Photographer Mathieu Stern is understood for his enjoyable tasks like turning a Parisian condo into a large digital camera and capturing journey pictures with a full-spectrum transformed Sony digital camera, typically shoots with classic lenses. Stern considerably improved one by placing the world’s blackest materials inside it.
Whereas older optics can ship fascinating pictures, they typically wrestle with distinction, flare, and ghosting due partially to inner reflections. To fight this challenge, Stern put the world’s blackest materials, which he has beforehand used to nice impact as an unbelievable portrait backdrop, inside a lens.
The lens in query is a cinema projector lens. The uncommon prime lens has a 70mm focal size and f/1.6 most aperture. It’s fairly an attractive lens, and its pictures show a ton of character.
“I really like to make use of classic projector lenses on my full-frame digital camera as a result of these lenses can create dreamlike pictures with breathtaking swirly bokeh,” Stern explains. “However one huge downside with any projector lens is that they weren’t made to seize pictures however to undertaking pictures.”
Just like the one Stern has, the within of many projector lenses options shiny metallic to replicate gentle, which is completely high-quality for picture projection. Nevertheless, when gentle goes the opposite manner — into the lens, relatively than out of it — the picture is washed out and lacks distinction.
Stern has typically corrected this downside throughout picture enhancing, as including distinction to a picture is a comparatively simple factor. Nevertheless, capturing a greater picture in-camera is right and leads to much less work. So, it was time for Stern to resolve this longstanding challenge and see what picture high quality his lens was able to.
Flocking, the method of placing many small fiber particles on a floor to scale back its reflectivity, is frequent in pictures. Photographers shall be aware of flocking if they’ve seemed inside some lens hoods, which may embody a velvety, black material materials. It’s additionally frequent to search out flocking inside bellows or with sure movie cartridges.
In Stern’s case, flocking a lens hood received’t reduce it as a result of the within of your complete lens barrel is extremely reflective. Like with the backdrop undertaking he did, Stern returned to the Japanese firm KoPro to get the right materials.
After taking the projector lens aside, placing KoPro’s extremely black materials, which absorbs greater than 99% of seen gentle, and piecing the lens again collectively, did the DIY undertaking work? It positive did. The outcomes are unbelievable, as demonstrated in Stern’s video above.
To see extra from Mathieu Stern, go to his website and YouTube channel.
