Apparently, yes, you can you shoot portraits with a smashed up rear lens element
Feb 16, 2021
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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So many of us baby our gear. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Despite the fact that the odd scratch here and there isn’t going to affect the performance of my kit, I’m still going to try to take the best care of it that I can. But sometimes accidents happen.
And an accident is what happened to Christopher Hamberger when he dropped his $1,200 Nikon 35mm f/1.4 Ai-S lens and shattered the rear element. Can it still shoot, though? How will that decimated rear element affect the images? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Shoot with it.
As if the uncertainty of a smashed rear lens element weren’t risky enough, Christopher also chose to shoot on film. His weapon of choice in this instance is the legendary Nikon F3 with Portra 400 film. Although the lens was no longer able to stop down beyond f/2.0 and focusing became very difficult, the results aren’t really all that bad and offer quite an interesting look.
I’m still going to baby my gear, though. But if I do ever happen to break a lens, I might have to try shooting with it anyway.
[via FStoppers]
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John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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One response to “Apparently, yes, you can you shoot portraits with a smashed up rear lens element”
This is pretty cool! I like the effect he ended up with, although – I’m also still gonna baby my gear :)