Lensbaby

I am not yet a Lensbaby owner, but that could change with your advice.
My challenge is to create a video like the English Faery Paintings of 150yrs ago. So that the tilt lens miniature look would be perfect for creating a Faery like world with actors.

Obviously the new composer pro would be a natural for this, but my question is two part. First of all would a lensbaby system help me acheive the effect of tilt lens miniturization effect? and secondly is there a bundle or partiular purchase of lens baby lenses and assoc that will help me as well as any other techniques that will help me acheive this look.
I did use the search function first, so before someone tells me to use the search function. I already

Video with a manual focus lens can be tricky sometimes,but its worth trying.
Im not sure what effect you get,but it might depend on wich optics you use.

TRYING IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS FAILURE.

Homer Simpson

The Lensbaby can do a good tilt/shift effect under certain circumstances. It seems to me that the best ways to maximize the tilt-shift effect are to be farther away. Tilt shift needs a lot of space to look compressed..., use a Mid-sized aperture, say around f/4-5.6, a lot of light, and a fast shutter. Because Traditional tilt-shift needs a small, but razor-sharp plane of focus, I'd use the Double-Glass optic.

That can get you to this. (First pic)

Using the lensbaby for this kind of shot in video is going to REQUIRE a tripod to look right. Any camera movements will need to be slow and steady. Blocking of actors might need to be quite precise of you want them to move and hit a sweet spot. You will have to do camera rehearsals just to try and get the shot if you rack focus, or move the sweet spot, and you'll need a lot of takes.

You want the Composer, at least. However, the Composer feels a little stiff. The Composer Pro sounds like it was built to swivel more smoothly and focus more smoothly, but I don't own one, so can't tell you how it feels.

I don't own the Sweet 35 Optic, but it's bladed aperture is going to be essential if you're shooting for motion... You just don't want to fumble around with the magnetic discs with crew around.

I would say get the wide/tele adaptors to change up your focal length and get some visual interest in there, as well.

These recommendations are based on trying to balance the power of the lensbaby with the need to do your setups, shoot your footage, and not take forever to do it. They are you "starter kit."

Over time you can buy more optics. Plastic, next, to max the blur as your next variation. Pinhole/zone will be useless for video. Single and Double glass will be closer to the Sweet 35.

And, eventually, you'll want the creative apertures kit, but that's not a rush. That's just fun.

OOPS, Correction: The tele/macro adaptors don't work with the sweet 35... However, there may be third-party ones that will? Anybody?

The front threads on the Sweet 35 are 46 mm.

Kirsten Hunter
Director of Customer Happiness

See more of my work on my blog: [www.livefrombeechstreet.blogspot.com]