I was in receipt of a a new Lensbaby Velvet 56mm, my new favourite lens, and i wanted to test it out. Its not the kind of lens that i can use in my pro work.

Lensbaby Velvet 56 is Great:

• Awesome softness to the blur around the edges on anything between f2.8-f5.6
• Straight up CRAZY blur at anything under f2.8
• Durable and sturdy manufacture, all metal and glass.
• Rich tonality and great contrast in the mid-tones.
• Bokeh for DAYS.

Lensbaby Velvet 56 is Problematic:

• Manual Focus rules it out of most projects
• The heavy blur is a niche look
• Realtime aperture effect makes shooting with flash difficult… and dark
• The focus can be a bit …iffy – which is likely to be human error not the lens, it only takes for the model (or me) to move a tiny bit and the focus is out.

Anyway, here’s one of my faves from the shoot.

Model: Emma Brackenbury

Costume Design: Emma Brackenbury

Hair and Make up: Bianca Priestly

Shot in the north of the Peak district, because we were to lazy to travel all the way up to the Yorkshire Moors.

Background slightly underexposed and then the model lifted using a Godox AD600Pro with a soft box globe modifier.