Free vignette effect with Biotar

_{Dictamnus albus}


You know that effect of darker edges or corners of the photograph? Usually quite easy to achieve in any editing program or with some quick filter.

But there are lenses that do that on their own :)
Such as the Biotar 50mm f1.4 here. I did show photographs taken with it multiple times, but most I was focusing on the bokeh as it is pretty amazing here too. For that I was also cropping the images to keep the part I wanted and obviously, the vignette effect was gone.



_Foxglove

_{Dictamnus albus}


Not this time.
I didn't crop any of the photographs here, as I would lose what I am trying to show you. This is how the photographs were taken with just slight adjustments in photoshop.

Of course please do admire the bokeh, but check the edges too.



_Foxglove

_{Random weed}

_{The same random weed}

_Honeysuckle


See the darker edges?
On the parts where are shadows it is not really visible, but on lighter photos you can spot it. I did not add it. The lens did.

It shows more when the lens is set to f1.4 and gradually disappears when it the number is higher.
I don't have the Exif data on that so cannot tell how each photo was shot which is a pity. Would be nice to compare.



_Poppy

_Rose


You will see it better here 👇. I know the image is shit, but it shows the vignette effect the best.





I heard two theories why this happens:
One is that the sensor in a camera is bigger than the lens.
The second is that the lens is old and was made for full frame film cameras so the sensor size doesn't matter - its just something the lens does.

I'm no expert, I just take photos (and learn as it goes) so I will not tell you which one is more correct. I like the effect (and the lens) either way.



_{Rose, duhh}

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_{Shot with Sony a7R + Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 50mm f1.4 lens
All photos and text are my own.}