I Dream in Lensbaby Velvet, I Dream in Artistry

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A few years ago, the Lensbaby Velvet 56mm found its way into my camera bag. Over time, it just keeps getting better. My journey with Velvet started by admiring the dreamy photos featured in online galleries. Other artists images and technical reviews convinced me to change from admirer to purchaser. Note: they also make a Lensbaby Velvet 85.

As I look at the Velvet journey, my enjoyment of this lens and in-camera artistry has grown over time. Unexpectedly.

Artistry, Tonality, Velvety Texture

This little lens is sharp but that’s not why you buy the Lensbaby Velvet art lens. When Lensbaby is opened at its widest apertures, light and colors meld into a smooth buttery texture. As you stop down the aperture, the ethereal feel shifts to a vintage look.

Working with colors, like the Dahlia above is pure heaven. In black in white, a bit of drama enfolds. In macro mode, you’re 5 inches away from your subject.

When I talked with other photographers about Lensbaby, I received two diverse responses.

From those that had first hand experience, comments ranged from “you’ll love it” and “finding what you like with this lens takes time and you’ll be glad that you did.” They were right.

And, from those that didn’t have first hand experience and shared, “I don’t get it, I can create those effects in post processing.” With Photoshop and other tools, you can create similar effects. One photographer shared that they could smear vaseline on an old lens to get the blurry effect. Yes, you can and get interesting images. But why, when you have much more diversity and a clean lens at the same time?

With pets and fast moving objects, the manual focus requires patience. With my aging gentle boy, he wasn’t in the mood and wouldn’t pose. To capture this image, it required a higher aperture as I was also faced with our Michigan gray light. There’s elements of this image that I appreciate. The color, the softness of his aging face.

Getting to Know Lensbaby Velvet

4 Steps and You’re On Your Way with Lensbaby Velvet

1. Step 1 – Setting up the camera to work with the lens. You’ll only have to do this once. When I learned that I would need to ‘program the camera’ to read the lens, that sounded hard. It wasn’t. Since the lens is all manual, you have to tell your camera to look for it. How?
   • Pop into the Setup Menu, select the option for a non-CPU lens. Follow the prompts to input the maximum aperture and focal length.
   • Align your camera diopter (viewfinder) with your sight. This alignment matches what you see through the viewfinder with what the camera sees.
2. Step 2 – Each time you use your Lensbaby you’ll need to shift your camera from AF (autofocus) to manual focus and your priority to Manual.
3. Step 3 – Learning to use the lens barrel and manual mode.
   • Aperture – Instead of moving your f/stops on the camera dial, you rotate the f/stops lens dial that’s on the base of the barrel.
   • Shutter speed – Because your in manual mode, you control shutter speed and ISO with your normal dials and buttons on your camera.
   • Manual focus – The sweet spot of this lens is the center of the lens. Turn your lens barrel until your subject is in focus then shoot. You can also focus on areas that are not in the center.
4. Step 3 – Practice, practice, practice. While this is true in all things, it’s particularly true for Lensbaby Velvet. From the shallowest to largest depth of field, observing and creating images across all of the f/stops using multiple subjects is the quickest way to learn this lens.

2 Surprises

As this was my first all-manual lens, two surprises awaited. These surprises weren’t from advertising. Their ads and videos were spot on.

The unexpected? The manual learning curve! Everything about this lens is manual. Autofocus lenses had spoiled me as had shooting in Aperture priority most of the time.

The other unexpected? How much the all-manual Lensbaby would strengthen my innate camera knowledge. From getting started to being hands on, my technical and artistic skills sharpened.

For more reading, here’s a post processing tip: Can Vignettes Make your Subject Pop?