Just the other day, I discovered the new trend of “lens whacking”. On reading the name, I was a bit startled. “Who in their right mind would WHACK their LENS on something?”. It just didn't seem right, so I looked further and found that it is in fact a reasonably simple way to create interesting depth of field in your images, as well as creative light leaks. It can also be used as a tilt shift alternative, as tilt shift lenses can be so expensive.
This is the video I watched to learn what lens whacking actually
is, and how to do it:
I am yet to try this cool trick out myself, but here are
some examples of the kind of images that can be created in this way:
As cool as this may look, there are some cons to go with the
pros, as there always are:
Pros:
- Reasonably easy to do
- Only requires a 50mm or smaller lens
- Can be used in the place of a tilt shift lens
- Creates interesting depth of field
- Can produce cool light leaks
- Allows you to be more creative with blur, in camera
Cons:
- Sensor is exposed
- Should have sensor cleaned after each lens whacking shoot ($$$)
- Risk of dropping either lens or camera body ($$$$)
- Would require a fair amount of practice to perfect
Although there are more pros than cons listed, if the more
damaging cons were to occur, you’d be looking at a lot of money for repairs, regardless
of saving on a tilt shift lens.
Overall, lens whacking looks like a cool and interesting
technique to spruce up your images, as risky as it may be. I will definitely be (carefully) trying it
myself!
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