The Lensbaby Sol 45 45mm f3.5 Lens for Canon EF is a compact, creative lens. With the Sol 45 you can do selective focus photography by tilting and focusing this small lens.
The Lensbaby Sol 45 is a manual focus, 45mm fixed prime focal length with an aperture of f3.5. Lensbaby refers to the effect this lens creates as the "Sweet Spot effect". Watch my behind the scenes video below to see how you can use this lens for portrait photography!
As you can see from the example images, this lens has a single point of focus where your image is sharp - aka the "sweet spot". Depending on which direction you tilt the Sol 45 and how much you tilt it, will render you an interesting free-lensing effect for your photos. The direction you tilt this lens will affect where the focus point of the image is. I always made sure to have the focus point where the photo is sharp over my subject's face. The amount you tilt the lens will then render how strong the blur effect looks. You can tilt it a small amount to gently enhance the creative look of your photo. You can also tilt it the whole way if you want a more extreme looking blur.
The effect the Lensbaby Sol 45 gives is a mixture of tilt-shift and free-lensing. While I wouldn't use a lens like this as the sole lens of an entire portrait session, it is a small and fun lens to keep in your camera bag when you feel like getting creative.
For this portrait photoshoot, I am using the Canon 35mm f1.4 II lens to compliment the Sol 45. I am using both these lenses on the Canon 5D mkiv DSLR.
If you love creative accessories like this, I've also used the Lensbaby Omni kit. The Omni kit is an innovative way to creating effects through crystals & objects. Typically you would hold crystals in front of your lens to create these effects. With the Omni kit, Lensbaby has devised a Filter Ring that you attach to your lens. You can then attach one or more Effect Wands to the Magnetic Mount. Gone are the days of awkwardly holding prisms up to your lens!
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model samantha @ priscilla's
camera body canon 5D mkiv
lenses canon 35mm f1.4L mkii & lensbaby sol 45
All photos edited with my Bloom Lightroom Preset!
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might want to check out my portrait photography with the Lensbaby Omni Kit!