Make a Homemade Soft Focus Lens for Your Camera for $ 15.
Sometimes, clear focus isn’t what you really want in a photograph. Maybe you’re trying to create an impressionistic scene that evokes something other than literal reality. And one way to completely transform your photographs is to make your own soft focus lens.
There are tons of places to buy intentional distortion lenses, most notably Lensbaby . Their best sellers , however, cost just under a hundred dollars, so it’s a bit pricey if you just want to experiment.However, in this video from Randy Snook, we see him making a rough and finished lens for under $ 15, which he calls the “Fabulous Tube.”
The Snook lens contains just a few pieces: a 1 1/4 ” PVC connector, the lens itself (specifically the 65mm positive meniscus single element lens), and a 55m Canon reverse adapter ring so that the tube can actually attach to the camera all parts are only a few dollars each, but the tricky thing to find is the lens. Snook got it from Surplus Shed (item # L5032).
Assembly is pretty straightforward: Snook paints the PVC parts black to minimize light leakage, gently screws the adapter ring onto the pipe (with a little glue, since there is virtually no thread for the ring on the pipe) and uses a few drops of hot glue around the perimeter of the lens to hold it in place. He then twists the disassembled pipe pieces together. Remember that if you are using a different lens, it will most likely have a different focal length, so this exact tube configuration may need to be adjusted. Then you are ready to give it a try and take some fantastic shots.
Soft Focus Lens The Pipe Dream | Randy Snook via PetaPixel