Lens-Building and Optical Effects
Lens-Building and Optical Effects
Instructor: Alan Greene
If the price of lenses has prohibited you from working in large-format photography then this exciting 2-day hands-on workshop is for you! Alan Greene, the author of the highly acclaimed technical manual Primitive Photography, will teach you the essentials of photographic optics the best and easiest way: by building your own view-camera lenses and making pictures with them!
We’ll begin with a brief discussion and demonstration of self-made optics. Then we’ll explore how one can either eliminate or use optical aberrations and distortions to create desired effects including: soft-focus, depth-of-field control (including ‘bokeh’), and rectilinear correction. Each participant will then make the following lens systems: single-element “landscape,” symmetrical-duplet, and telephoto. These lenses will be created using inexpensive and readily available materials such as optical surplus lens elements, paper, plastic tubing, and foam-core.
After construction we’ll take our newly made lenses into the field to make exposures. Here the unique characteristics of each lens will be revealed. We’ll also discuss and consider how experimental apertures and found objects can be used to create more unusual images, as well as pertinent examples drawn from the early, pictorialist, and contemporary eras of photography.
NOTE: This workshop requires that each participant bring their own view-camera, tripod, and film-holders.
Class is limited to ten participants.
Location: Pittsburgh Filmmakers
Date: May 30 & 31, 2009 (Saturday & Sunday)
Time: 9:00am to 5:00pm (with break for lunch)
Cost: $350 ($50 materials fee payable directly to the instructor)
*Image by Alan Greene and was made using one of his self-made lenses
