Nikon SLR Cameras

Weird swirls on photo shot with 50mm 1.4?

Ashley
Ashley

Every time I shoot indoors ( light colored wall in the background) with my Nikon D700/ 50 mm 1.4 I get a weird swirl around my subject. Its like a vignette gone wrong. Its not as noticeable before I run an action on it in PS, but becomes rather bothersome after. Its even MORE noticeable when the image is printed or when I lower the brightness of my monitor. What am I doing wrong? Please Help!

Added (1). LInk to an example of BW photos. Notice the swirls. The light was not strong( shining in) from the windows behind him although it may appear that way.

Added (2). I'm shooting in RAW and then converting to jpeg after I did BW conversion in PS.
To person talking about my blown out highlights, this is an issue I often have. What can I do to lessen the blowouts? New to photography, learning new improvements a day at a time.
Yes I'm referring to the circular lines that are close to the wall in the background. Its more noticeable when printed. I hardly do any editing in my Adobe camera RAW program but I guess I should?! I often do most things in PS. The subject was getting light from back window and a window to the front right. It happens mostly when my subjects are facing a window I always get the swirl lines behind them on the light colored background( white wall). Thank you to everyone for your constructive help thus far!

Tommy
Tommy

Can we see an example. Maybe upload the psd somewhere

Guest
Guest

Change your 'Spot Metering' to 'Matrix Metering' … The swirls will go…

Miyuki
Miyuki

I assume you're talking about the graduated lines that appear between the window and the right edge of the photo and not the bokeh in the window. It really seems to me like it may be something to do with the way your camera metered the scene. You had it set to spot meter in that one, and it seems to me like correctly exposing the subject caused a bit of blowout in the highlights around the windows. I think it's just the way the camera recorded the light coming in through the window.
Do you have the same issue with photos that aren't backlit mostly from one direction like that one? Does it happen if you switch to matrix metering instead of spot? How about if you use a reflector to add a bit of fill light?

Guest
Guest

I don't see any swirls. I see some nice bokeh in the background, and circular lines in the gradient to the right.
Try shooting RAW, and not jpeg. Then edit as much as you can in your RAW conversion software, only convert to 8bit (jpg) at the end of your processing. I see you used Photoshop CS4, so you should be able to do than no problem, but you will need Adobe Camera RAW to do it.
Also did you add some vignette effect or something - don't do that! - especially if you are editing in 8bit - also you need to watch those highlights - they're almost burnt out - shooting RAW will help with that too - you should be able to recover some of those highlights.

secret_asian_man
secret_asian_man

It is reflections on the inside of the barrel of the lens because of the sun coming through the window in back. Don't shoot into the sun and that problem goes away.

Tim
Tim

I don't see a swirl. I dp see graduated lines on the upper rigt corner of the image.
The easiest way to resolve that is to simply convert to 16 bit and then back to eight
Edit: I should explain in more detail. This is caused by taking a 16 bit RAW image and converting it to an 8-bit jpeg. Because there's less tonal range in an 8 bit image, the 8 bit image has difficulty displaying the subtle tonal differences in the grey background and the result is the gradient lines that you see.
This can often be fixed simply by converting it back to a 16 bit image, and then when you convert back to and 8 bit jpeg experiment with different conversion methods until you find one that does not produce these gradations.
The other possibility can be the way that you converted it from color to black and white. You need to do more than just click "convert to greyscale." You should be using the black and white adjustment layer in photoshop, or converting it in Lightroom.
This is strictly a problem with a digital file not being able to produce enough colors for a smooth transition between different shades of grey. It has nothing to do with your lense or camera.