Now, this is an interesting and conflicting video for me. I have written about Lens Baby a handful of times with the general message being that I don't "get" them. They have a cult following and while I understand the allure, I've always been left cold by the results. Well, in this video, Vuhlandes — likely my favorite photography and videography YouTuber — uses one in his work and speaks of the benefits.
Vuhlandes is one of those irritating people who can make anything look aesthetic — it's a real talent. So, naturally, he manages it with this Lens Baby Sweet 35, and many of the shots are superb. Nevertheless, I'm not not sold. I love dreamy lenses and I enjoy dominating bokeh and blur, but with lens baby, I find it goes too far. The best shots in this video are the ones where it's stopped down slightly or there's some distance between the subject and the sensor, and in those cases, a fast, vintage lens would work just as well, if not better.
What do you make of Lens Baby? Has Vuhlandes swayed you, or are you not convinced?
Easier to just put a piece of glass in front of the lens and smear on Vaseline in varying amounts away from the center…
Well, the lensbaby allows you to adjust the point of sharpness via tilting in any direction, you simply don't get that with Vaseline. The sharpness falloff also depends on the tilting, something you simply can't reproduce your way. It's different.
I've got two, just can't seem to get any satisfying results out of them, so they have been sitting in my cabinet for about five years now. But the author makes a good point about how you can get some nice "dreamy" photos with fast vintage lenses, and having a much easier time of it. And with many of those you can stop them down and usually focus at or near infinity, if the need arises.