A Plastic Lensbaby Lens on a Canon 5D Mk2 using a ‘Clear’ Picture Style

The Plastic Lensbaby mounted in a Composer did well on a 60D, but as an 80mm equivalent lens it was restrictive for general purpose photography. On a ‘full frame’ 5D it should be a more useful 50mm lens (I really like 50mm lenses!) but a larger sensor should show more ‘Lensbaby softness’.

‘Clear’ picture style, f5.6. There isn’t the soft misty look I’d expected which is odd, probably caused by the picture style which creates highly saturated and contrasty images.

A day’s experimentation is called for….All shot in RAW + JPG (the final picture style is ‘baked into’ the JPG but not the RAW – just in case).

If you’ve never seen or used a Lensbaby a brief explanation is called for. They’re manual focus lenses with a very basic construction, in several designs most with ‘Waterhouse’ removable aperture disks (see below). Their uncorrected optical flaws are there to be exploited and the main reason for using them. Fitting smaller apertures (they’re held in place by magnets) reduces the optical flaws, but even at f16 they’re still there!

The Plastic lens is a 50mm f2 with aperture disks running from f2.8 to f16 (you could make your own if you liked!). Note that the Sweet 35 lens has a conventional internal aperture so no need for the ‘box of apertures’.

The blue ringed plastic lens (not ‘L’ series then!) with the aperture disks to the right (see f16 and f5.6?). The disk holder is on the right, the lid looks suspiciously like a 35mm canister lid, and the end of the ‘stick’ is a magnet to remove the disks from the lens. Simple but ingenious. It is a temptation just to leave one aperture disk in all day!

They’re very small and light, almost transforming the 5D into a lightweight camera (I’m used to the weight of 1 24-105mm lens). As you can see from the next shot, the lens can be pivoted around to move the central sharp part of the image around in the frame, though I must admit I hardly ever do this, preferring to keep the ‘sweet spot’ of sharpness in the middle.

The ‘lens’ as seen here is really a secondary mount called a ‘Composer’ – there are several types. Different lenses (glass, plastic, pinhole etc) are then slotted into this to achieve different results.

To counter the inherent low contrast of these lenses you can either correct in post-processing, or cheat and use Canon’s ‘Clear’ picture style which pushes contrast and saturation to extremes. Installing extra colour profiles on your DSLR  is easy, some are already installed (‘Neutral’,’Standard’ etc) but there are three spare ‘slots’ for extra profiles – look here. Alternatively they can just be applied in Canon’s RAW DPP software – the result is the same but using software is a lot more fuss.

Focussing is best done on the LCD screen as these are low contrast and low sharpness lenses and the ‘Clear’ picture profile is simulated on the screen. It’s quite easy if you’re used to using MF lenses.

The first image with no ‘Clear’ style applied, just an ‘auto levels’ – not quite so dramatic. Still no soft mistiness which was so prominent on the 60D – interesting!

Enough about what it is – how well does it do?

Keep it simple and abstract!

Firstly, the softness at the edge of the frame is stronger on full frame than APS-C – as expected (I didn’t expect quite this much though) so smaller apertures will be required unless you really want to go wild. As on the 60D, simple, bold compositions work best allowing the blur at the edge of the frame to emphasise the main subject.

At f8 – the centre is surprisingly sharp, the edges smearing into some nice blur.

To add to your creative ‘arsenal’ the lens will flare like crazy if sunlight shines over the front element :-

Sun out of frame to the upper left.

This shot was taken moving the camera very slightly to the right. Note that spectacular chromatic aberration on the roof!

Better!

Though oddly it’s not bad if you shoot straight into the sun!

The proper 50mm focal length is much more useful for landscapes, though again, smaller apertures work best.

f5.6 disk – a bit too much blur maybe.

The ‘Clear’picture style really drags some good colour out of a scene on a cold winter’s day – a bit of de-saturation in Photoshop would tone it down nicely though if that’s more your taste.

At closer distances the blur looks more like that of a really fast lens – well, almost but not quite! The soft pastel colours in the stone and leaves look good here I think.

