Monday, May 08, 2017

Getting a Glow On



A regular reader of FITK should be aware that all the images here (unless otherwise credited) spring from the fertile (as in “spread with manure”) imagination of your humble/brag host, Professor Batty. I enjoy using ‘esoteric’ techniques from time to time, and many a blurry picture has graced these pages. I have a few home-made camera lenses, cobbled together from my photo junk drawers. The latest ‘refinement’ of this series is a Pentax 50mm f1.7 lens from the seventies. I removed all 7 of the glass elements and replaced them with three  oddball ones, thus creating a lens that functions in the same manner as it did originally (focus and aperture), but it is now capable of adding a pleasant glow to images - like the guitar pictured above.

Here are some more examples:







I described my technique on a photo forum and was immediately assailed for “destroying“ a “classic” optic, even though there are probably a million of these in closets around the world, never used. They sell for $5-$50, I think the world of photography could use a little variety now and then.

Three lenses that are not "glowers":

By Professor Batty


5 Comments:

Blogger Jono said...

They seem to portray a dreamlike state of consciousness. You're a braver man than I, Gunga Batty, for disassembling and reassembling that lens.


Blogger Professor Batty said...

The older ones work best for this, in the newer lenses the elements are usually glued in plastic.


Blogger oroboros said...

Yep, got a case full of camera equipment I haven't looked into in decades...


Blogger oroboros said...

(sigh)


Blogger Professor Batty said...

The lenses should be useful to someone.

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