Make it Quick and Dirty (Tilt/Shift Lens->LensBaby)
This design transformation takes something complex, something with a lot of precision parameters that need to be adjusted and makes it into a simple design with imprecise controls that is more fun to use.
Let’s start with view cameras.
These things offer the utmost in photographer flexibility. Besides being able to adjust the aperture and shutter speed, the photographer can move the film around with respect to the lens, focusing and distorting the photo in ways not possible with normal cameras. Doing this is very intuitive: photographers simply move the “film” around and can see immediately the effect of the movements in the huge viewfinder.
Although view cameras are intuitive, they are heavy, bulky, and expensive. Along comes the 35mm camera. Due to its design, you can’t move the film around, so they created movable lenses (tilt-shift lenses) instead. These are commonly used to make big things look miniature (see an example).
Because these 35 mm cameras have a much smaller viewfinder (making is harder to judge focus) and are designed to be handheld, they had to add fiddly little knobs to these tilt-shift lenses be able to adjust each degree of movement freedom precisely and independently. This is far less intuitive than moving the film plane around wholesale as with view cameras but has the same end result.
To tilt-shift lenses, we’re going to apply the transformation and the result is…LensBabies!
Basically, these are lenses that you can move around wholesale just like in view cameras in the package the size of a tilt-shift lens. But of course, something had to be compromised and that was precision. Since your hand is holding the flexible lens and you’re looking through a small viewfinder, it’s much harder to get what you want in focus. But that doesn’t really matter, because the LensBaby is made to create wildly distorted images:
Lensbabies are fun, quick, and intuitive to use. It’s a quick and dirty tilt-shift lens. (Or so I hear, I’ve never used one. Actually I’ve never used a view camera or a tilt-shift lens either). But I think I’ve still been educational in this blog entry…
So…what complex and precise things can you make quick and dirty, but fun and intuitive?
Comments
I thought tilt-shift lenses were commonly used to correct for distortion in architectural photography?
I’ve always been fascinated by how the tilt-shift effect causes things to look miniature. The effect is not at all like what our eye sees, but it’s what a photograph of a miniature would look like. Would we still be tricked even if we’d never seen a photograph before?
-Patrick Dubroy | 4 March 2008, 1:11 am
You’re right, they’re also used to correct for perspective in architectural photography.
I think photographs of miniatures are pretty much what the eye sees. From trying this out myself, the depth of field of my eye isn’t that much close up. Also, your fovea is concentrated on what you’re looking at, and it’s hard to look closely at things your fovea isn’t fixed upon. The blur has a similar effect: your eyes are drawn into the areas that are sharp.
-gerrychu | 6 March 2008, 8:10 pm
Design transformations
Design transformations are ways of changing knowns such as existing products and user data into new designs. See my first post for more details.
Careers
I'm looking for a job! See my portfolio and contact me.
Contact
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Oct | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | ||
Archive
- October 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (1)
- April 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (3)
- February 2008 (3)
Categories
- Bad design (1)
- Design transformations (5)
- Uncategorized (3)
Post a comment