Launched last June, Lensbaby’s OMNI filter system has opened up a lot of creative effects for photographers. More importantly, it’s opened up a lot of consistent creative effects due to its magnetic holders for each of the crystals and doodads it allows you to stick in front of your lens. It lets you position your flares and effects exactly where you want, knowing that they’re not going to budge.
Its abilities have grown, thanks to the release of of the Color and Crystal expansion packs, and now they’ve grown again as Lensbaby announces a new Flare Expansion Pack. It offers four new glass Effect Wands you can place in front of your lens to create new looks and offer even more creative options.
The four new wants are called (from left-to-right in the above image) Anamorphic Raindrop, Saber, Prism Flare and Zig-Zag. Lensbaby says that each one is handcrafted by glass artists in Portland, Oregon, and this is what they say about each of them.
- Anamorphic Raindrop: Handcrafted with a “Raindrop” at the end to give you selective distortion with the
body of the wand making cinematic flare out of your highlights. - Saber: Brush the highlights in impressionistic reflections while varying the length of streaky flare that
shortens and lengthens when rotated. - Prism Flare: Apply a prism effect to your stretched points of light, splitting them into tiny bits of rainbows that
come and go when rotated. - Zig-Zag: Make explosions of light while creating effects ranging from subtle to over-the-top based on the
rotation and placement of its hand-crafted curves.
While such effects are not to everybody’s tastes, for those that love them, they’re a great solution to the issue of inconsistency when using things like prisms and other items in front of your lens to intentionally create flare or unusual effects in your images. When you’re just holding something with your hand, everything looks almost perfect except all you need to do is tweak the light or your subject’s post a little, but when you fix those things and take another shot, that flare or effect you loved has moved. With magnets holding these in place, problem solved.
The Lensbaby OMNI Flare Expansion pack is currently available to buy from the Lensbaby website for $69.95 but should start appearing at the usual retailers, soon. The Lensbaby OMNI Creative Filter system is available to buy for $99.95.
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