Experimental Photography

This project is comprised of many different photography techniques. I experimented with lens, a lack of lens, a kaleidoscope, bokeh and water.

SERIES 1 : KALEIDOSCOPE
For this series of photographs, I used a toy kaleidoscope that I held up to my lens to create a pattern effect. In some of the pictures, I didn't use a lens at all. Instead, I used a piece of cardboard with a pinhole.

SERIES 2 : CARDBOARD LENS
Here I used a piece of cardboard instead of a lens. The cardboard had a small pinhole in the middle to let light through. The pictures came out far more blurred than usual, as the hole would have to be almost perfectly round for a sharp image to come out. This proves that you don't even need a lens to take pictures with a DSLR camera.

SERIES 3 : WATER DROPLETS
In these photographs, I focused the camera on a water droplet so as to blur the background behind it. The water was on a pane of glass with the subject underneath it. I shot M&Ms, toothpicks and miniature crayons.

SERIES 4 : BOKEH
Bokeh is a technique where due to the subject being in focus, the background is blurred, with any light sources taking on the lens' shape. I found that the key to attaining the result I wanted had a lot to do with the distance between the foreground and background, with the two having to farther apart for the effect to work.

My favourite technique was bokeh, as it is the most versatile. It produces both good-looking and interesting pictures, with the subject in the spotlight. It is a great technique to use when taking portraits or cityscapes, especially in the nighttime.