Lensbaby Double Glass optic shooting trees and reflections
The Lensbaby is a system of optics that you can screw on to your DSLR camera body in the same way as you add or remove any lens. And that, more or less, is where the similarity ends! Stepping into the world of the Lensbaby is rather like stepping inside a kaleidoscope. The optics can create the most wonderful effects inside the camera. It is a whole new ‘take’ on what you see normally through your own eyes, and through the view-finder of your camera. Prepare to be enchanted. The Lensbaby system has been around since 2004. To quote their own words: “In 2004, Lensbaby was born out of a photographer’s frustration with flat, sterile, digital images. Since then, we’ve been helping photographers gain creative control and inject emotion into their images.”Lensbaby.com And that is indeed what I get from my Lensbaby optics, a way to transform ordinary shots into something special, something that I have created rather than just recorded, and sometimes I create something that takes me quite by surprise!
The pages that I’ve made here roughly follow my own journey into Lensbaby land, from my very first bundle in 2013 through to today.
Meet the Lensbaby I start with a little about the ‘base unit’ called the Composer Pro, and how you drop in the ‘optics’
The Double Glass optic Then I look at this first optic, and what I could do with it right from day 1.
The Sweet 50 optic In 2015 I bought my next optic, the Sweet 50. This added a new range of effects, and a simpler focusing system.
The Edge 80 In 2017 I added a third optic to my range, this time with landscape especially in mind. This optic has range of subtle effects, and a sharpness of focus that is quite remarkable.
As I suggested, the results that you can get straight out of the camera can be truly artistic – and I like to think my Lensbabys are for ‘Art Photography’. I really love that I don’t have to manipulate imaged on my computer in Photoshop.
Lensbaby Art 1 Looks at how the Lensbaby can help to compose a shot.
Lensbaby Art 2 Some of the ways in which the Lensbaby can take me by surprise.
I seem to work in 2 year cycles, as in 2019 I have just added a Twist 60 to my Lensbaby range. I haven’t used it enough yet to add it to this section. I’ve got more Lensbaby shots on Flickr. I’ve divided them into the 3 lenses I use On Flickr you can find my Album of Sweet 50 photos On Flickr you can find my Album of Double Glass photos On Flickr you can find my Album of Edge 80 photos
Note: the range of camera bases that Lensbaby support, Taken from their website July 2019: “We make creative effects lenses, tools, and accessories that fit the following DSLR and mirrorless camera bodies: Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony E, Fuji X, Micro 4/3”.
A white rose with raindrops. Shot with the Lensbaby Edge 80 optic on the Sony NEX-6
A simple single white rose, shot against a black velvet cloth. I used the Lensbaby Edge 80 optic, which means shooting in Manual Mode. This optic is a favourite of mine, as it can produce amazing clarity and detail. I’ve written more about it here And ‘Flying Solo is all about using full Manual Mode on your camera.
The Lensbaby in action, catching the tree’s reflections in the water at Fyvie Castle
A new 6-part series on the Lensbaby optical system for DSLR camera. It’s a personal journey through 6 years of shooting with the Lensbaby. It covers the basics of what the Lensbaby is and how it works – then the 3 optics I have used, from the original Double Glass, to the Sweet 50, and then the Edge 80. Finally there are two gallery pages, one looking at composing shots with the Lensbaby, and one of the delightful surprises that the optics can give. The shot above was taken last November, when the autumn colours were almost gone. Using the Double Glass optic at F2.8. I caught the slight signature circular swirl in the middle, and the distinctive zoom-like bokeh fading to a gentle blur towards the edges of the frame. Meet the Lensbaby On Flickr you can find my Album of Double Glass photos
Pink geranium flowers. Sweet 50 with 16mm macro converter
The magic that Lensbaby have woven with their Composer Pro and optics is to bring art and photography together in a unique way. The “glass” of the optics and the eye of the artist can combine to produce something new, something unexpected, and something beautiful. There is the same feeling you get when painting – that you are striving to express what you see and feel about the subject – but somehow the painting has a life of its own, and you don’t really have a clue what it will look like when you finally put the brush down. Then, when you look at the image a few days later, you think “Ah! So that is what I wanted to say!”
What I set out to do and what I end up with … they can be miles apart. Every shoot is a journey into the unexpected! OK, sometimes it all falls flat – sometimes it is just what you expected it would look like; but the magic comes when the camera takes you by surprise!
In writing this series of articles, one of the biggest surprises for me personally has been to revisit the basic double-glass optic that I started out with in 2013. I love it, and am using it all the time now. So that has been an unexpected bonus for me! The other BIG bonus is that writing things down helps me to collect and organise my own responses to the images I have collected over the years. And that will hopefully feed into my future Lensbaby work. I’ve split this survey of images into two sections: the first is all about the composition; the second is some of the more wild effects that happen along the way.
