Tag: optics

Lensbaby section

Lensbaby Double Glass trees
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”.

Flickr holds Elisa’s online Photo Gallery
© 2019 Elisa Liddell

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Let’s sit among the flowers….

Twist-60 Lensbaby at Fyvie Castle
First outing for the Lensbaby Twist 60, shooting the loch-side walk at Fyvie Castle

The kind of place you just want to sit and watch the world go by!
The rhododendrons are still blooming at Fyvie Castle. Too good to miss the chance to enjoy them! And a chance to try out my latest Lensbaby optic, the Twist 60.

Flickr holds Elisa’s online Photo Gallery
© 2019 Elisa Liddell

Lensbaby Art and Glass 2

Golden coins (only chocolate!)
Golden coins (only chocolate!) shot with the Double Glass optic and +4 macro filter

In my first selection of Lensbaby “art” shots I wanted to concentrate on how the Lensbaby can creatively enhance a composition – even transform it. Now I want to add some more flamboyant images! As I said … what I set out to do and what I end up with can be miles apart. Every shoot is a journey into the unexpected! The magic comes when the camera takes you by surprise! So I have compiled a small gallery of shots that have done just that – taken me completely by surprise!

A very early shot from 2013, when I first bought a Lensbaby.

Scarf ring on a bright scarf.
Scarf ring on a bright scarf. Double Glass and +4 macro filter

I took a bright colourful boa scarf and placed a scarf ring on top to help me find the sweet spot, and learn focussing. The result really blew me away! The colours, the bokeh, the swirling and zoom-type movement … wow! OK, I missed on the focus, it landed on the fuzzy wool to the left of the target ring – but what a result. I admit, I was hooked ;o)

Since then I have learned more about the powers and potential of the various optics, and how to control and use them. But they can still take my breath away. One subject that the Lensbaby is especially wonderful with is trees, and foliage.

Sunlight through trees.
Sunlight through trees. Double Glass at F2.8 with telephoto optic

Simple sunshine through the trees at Leith Hall gardens, with the bokeh movement of the leaves. And next, looking up on a dull day, as the sunshine caught the tops of the fir trees.

Looking up through the tree canopy.
Looking up through the tree canopy. Sweet 50

And a magical composition, combining two shots that I have described
at the bottom of the page about the Sweet 50 optic here:

tree walk at LeithHall
Walk into my world. The Sweet 50 composite of a Leith Hall walk.

It seems that handling light is one of the many superb qualities of the Lensbaby range of optics.

Blue hydrangea flowers in bright sunlight
Blue hydrangea flowers in bright sunlight. Double Glass and+4 macro filter

Here the way the optic handles bright sunshine makes for a softly melting watercolour effect. The petals become almost translucent. And the effect is achieved in camera, and not by post-processing.
Another shot where bright sunlight was handled so well by the Lensbaby

One of the old stone lions that guard the garden gate at Leith Hall.
One of the old stone lions that guard the garden gate at Leith Hall. Sweet 50

I was hiding among the branches, and trying to shoot the stone lion gate-post at Leith Hall. I thought the extremes of light and shadow would defeat the camera … but a rather haunting semi-abstract emerged.

An old tree stump, caught in a shaft of sunlight.
An old tree stump, caught in a shaft of sunlight. Sweet 50

Here the sudden sunlight falling on the tree trunk, and the delicate shadow cast by the weed across the stump, caught my eye. Again, it was the contrast of light and shadow – and again the Lensbaby surprised me. No post processing was needed – just a small crop.

In all three of these shots I expected I was asking too much of the camera and lens, that the extremes of bright light and deep shadows would mean failure – but I was taken by surprise at what the Lensbaby could do!

And finally, one of my personal favourites – something the Lensbaby can do as no other lens I have, and no post-processing skills I have can simulate.

A crystal glass sphere lying among some flowers.
A crystal glass sphere lying among some flowers. Sweet 50 optic

A flowering rambler atop a wall, sunshine and a crystal sphere – and the Lensbaby. Unexpected magic ;o)

I’ve got more Lensbaby shots on Flickr. I’ve divided them into the 3 lenses I use
Double glass optic:
Sweet 50 optic:
Edge 80 optic:

I hope that you have enjoyed this personal journey through 5+ years of my “living with the Lensbaby”. I have enjoyed looking back, and now look forward to see what new surprises and delights it can offer me ;o)

Flickr holds Elisa’s online Photo Gallery
© 2019 Elisa Liddell