand and using the focal length to crop the image from that distance.</p>