Category: #woodland

Trying enlarger lenses in the woods

Following on from my previous posts on using vintage enlarger lenses in the garden, I thought I would try them out ‘in the field’ or, more precisely, woods and should show a lo-fi Lomography effect. These were taken as the autumn colours are just starting to show.

The first lens I tried was the Paterson 50mm f3.5 lens at Downs Bank. This is a small National Trust woodland (no country house or estate!):

This view of a path into the woods shows the Lomography effect but lacks detail in the centre

The following image of the horse rider would have made a nice photo with a decent lens and zooming in a bit. This photo wasn’t set up – it was pure luck (or serendipity) that the horse rider rode through at that point when the sun shone through the clouds:

Horse rider in the sun at the edge of the woods. This does show the Lomography effect but, as before, lacks detail in the centre
A view of the stream through the woods. Again the Lomography effect with poor resolution at the centre

I need to try again with this lens stopped down but this is difficult as the lens is mounted inside the bellows…

The next lens I tried was a vintage (probably 1930s-40s) 3.25inch Wray enlarger lens. This I tried in the woods at Cannock Chase:

Cannock Chase: Bracken on a hillside in the woods back illuminated by the sun. I was hoping for better ‘Bokeh’
Cannock Chase: A different part of the woods showing bracken on a hillside in the woods. Again, I was hoping for better ‘Bokeh’
Cannock Chase: Another part of the woods showing bracken on a hillside in the woods. Again, This still doesn’t show the better ‘Bokeh’

This lens, for the most part, was no different to most reasonable quality lenses. The Bokeh I was hoping for didn’t show. The only difference to my normal lenses was the tonality – I do like the colours this lens gives. I may take the lens again on a woodland walk…

More trials are needed!