How Lensbaby can create an artistic composition that is uniquely ‘Lensbaby’.
The shots I’ve selected are using either the double-glass optic or the Sweet 50. And this is no accident, as both of these optics work by creating a ‘sweet spot’ where the focus is really sharp and clear, and then creating an optical blurring effect around that point of focus. The combination can create an immediate drawing of the eye into the heart of the composition.
A simple still life of a cup and a few berries. Shot with the Double Glass and +4 macro filter
One of my very early shots, with the double-glass optic and the +4 macro filter. Here I set up the shot with winter berries from the garden to enhance the holly and mistletoe decoration on the cup. But looking at it I found that the berries I had added were just too big and bright, distracting the eye from the actual cup. But by using the Lensbaby optic, and placing the sweet spot of focus on the cup and holly berries, I could move the eye to look first at the cup, while the gentle blurring of the berries took on the supporting role I had originally intended. And then I could see other elements of the composition more clearly too. I know – it seems odd to see the composition more clearly by blurring much of the image!! But look at the pleasing diagonal that runs from the top right to the bottom left of the image – balancing the handle of the cup with the larger cluster of berries. And complementing that diagonal there is another diagonal running from top centre left (the berries on the actual cup) to the bottom centre right where a smaller cluster of berries lies. Honestly? I hadn’t consciously seen either of these compositional elements when I set my little still life up … it was the Lensbaby optic that brought it all to life.
Ripe barley abstract. Shot with the Sweet 50
With the wind blowing the barley, and the early morning sunshine, I wanted to shoot something before the combine came to harvest the crop. The golden field was so lovely, but there was nothing to focus on – there was just so much barley there! I could kneel down and catch the light nicely, but it was still a whole field of waving stems. So I chose the Lensbaby, and took some shots letting it decide how the composition might emerge. And I thought it did the job really well for me here! There’s a silvery focus on the dry stalks, and plenty of movement and bokeh glints. It gives the structure of the barley while being impressionistic too. I felt it captured the experience of being there in a way that I couldn’t plan consciously.
Geraniums with leaf. Sweet 50+8mm macro converter
I know that Lensbaby optics are good with flower photography, the gentle blur can merge petals or leaves into the background very nicely. Here I knew where I wanted the focus to be – quite high and to the right, to centre the sweet spot to cover both flower and a portion of the leaf. I was aware that I would need to crop out the metal tweezers that were holding the flower and leaf stems upright for the shot … so the higher the sweet spot of focus, the better for the crop! Only when I saw the image on the computer monitor I just couldn’t believe what had happened to my metal mechanical ‘arm’. It didn’t detract from the composition, but was an interesting and integral part of it. So once again the Lensbaby made the final image possible in a way I hadn’t expected.
The summer of 2018 I rediscovered the double-glass optic, and took it out on many trips up the Aberdeenshire coast. One particular morning I took 3 experimental cameras with me – my main interest being an Infrared Nikon and the Lensbaby Edge 80. I packed the double-glass optic too, just to play with, not expecting anything much, as I hadn’t used it for landscape work before. I used all 3 for some shots from this vantage point above Banff Bay. I just focused on the far headland and houses, and took a couple of shots.
Looking across Banff Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Double Glass optic
When I got home and looked at this on the big monitor I was really surprised. A dull day and a fixed lens was tranformed into a lovely composition. I had regretted leaving the RX10 with its powerful zoom at home, and expected nothing much from the double-glass. But the sense of movement, the foreground wild flowers and the balance of colours all worked together to make another Lensbaby surprise!
Further up the coast, and on the same day, we stopped at Portsoy where I continued to shoot with the double-glass optic.
Ivy on the wall. Double Glass optic
The light was still poor, but this ivy-covered wall caught my eye, and it was worth a shot! Again, the Lensbaby shaped the composition, with the sweet spot of focus, and the fall-off of focus. And within the blurring the balance of colours between the green of leaves and grass on the one hand, and the light ochres of the wall made such a pleasing symmetry. This one I did crop to a more square shape, to enhance the balance.
And the final shot I’ve included is of Cullen old village. Taken last year, and yet another occasion when I was shooting experimentally, using the Sweet 50 this time, but again wondering if the optic could handle larger landscape challenges.
Cullen old village. Scotland. Sweet 50 optic
Again I just concentrated on getting the sweet spot focus as sharp as I could, and trusted the Lensbaby to handle the rest! Here I did crop the bottom of the photo to bring the figures closer, and give even more of a wide-angle feel to the image. But the lovely gentle blurring of the sides and rich greens of the park, and most of all the echoes of Lowry in the man and his dog … just wonderful Lensbaby gifts ;o)
