Lensbaby keeps adding to the repertoire: Now you can be a total Control Freak
The fans of this product are legion.
For 6 years now, the Lensbaby movement has been strong as enthusiasts around the globe, attach the focal plane adjusters to their camera bodies, and shift your eye to put you just where they want you to be.
It has evolved through the years, going from a system of rods, screws and filters, to a slightly more elegant Composer, introduced last year, and now…The Control Freak!
You not only have total control of your focal plane to a very fine degree but they have intro’d some new lens inserts to check out.
One thing we’ve always loved is the Pinhole camera insert that allows you to shoot pinhole with digital. But now there is a Fisheye insert that allows you to touch the subject with the lens. Check out a sample on the video.
Plus, in this video, you will get one of the best explanations of the how and why of Lensbaby products.
We’ll be honest with you: a few years ago, we didn’t get the fascination with the product. Why would I take off my high end glass to use this?
Well, then we tried it. It is too much fun, and the results are dramatic and give us another great tool in the creative box.
Like we said, how else will you do pinhole with digital?
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The great thing about Lensbabies, is that they have made tilt photography cheap, thus widely available. Of course, this has often given way to a number of highly uninteresting and repetitive small scale model-like pictures. In the long run, when Lensbabies are no longer so much in fashion, we’ll see more interesting uses of them. I am thinking of the work of Patrick Messina, for example: for years he used a tilt & shift cameras to compose highly original portraits (for Les Inrockuptibles & Telerama among others). The lensbabies (and perhaps a cheap shift lens) should allow creative photographers to do more of their creativity, but that will be in the long run!
I’ve been shooting with the Composer now for a bit over a year. It’s a great creative tool – and sometimes it’s the elixir to the “been there, done that” photographic rut.