Lensbaby, stars, fishes and hearts

Christmas tree decoration in the Barranco Guiniguada, between Triana and Vegueta

I want to have a break from all things hiking and show some of the experiments with Lensbaby. I took it out of its little bag where it was left undisturbed for a looong time because I thought I should sell off the stuff I never use.

My Lensbaby is a first primitive Composer, fully manual, move-it-as-you-like, no-one-knows-what-s-gonna-come-out type. I must say the focusing is really tricky, especially in the poor light.

“Normal” Lensbaby picture

I started to look up the prices for the second-hand lenses to know how much to ask for. While doing so I came across some nice pics taken with various models of Lensbaby with unusual patterns in the bokeh area. Experimenting with the bokeh was the stuff I never did before so I decided to have a go at it prior to selling the lens off.

The “normal” Lensbaby pic (above) look quite pretty already, with a sweet spot and a soft “fly-in” unfocused area. To achieve the patterned bokeh I simply chose the most open of the magnetic aperture rings my Composer has and cut a new, smaller aperture with a star-shaped opening out of black card. Then I simply stuck it on to the ring with Scotch tape.

Garlanded trees in Vegueta, old town

Above you can see the results of the first attempt. By trial and error method I established that I didn’t really like the pics where there was a focused area, which made the subsequent attempt easier — I just abandoned the whole focusing lark.

Christmas background on shutterstock.

I think it looks better with a dark silhouette

For the second attempt, still with Lensbaby and star aperture, we went together with my son. He was modeling for me in front of the Christmas tree made with garland spheres which is installed each year in the Barranco Guiniguada.

Timur is doing a Hamilton :)

When there is a lot of highlights in the frame and they are all on the different levels, the results look really dreamy.

Dreamy

I made another go at it, with the aperture in a shape of a little fish. I think I might want to repeat it one day, coz fish is not as fishy as I wished.

Christmas tree, Lensbaby fishes and my crystal ball. A tad too much methinks.

“And they just mooove”. I think I need to cut out another fishy aperture.

Finally, the first pic I did with a heart-shaped aperture stuck on the front of my 100 prime Canon lens. It might be not so interesting but it is a lot easier, the only thing which is a bit tricky is to figure out the size of the figure you are cutting.

I still have the Lensbaby Composer for Canon, in case anybody’s interested. This lens has been discontinued in favour of Lensbaby Composer Pro and now Composer Pro II; my lens looks very much like Lensbaby Composer for Nikon.

Christmas special effects backgrounds on shutterstock