What to make of all this?

On a full frame camera you’ll need to use smaller apertures than on a 60D to tame the Plastic Lensbaby’s extreme edges (assuming you want to of course). Smaller apertures unfortunately seem to remove the soft, dreamy look that the lens produces on APS-C – these look more like the results from the glass lenses. On the other hand a 50mm field of view is more useful for general photography. I’ll test the glass lenses next, but so far I’d say it’s better on a 60D.

Using the ‘Clear’ picture style certainly adds a bit of zip to these low contrast images – it’s invaluable to help focussing and visualising the image before it’s taken, and can be changed in DPP if you prefer a more subtle result.

Lensbabys are a bit pricey new, but have been around long enough to buy cheaply second-hand. Unless it’s been run over by a truck there’s virtually nothing that can go wrong with this kit (no IS, no AF and not very sharp to begin with!) so it’s a pretty safe thing to do.

Hope you find this useful – it quite surprised me – thanks for looking!

A Few More from the 5DMK2 and a Lensbaby Sweet 35

This is turning out to be a really good combo! The increased ‘lensbabyness’ of the image and the wider angle of view are proving useful!

All these were taken on a pretty uninspiring day in Jersey at Saie Harbour, a mixture of rocky outcrops and sand.

This first one has had a touch of the ‘cross processed film’ filter added to tune the colours a little. There may be a layer added too!

Just a layer for the next one – that tide was coming in very fast, a slow walking pace. For some reason the horizon never looks straight in this no matter how often it’s corrected…..

Finally a last variation on the same theme.The lovely ethereal rendering this lens gives is, to my at least, superb.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them!

The Lensbaby Sweet 35 on a Canon 5d Mk 2

The next lens in line for a mini-test on a Canon 5d Mk2 is the Lensbaby Sweet 35, a 35mm fixed focal length special effects lens used for many years on a 60D. The ‘test area’s for these shots were Kimmeridge Bay and Corfe Castle in Dorset (UK) , both popular with summer visitors. By using the Lensbaby I was hoping to blur away the modern ‘clutter’ and get a more timeless set of images. The Sweet 35 was in a ‘Composer’ mount, and all shots processed in DXO Optics 9 and Filmpack 4.

First shot – Corfe Castle. The Lensbaby at max aperture has done a great job of ‘eliminating’ the tourists swarming around the base.

In use it’s a nice surprise to have something small and light attached to the heavy 5D body rather than a bulky zoom lens.

A second shot from inside the village – this has worked well – the area under the houses was full of cars and pedestrians!

Focussing is easy on the large screen but best of all it’s now a proper 35mm lens rather than a 56mm equivalent on the 60D, giving a moderately wide angle view. After years of wanting a wider view on crop frame sensors using this lens, this is brilliant!

Some distracting telephone wires and TV aerials have been blurred away on this one – certainly easier than the Photoshop clone tool….

On to Kimmeridge for this shot.  The romantic tower on the cliff is Clavell’s Tower – available for holiday lets as long as you’re willing to book several years in advance.

I’d never seen these odd circular out of focus areas (see lower left) on the 60D – looking at them they are at the edge of the frame so the smaller sensor probably didn’t see them. They only occur at max aperture.

Not a bad result at all. Apart from the odd bokeh seen in the last shot, the wider angle of view is very welcome, and on full frame, the blurry edge of the frame is even more effective.

Hope you find this useful, thanks for looking.

If you’re interested in using other MF lenses on your DSLR have a look at the other reviews on the film, camera and lens review index tab.

A Recommendation

Every so often you meet someone who has provided good advice and is willing to spend lots of time ‘helping out’ with a new venture. One such person is John, a Fine Art printer in Shaftesbury, Dorset (UK) who uses the very best materials to produce Giclée prints.

