Still Life - Two Versions

Today I am sharing a still life image that I have photographed and processed two ways.  The setup is the same in both.

One challenge in the 2 Lil Owls Still Life Stories class is to shoot your still life image with different lenses.  I worked with my macro lens, my 50mm lens, lens baby lenses and my 28-300 lens, but I also played around with a Holga lens that I have for my DSLR.  These lenses are inexpensive and produce images similar to the old toy Holga camera.  These cameras and lenses, I have learned, are gaining in popularity among serious photographers.  

I love the look that they give, the image is soft, and there is some serious vignetting with this lens, but it also allows you to direct what part of your image you want the light to be on…..there is alot of trial and error since it is difficult to see clearly through the viewfinder.  If you want to learn more about the Holga lens check it out at B&H - that is where I purchased mine and I am not sure but I believe it was around the $20.00 mark.

I also shot this setup with my 28-300 lens which gave me a crisp sharp image.

Usually when I process my still life images I add textures and painting filters to give them a Dutch Master Painting feeling.

In the first image I used my 28-300 lens, I then processed the image using a lightroom preset from 2 Lil Owls (Still Stories preset 21).  I then took the image into Photoshop and applied a Topaz Impression painting filter (Cezanne II) at about 30 percent and added a texture on top of that.

In the second image I used the Holga lens.  I applied the same Lightroom settings and preset.  But when I took the image into Photoshop I only applied the texture.

For those curious enough to want to know about the texture it is one I shot myself of an old cookie sheet I have - more on Textures in another blog post (I promise)….

As you can see I was able to achieve two very different but similar looks.  I have to say that I am quite taken with the Holga version.  I love the softness of the image and the darker vignetting.  

So, if you are looking to give your images a different feel or just want to play around with a new “toy” (pun intended), look into the Holga lens.  When I purchased this lens it was really just a lark, but I now find that I am grabbing it when shooting still life and beginning to really love the look I am getting with it.