Shooting without a lens...

DavidBeier

DavidBeier

Veteran
I'm working on some abstract techniques in a new film and I always thought the blurred haze of colors was interesting that one sees when one is looking through the eye piece of a DSLR without a lens attached. I'm interested in somehow capturing this in motion and was wondering what would happened if I tried to record video without a lens on. Would I risk destroying the sensor?
 
When you go in to live view, the mirror comes up and the sensor is exposed. So its vulnerable to dust particles if you film without a lens. Although that can be remedied with a clean/service. I've done it briefly before but i personally wouldn't film for long periods of time without a lens.

What could be an idea though, its taking one of those plastic caps that protects the camera when its lensless, and cut a hole in it and put a thin piece of glass/plastic over it. that way you'd be protected from the dust/whatever else, and would be able to get decent lensless footage?
 
There's a piece of glass in front of the sensor, this is the glass we clean when we do a sensor cleaning.

You can always just use a piece of plastic food wrap to keep the dust out. There should be no visible effect on image quality.
 
You may want to use some form of lens, aka shaped glass or plastic, but not something that will actually focus a definable image, just something to allow you to get more complex with colors you mix in from of the sensor.

This no lens or simple single lens element technique may be a good way to simulate film burns.
 

I shot this early last year while I was prepping one of the 1DmkIVs that we used on "127 Hours". No lens, just me waving my fingers in front of the bare sensor. I always meant to shoot more like this, but I've been too busy shooting with lenses to experiment further.
 
I could write a AfterEffects script for that, so you don´t even need a camera.

Random moving stripes with random colors - what is it good for?
Frank
 
Postmaster said:
I could write a AfterEffects script for that, so you don´t even need a camera.

Random moving stripes with random colors - what is it good for?
Frank
Click to expand...

....it is good for the satisfaction of lo-fi enthusiasts. Haha, postmaster, you make a good point. Although, there is potentially an organic element that may be achieved doing it the lo-fi way. Hopefully the OP will post a sample of what they had in mind.
 
I've done a lot of "film burn" plates with a T2i, a flashlight (not LED, old school bulb) and no lens.

I've done some really cool shots just holding a sawed-off Holga lens in front of the lens mount and catching crazy flares & glares that frame the talent. Really beautiful look.

And man - all of the "I can photoshop that", "I can do it in AE"... sometimes there's so much more surprise and organic beauty in doing these things "fo real". Try taking a really crappy video wide or tele adapter lens, a black card with a hole in it, and shooting your own lens flares (with the sun or a light). Much prettier than an average flare plugin. There's gorgeous stuff that happens with real light - next time you're having cocktails on the deck, look at what the sun does to the tablecloth, coming through your glass. Shooting stuff like that with extreme macro is cool as hell.

I got so much still work from having a no-photoshop portfolio of double and triple exposed product shots. There are shapes to the shadows and highlights that have so much more randomness than a photoshop filter. You make the light and physics your partner thinking like this, vs. making a filter plugin your slave. Slaves are good sometimes, but a partner that serves up amazing jumping-off points? Dynamite.

movado.jpg watch1.jpg
 
The organic vs. digital thing is a huge issue with me; I really recommend you think of it as a creative tool.

Shoot your own smoke plates vs. particles:
smoke copy.jpg

Crap-quality wide lens flare, composited:
cosmic-joke-vimeo copy.jpg

Kit-lens flare, comped over killer Nikon glass footage:
flar.jpg

Holga lens held over lens mount (music video - client's favorite shot)
holg.jpg

Organic film-burn, composited:
burn copy.jpg

Come on, is that a lens flare or what???
superwide-BURST.jpg
 
I prefer to have control over things, but I can understand ( and sometimes appreciate) that organic surprise attempt.

Frank
 
It's one of the few things that really make me feel like a little kid again, or the first time you used a darkroom "wow this is magic" feeling.

I need some sparkly backgrounds next week for a series of cosmetic trade show videos; I'm thinking a couple lights and some sheets of the metallic-sparkle-sequined fabric, shot macro and out of focus, just sort of tickle or fan the stuff. Every time I start on a shot like that, I end up with stuff I never imagined.
 
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