The first image (of many hopefully) accepted for John’s online gallery

I’ve been experimenting with print sales in a local gallery, and he recently offered to host a few of my pictures on his online gallery (varying over time) here:-

http://www.sotegallery.biz/index.html

John at Salt of the Earth Printers (http://www.salt-of-the-earth.biz/) is a really nice chap who provides excellent quality prints from his workshop in Shaftesbury.  I usually take twelve images for evaluation and whittle the selection down to just a few, expecting a rather critical ‘hmm’, or something more verbose….

I don’t often offer a recommendation for such things but I’m going to break my rule here – heartily recommended. He does a lot of printing for clients across the globe too.

So – well deserved plug for someone else’s business over and done with – hope you find this useful , thanks for looking!

Olympus Dramatic Tone meets a Lensbaby Plastic Lens

After messing about with the ‘Dramatic Tone’ on the EPL5 using a conventional lens, I resurrected the idea of using a Lensbaby. Rather than using the Sweet 35, the beautifully soft, single element plastic lens was given a chance to show what it could do (remember to hover your mouse pointer over the shots to get a proper level of contrast).

This is something like what I’d hoped for – that fence is surprisingly in focus!

I’d hoped that the interaction between the Dramatic Tone filter and the vague blurriness of the plastic lens would produce something a bit different. All shots taken in RAW using the f4 aperture disk, the lens was mounted in a ‘Composer’, the results post processed in DXO Optics 9 and Filmpack 3.

This is a difficult lens to focus (there’s no autofocus here!), as it never really looks sharp even using focus magnify. The best approach is just not to  worry about it – just get close enough to give some sort of idea what the subject is! If you’re going to have a try at this, take lots of shots and expect lots of failures. When it all works though it’s worth the effort….

The Dramatic Tone seems to automatically extend the contrast of what are very low contrast images, which saves a bit of post-processing.The ‘dark glow’ around the branches and rooftop is very nice.

Simple, bold compositions work best – any complexity just ends up as a mushy mess, so keep it simple.

The only slight niggle I have is that the this is a 50mm lens, making it a 100mm equivalent on the EPL5 – and using a moderate telephoto for every shot isn’t ideal. A 0.42x wide angle converter is available but what would be perfect would be something around the 12mm mark, which would mean a 24mm equivalent.

This looks like it’s been layered – but it hasn’t. The odd texture behind the railing seems to be lots of out of very soft focus highlights crossing each other.

So quite a successful experiment which yields some interesting results. The overall softness of the images interacts nicely with the strange Dramatic Tone effect, producing images which are very different from those of the glass lenses. I’ll use this more often!

All taken for the book cover market – hope you like them and thanks for looking!

Unlikely Combinations

Experimenting with Lensbabys, old MF lenses , layers/PP, infrared etc is one of the best aspects of photography – straightforward clean, sharp images can be a bit dull sometimes. However this experiment plumbs new depths of oddity – infrared with a lensbaby…. I’d discussed this with friends some time ago as a possibility but they just shook their heads!

The best image of the set – focusing the Lensbaby with an R72 attached is difficult but possible in bright sunlight.

Anyway, here are the initial results – and they’re not too bad, i.e. pleasingly weird. The “Lensbaby effect” is more immediately obvious that the “infrared look” as in order to take these the maximum aperture of the Sweet 35 was required giving the strongest edge blur.

All shots taken on a Canon 60D, Sweet 35 wide open (F2 I think?), Hoya R72 infrared filter, ISO 5000. post processed in DXO Optics 8 (my new favourite new PP program). There were hand held at slow shutter speeds but any camera shake is lost in the general blur anyway. Aggressive noise reduction can be used to get rid of the high ISO noise as – again – there is no real detail to lose!

Finally the most extreme of the lot. Your eye has to search the image before it realises what’s going on – so I’m pleased with it!

So not something for everyday use, but an intriguing technique which could produce strong images. If you’ve a Lensbaby and an IR filter give it a go. Next step is trying the plastic lens – wonder how it will handle infra red?

Thanks for looking – hope you like them!

Last Few Weeks

Not many posts over the last few weeks as I’ve been completely absorbed in planning a complex time lapse video project. Some stills have been taken despite recent developments, so here are the best ones, though it’s a pretty random selection!

