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Diffraction Flare with Stopping Down (Barn Interior)
With a well chosen scene and a world class lens (one not suffering from other contrast-robbing artifacts), an increasingly diffuse glow can be observed with stopping down—“diffraction flare”. No lens can avoid this effect no matter how well designed (though software processing can compensate to some extent).
Here, the bright cracks of light show the diffraction flare effect mildly as early as f/2.8. That flare broadens and brightens with stopping down due to diffraction; it affects all lenses but this is an excellent demonstration of its effects that are visible starting as early at f/2.8—possible because of the world class point spread function of the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 APO-Distagon.
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- Technique section discusses every aspect of making a sharp image handheld or on a tripod.
- Depth of field and how to bypass depth of field limitations via focus stacking.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
- MTF, field curvature, focus shift: insight into the limitations of lab tests and why imaging performance is far more complex than it appears.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
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Intrigued? See Focusing Zeiss DSLR Lenses For Peak Performance, PART ONE: The Challenges, or (one topic of many) field curvature.
