cinematography Lens Whacking

PaulGriffith

PaulGriffith

Has anyone here tried it?

For those that don't know, lens whacking is basically un-mounting your lens while the sensor is exposed (ie while recording movie) and holding it right there in front of your camera, letting light in from behind the lens as well as through. Very interesting results, similar to a tilt shift or lensbaby but different.

Example:
http://vimeo.com/12741066
 
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I will surely pray for you brother.. please resist the TEMPTATION !!!:lol:

I heard Charlie Sheen and that hussy were doing that before he got nabbed last....

OK but seriously.. cool beans huh ! I Like it.

I read on the vimeo descript. that David Lynch played w/ it too ! ( no pun intended ) I love David Lynch's works. i love inland Empire and wish to do a film with that flavor fueling the storyline and tempo.
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I have played w/ Pinhole photography w/ digital and got some cool effects where you remove the lens, place the body cap on with a pin-sized hole in your body cap and 5-9 sec exposures.

hmmm now you got me thinking.....Mebbe take a cheap banged up lens and drill some holes in it and go from there. Removing a plug or two from the lens at critical times.
 
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insert_cliche_here said:
I'm confused. Is the going in and out of focus anything to do with it? It's an interesting effect, but a little too unknown for me to understand lol.
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Focus is affected by doing this. Basically a lens has to sit a specific distance from an image plane in order to focus accurately. Pulling the lens out of the body lengthens the distance (flange focal distance/depth, iirc) and causes that part of the look. The flare and haze are from light leak, and the perspective distortion is probably from tilting it around or moving the center point off axis like on a tilt/shift lens.

Pretty cool. I can think of lots of times when I would want to use something similar.
 
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David.rhsc said:
Focus is affected by doing this. Basically a lens has to sit a specific distance from an image plane in order to focus accurately. Pulling the lens out of the body lengthens the distance (flange focal distance/depth, iirc) and causes that part of the look. The flare and haze are from light leak, and the perspective distortion is probably from tilting it around or moving the center point off axis like on a tilt/shift lens.

Pretty cool. I can think of lots of times when I would want to use something similar.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you :) I know next to nothing about cameras or anything like that, but now I know a little more, and am no longer confused. Thanks <3
 
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