First – a plastic lensbaby shot of some fresh leaves with the sunlight edging in from behind. The flare, sharpness and chromatic aberration are terrible by conventional standards, but working with a lensbaby is primarily about finding shooting situations where that doesn’t matter.

Next a Sony RX100 shot of a dumped TV in a pond on the nearby heathland. This is very unusual as most people respect the area, but there are always those who don’t. The contrast between the disposable consumer goods dumped in an ancient landscape provided a striking contrast.

This time a macro with the venerable 50mm f3.5 OM system lens mounted on extension tubes on a Canon 60D to get a really close focus. The subject is just a crow’s feather found in the garden – always a fascinating subject.

Finally an off centre shot with the Helios 85mm f2 of a weathered ‘sculpture’ (can’t think of a better word) near a church door.

All pictures for the book cover market – as always. Hope you like them!

Some Summer Flora

Summer is in full swing, and the grasses and flowers are providing some great subjects for photography. I’ve never really tried photographing these subjects before so this is a new one for me. All post-processed in Photoshop and DXo.

First – a really simple soft abstract using the plastic Lensbaby. As always with this lens, the results were pretty hit and miss, but when they’re good they’re unlike anything else.

Next one with the Helios 85mm f2 wide open – the Canon 60D’s 1/8000th of a second shutter speed is really useful in bright light at these apertures.

Back to the plastic Lensbaby and some wheat bending over in the wind towards the camera. There’s a dark line to the left which is an out of focus weed – shame I didn’t spot it.

Finally a few poppies – can’t resist them at this time of year. I saw this large patch from the car but it needed at fifty minute walk to get there from the nearest place to park. This one was with the Zuiko 50mm f1.4, one knee in a muddy puddle!

Thanks for looking – hope you like them!

Another Good Day for Infrared…

Been up on the chalk downland again – and wide open spaces in the sunshine have to mean one thing, Infrared.  All hand-held using the Sony RX100 + R72 filter and heavily post-processsing in Photoshop and DXO.

The conditions were perfect – light broken cloud and strong sunshine which means some texture in the sky an a strong infrared response.

This is the remains of an old field boundary – these thorn bushes are all that’s left in an otherwise empty landscape.

This road is beautifully straight. running along a long shallow valley. I did a few of this as the contrast between the tarmac and the ir-reflecting vegetation was very strong.

Slightly different post-processing on this one to allow the whites of the grass to burn out a little – usually a sin but worked out well for this one.

Finally one in a favoutite location, where the clear chalk stream turns a bend, and a line of poplar trees makes a nice background.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them!

Some More from the Plastic Lensbaby (and a few infrareds)

It’s been an odd week this week – been organising print sales through a local art gallery, so there’s not been much time for taking photos. These are a few from the limited opportunities where time and the weather allowed, using the plastic lens/Lensbaby Composer on a Canon 60D (my current favourite combo). The infrareds are taken on a Sony RX100.

The poppies are out in Dorset – having driven and walked around to find some, this was growing next to the car park!

This one’s a bit of an abstract – no aperture disk for this (so at f2) and long grasses blowing on the downland, post-processed and toned. The flowing blur near the horizon was unexpected…

This one (continuing the floral/grasses theme) has some nice depth even if it’s an odd composition. F4 aperture disk, post processed and toned in DXO Filmpack.

And now for the inevitable infra reds – this one is Horton Tower. It looks spooky but it was built in the 18th century so the local landowner could keep an eye on the progress of the fox hunts around the landscape after he became to old to ride with them.

And finally a barbed wire/aged fence post. I think the RX100 is just going to be used for infrared at this rate!

Thanks for looking – hope you like them, and have a good weekend!

English Downland and a Lensbaby Plastic Lens

Been out today in some brilliant weather – up on the chalk downland which is in full summer mode with grasses, butterflies and birds everywhere.

In an attempt to stop taking IR shots on the Sony RX100, an old favourite was attached to a Canon 60D – the Lensbaby composer with the plastic lens and (very) manually changed apertures. As I’m not really a landscape photographer, the best subjects to concentrate on were the flowers and grasses, rendered very softly with this odd lens.

