Lens for images with lots of flare

I'd like to get a lens that are prone to flare. Something to shot portraits and

stuff like that. Nice flare and lots of it if possible. I don't want to add that

stuff in photoshop if I can help it. Any ideas?

just use a semi wide angle lens without a hood and aim towards the sun

Get a Holga

Nikon spends a lot of money to make their lenses flare resistant. I would put a old uv filter on my lens, that has been sanded with a little fine grit sandpaper.

There are several lenses available that are designed to provide soft focus effects for portraits. The Lensbabies, Spiratone Portragon and others used a simple single optical element to emphasize spherical aberration for soft edges with relatively sharp centers. These lenses use T-mount adapters and can be fitted to most interchangeable lens SLRs, film or digital. The Portragon was a 100mm focal length with a fixed f/4 aperture - no diaphragm to change the aperture. At least some of the Lensbabies offer a way to change apertures but f/4 seems to be a good compromise for soft portraits and other special effect photos, including landscapes, flowers, etc.

 

Judging from photos I've seen the Lensbabies are less flare-prone than the Spiratone Portragon. The Portragon is coated but still seems to show some veiling flare, which adds to the overall softness. I've never seen any evidence of ghosting flare but I wouldn't want that anyway.

 

The Spiratone Portragon was discontinued several years ago but is still occasionally available on ebay. They retailed for around $100 new. I paid $15 for mine in like new condition at a pawn shop. They're hard to find, tho', so I'd guesstimate somewhere between $25-$50 would be a reasonable price for a good used one, but it should include the original metal threaded lens shade, even if you decide not to use it. It's well made, all aluminum construction with a conventional focusing ring.

 

One trick for increasing flare is to remove the coating from optical elements. Look for an inexpensive lens to practice on. T-mount lenses of all kinds tend to be relatively easy to disassemble and reassemble for access to the optics. Most cheapo T-mount presets are in 300mm to 500mm focal lengths, but if you hunt around you can find older T-mount presets in the 100mm to 135mm range, more suitable for most portraiture.

 

The best way I've found to remove optical coatings without scratching the glass is to use Flitz polish. An hour's work with cotton balls and cotton swabs will do the job.

 

Or you could keep it simple and buy a Zeiss Softar. They're kinda expensive new but reasonably priced used. If you like the older traditional Playboy mag kinda soft focus/glow effect, that's pretty much what you get with a Softar. I prefer that to the w-a-y overdone Photoshopping you see these days.

Thanks guys. I have some things to try out now :-)

Lesnbaby will do it too.

Try taking an older filter and give it a light misting of aerosol hairspray. Than use it a bit, if the effect is too much, wash the filter in hot soapy water and then give it a lighter misting.

Regarding the softars that Lex mentioned: There used to be different strength versions- I recall a set of three for a Rollei but not certain if those were "original" Zeiss Softar. I do not know if these are still available but the results were highly regarded at the time of formal BW portraits in the 50th.

I recently came across a Sima SF (looks like the one in this link, but missing all but one aperture disk): http://www.pbase.com/dang/image/72842790

 

Results are amusing. Fairly sharp in the center, but the chromatic aberration makes for interesting effects, especially at the red end.<div></div>

I have an Aroma CS (Cross Screen) filter that I used for <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/5900595">this shot</a> I definitely need more practise, but its fun to play with. It seems there are different kinds of these filters available on ebay. The rest of the flare shots in my folder are using my Canon Powershot A50. But I was able to get the same kind of diamond kind of colored flares by shooting at about a 45 degree angle from directly into the sun, with my 35mm Canon and the 28 - 135 lens. <p>

 

What's a Canon groupie doing in the Nikon forum? I am also a Lex groupie, so I followed his comment here. I love flares. </p>

I hope this puts my CS flare shot back into the discussion. Sorry, I seem to have removed my hotlinked earlier version.

<a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1221/1338666986_8a4bbaaf64.jpg">CS filter</a>

Yikes! I have groupies? Wow. Izzit okay if I have "MMM" tattoed on my chest? ;>

 

Here's a tweaked sample from the Portragon on my D2H. The Portragon has a very simple coating, some of which was damaged due to fungus, so I cleaned off most of the coating with Flitz polish. So besides being a bit more flare-prone, it's also useful for exaggerating UV light. While I'm no UV expert, Bjorn Rorslett has inspired me to experiment with stuff like enlarging lenses.<div></div>