DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Make your own DIY tilt-shift lens for only $30

Mar 2, 2017 by Dunja Djudjic 3 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

So far we’ve given you plenty of interesting ways for creating tilt-shift effect. You can use a lens to do it or even use Photoshop or Lightroom. In this tutorial, Mathieu Stern gives you a quick and easy tutorial for turning vintage Helios lenses into tilt-shift with some DIY magic. And the best of all is – you need only two elements and $30 for the entire build.

Lensbaby lenses are awesome, but they are pretty pricey. So, if you’d still like to achieve tilt-shift effect on the lens, you can use our very favorite approach – do it yourself. For this, you will need:

  • A vintage Helios lens. Mathieu uses Helios 103 and Helios 44-2. The prices vary, he found them for $20, and they can get even cheaper.
  • A rubber adapter which you can find here for $10.

How to make:

The assembling is very easy. First, unscrew the front part of a Helios lens. Then, plug it inside the rubber tube I linked above. The rubber has a mount on the back, which you will then attach to your camera. And this is all!

Focus by moving the lens back and forth or up and down, to create the tilt-shift effect on your photos. I especially like how it works for portraits. The wonderful swirly bokeh is even more prominent than usual, and it gives kinda dreamy look to the portraits. Take a look at some examples from Mathieu’s video.

[How to Turn Helios Lenses into a DIY 30$ tilt Lens Baby | Mathieu Stern]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

This photographer made his own tilt-shift lens from a CV boot Default ThumbnailPrint Your Own Tilt-Shift Lens The Wonderful Tilt-Shift Effect You Get When Coupling A Mamiya Lens With A DSLR Use a tilt-shift lens to be a little more creative with your portraits

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: cheap DIY project, diy tilt-shift, tilt-shift

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« New Porsche convertible 2-in-1 takes aim at the MacBook Pro
Use it or lose it – Have you got the brain for street photography? »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Sony teases upcoming ZV-E1 full-frame vlogging camera coming on March 29
  • The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is silent, glare-free retouching tablet
  • Fall in love with astrophotography with these 10 space objects
  • Hipstamatic app relaunches as a social network, but only for iOS
  • Instagram now has ads even in search results. Sigh

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 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.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy