Nina Mingioni CM: ninazm [email protected] www.ninamingioni.com www.facebook.com/NinaMingioniPhotography

LEARN TO BLUR: creative with Lensbaby

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Shooting with your lensbaby  Lensbaby lenses do NOT communicate with your camera in any way  Pick by turning the aperture ring on the or changing the aperture disc  MUST shoot in Manual or AV modes only  Manual is preferred

Metering  Meter while lens is untilted  Tilt and take a sample shot  Adjust based on histogram

Focusing  Trickier than doing manual focusing with standard lenses  Manual focusing practice certainly helps  LCD is VERY deceiving!

Manual Focus  Always shoot with the same eye  Adjust your diopters (closed lens cap method)  Hoodman Eyecup  Learning to focus your lensbaby: Practice on cooperative subjects

Learning to focus your lensbaby  Learn to shoot wide open VS Learn to shoot at f/4 or f/5.6  Learn on far away objects first o Softer blur with closer object o Harsher blur with far away objects  Learn to shoot untilted first, then learn to tilt VS Leave tilted in the same spot for several days  Physically check where the lens is pointing  Liveview o Turn off simulation: Canon vs vs Fuji o Magnify to 1:1 on LCD o Watch for camera shake!

Getting more shots in focus: techniques  Shoot while twisting  Bobble  Focus/Defocus/Refocus Removing Edge 80, Sweet 35 Hold composer pro with the camera end in your left hand Rotate the ring of composer pro TOWARDS you to bring the optic out Rotate the optic’s aperture ring TOWARDS you Push the optic in, and rotate it TOWARDS you to disconnect All others Rotate the ring of composer pro to bring the optic up Use little feet on the lid of the container to rotate the optic out

Lensbaby: Properties of popular optics

Understanding Sweet 35  Circular area of focus (sweet spot), surrounded by gradual blur  Size of the sweet spot increases as aperture decreases  Blur gets smoother as aperture decreases  Single points of light become directional ovals  Adds feeling of movement  Some viewers feel physically uncomfortable due to implied movement. This can be minimized by: o not including single points of light in the field of view o Close the aperture o Avoid extreme tilts  Good for Landscapes/Citiscapes, adds feeling of movement  Works well with more centered compositions  Great for sunflare  Mind your frame, cloning is very difficult

Understanding Edge 80  Slice of focus , surrounded by gradual blur  Size of the slice increases as aperture decreases  Blur gets smoother as aperture decreases  Untilted, it functions as regular lens with no blur  Has a pull-out macro extension  Depending on the direction of the tilt, creates horizontal, vertical, and diagonal slices  Slice of focus goes deep!  Edge 80: miniature effect!  Good for just about everything!  Great little creative lens to always have with you

Double Glass  50mm  Must use interchangeable optic discs  Sweet spot of focus  Smoother blur than 35?  Being phased out?

Sweet 50  Was released early, 9/3/2014  50mm  Circular area of focus  Change aperture by turning the aperture ring  Smoother blur than sweet 35

Soft focus optic  50mm  Interchangeable aperture discs  NOT OOF and NOT images  No true “sweet spot”  Image made by light coming in through the center opening is overlaid with oof images coming thorough the openings in periphery

Zone Plate/Pinhole optics  Single optic with a toggle switch  Bright light or very long exposures  Big plus: no focusing needed!!!  o f/19 o No tilting o No focusing o Tripod a must unless in super bright light o Adds halos to light  Pinhole o f/177! o No tilting o No focusing o Tripod is a MUST

Single glass and Plastic Optics  50mm  Sweet spot of focus  Come with f/4 aperture discs

Macro photography with your lensbaby  Edge 80 has pull out macro extension  Can use regular cheap extension tubes  Can use lensbaby macro extension rings  Lensbaby macro adapters have been discontinued o Macro lens filters o Could not be used with sweet 35 or edge 80  Macro with Edge 80

Creative aperture discs  Fun!  Shape your  Will not work with Edge 80 or Sweet 35/50

A guide to successful Lensbaby image  Pre-visualize your image in “Lensbaby” o Circular focus vs Slice of focus: pick your optic OR o Pick a creative optic o How much blur : pick your aperture o Where should the focus fall: tilt your lens o Meter, Take a test shot, adjust settings o Shoot away!  Definitely overshoot  Be prepared to cull and delete A LOT  You may have zero or one keeper

Lensbaby Lenses: Final thoughts Do Experiment! Pre-visualize your scene Optic What should be in focus? What aperture to use? Practice hard!

Don’t Pixel peep Seek perfection Use uncooperative models