In order to boost the contrast the ‘Clear’ colour profile was used in camera. Other important settings were centre weighted metering, magnified LCD focussing and RAW file output as exposures can be all over the place – display a histogram on the LCD and keep an eye on it! Unless you really like lying down and getting up a lot, the pivoting LCD screen on the 60D is very useful for this sort of subject, though it’s difficult to see in bright sunlight. It’s all a bit hit and miss to be honest.

First some buttercups, post processed to give the yellow of the flowers a reddish hue. No aperture disk so very soft – just the essentials of the subject really. A neutral density filter (x3) was needed to prevent overexposure at f2.

This was shot with the f4 aperture disk and converted to black and white in DXO filmpack to give it a harder contrast to cut into the softness and let the chalk path burn out.

Finally another at f4 (once an aperture disk is in I rarely change it). Some odd flare top right, but given the lens it doesn’t seem to matter.

Not a bad day at all – I may have picked up a slight suntan too!

Thanks for looking, hope you like them!

Infrareds – yet more…

(Five images) Well, you can’t have too many! This set is all taken in the typical ‘IR genre’ – graveyards and their monuments. All taken on a converted Fuji F810 and R72 filter.

First – an impressive angel in a rural church. The form of the wings makes the shot.

Next – layered to add to the effect, and the figure on the pillar gives it a vaguely ‘roman’ look. The hexagonal flare is quite nice too.

Different angel – similar effect. Unfortunately one of the wings has been broken off or vandalised.

This was very odd – a nautical monument miles inland. An odd place to find an anchor.

Finally a favourite location – an overgrown graveyard with some very grand monuments. IR helps distinguish the metalwork from the undergrowth.

Right – not that many IR’s left – thank goodness. Summer is coming, and it’ll soon be IR season for 4 months so get ready!

Hope you like them and thanks for looking!

Spooky Monuments

Shooting for book covers sometimes draws you to some unusual subjects, and this is one of them – spooky, some might say macabre memorials which lurk around various old buildings and always make a compelling subject.

First one on a Lensbaby with the plastic lens, toned in post-processing.

Next a remarkably fine carving of a skull – they really were ghoulish in the 1700’s! This is on the Zuiko 50mm f1.4 wide open, and displaying some very odd bokeh – it’s rather annoyingly distracting but never mind…

Finally a real horror of a monument – how sensibilities have changed over 250 years.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them (if you can like something like this!).

In Camera Processing – Misusing the ‘Miniature’ Effect

Many digital cameras offer a ‘miniature’ effect to make city scapes and landscapes look like model villages. It’s all a bit naff, but there’s a real use for this effect – a sort of ‘ Lensbaby on the cheap’ if you like.

You may be able to control the orientation and focus zone -the Canon 60D allows this and the orientation has been switched to vertical for this shot to focus attention in the window’s axis.

 Same here – plus a layer and some post-processing to add some drama.

Vertical again – there’s a pattern emerging here – looks quite ‘Lensbabyish’.

Finally one I was really pleased with – but horizontal orientation this time. The light was almost horizontal and illuminating the plastic kid’s playhouse against a dark background.

As always these shots are taken for the book cover market, and all comments, critiques and questions are welcome.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them and they give you some creative ideas for your photography

Barbed Wire

Barbed wire is one of those eye-catching subjects to a book cover photographer, like doors or water. The attraction is that the simple shapes and form provide something which is instantly recognisable and very graphic.

First up is a lensbaby shot, post processed with a layer to give the sky a slight red tone. All very melodramatic!

Same processing here but the shadows were allowed to fade to darkness using the ‘levels’ tool in Photoshop.

Same location as number one but with the worn fencepost included in silhouette.

This is a ‘straight’ shot of some trapped plastic caught against the barbed wire on a windy day.

Finally just some security fencing plus a layer – which was a picture of a worn notice board just yards away.

As always these shots are taken for the book cover market, and all comments, critiques and questions are welcome.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them and they give you some creative ideas for your photography.