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shooting with anamorphic lens dslr camera tutorial

ever heard of an anamorphic lens? if you’re a movie fan then you may have, but if not you’ve certainly seen them used in many films made for the big screen.

note: i bought my lens from vid-atlantic.com

using anamorphic lenses on dslr

back in the day when film makers were itching for wider and wider FOV (field of view) for their movies, it got to a point where they wanted to get so wide that the 35mm film and spherical lenses they were shooting with couldn’t hold all the horizontal imagery they wanted without cropping the image. the solution? literally squish the image horizontally using a special lens so it could take up more vertical space, fitting a wider image on the finite area available to them on 35mm film. they could then un-squish the footage in post using a lens with the exact opposite amount of squeeze, returning the proportions to normal. the resulting effect is a panoramic aspect ratio that has the DOF (depth of field) of a longer telephoto but with a wider FOV.

 

here’s an example of the original image as it looked in my camera view finder. it was made with the sigma 85 1.4 with the 1.9x anamorphic lens in front of it

 

squished anamorphic portrait
i then un-squish the image so her proportions return to normal and the result is a beautiful cinematic, bokehlicous, pin sharp still image.
in fact, what you’re seeing is the fog of a ~47mm with the depth of field of an 85mm at f/1.4

 

unsquished anamorphic portrait

 

this is all one single actuation. all i’m doing is mounting a 1.9X squeeze anamorphic lens in front of my normal camera lens to create the beautifully wide and shallow image. you can find anamorphic lenses that don’t have that extreme of a squeeze. the range varies a lot and here you can find a 1.3X or 1.5X but i prefer the 1.9X squeeze because it creates a more cinematic and narrow aspect ratio.

 

to show in a bit more detail exactly what is happening here i’m going to show a series of photos to better explain
here is a portrait with a normal 85 1.4 lens.

 

portrait of nessa k

 

and here is a different photo with the anamorphic in front of the 85. i’m the exact same distance away from her and the only thing i’ve changed is putting the anamorphic lens in front of the 85 1.4

 

unsquished anamorphic still image

 

and here is the same image after it’s been un-squished

 

creative technique using anamorphic lenses for still portrait

 

and here is a different image using just the 85 1.4 with no anamorphic lens from another 5 feet back, in an attempt to get the same field of view.

 

10 39 58

 

it should be pretty obvious that not only is the bokeh less pronounced, but i didn’t get nearly the same width in the FOV.
here is a video with a little more explanation about how the anamorphic lens mounts on top of the 85 1.4

 

now, this probably looks easier than it is.  it’s not the simplest tool to use. you first have to focus your regular dslr camera prime lens and THEN focus your anamoprhic lens to the same distance before or after mounting it in front of your regular lens. this takes a bit of time – even after a lot of practice. it’s proven helpful for me to do this well into a session; after 30 or 40 mins clients are already comfortable and trust i know what i’m doing even though i’m throwing a weird gold lens on top of my camera and fiddling with weird knobs to take an extra 30 seconds, haha.

 

the biggest caveat that i’ve found when doing this technique is the focusing. it’s kind of a pain and it’s why i’ve pretty much relied on center weighted compositions when doing them. it’s just easier to get pin sharp focus in the dead center of the frame, and with such a wide panoramic aspect ratio it’s easier to balance the compositions with a centered subject.

 

there are loads of other considrations when using anamorphic lenses and, just like with any regualr SLR lens, the quailty, look, and useability varies greatly, but this lens has proven to work fantastically for me even after a few drops.

 

see the recent star trek movies? the flare might have been a little much in those, but many of them are real and in camera and achieved using anamorphic lenses.

 

anamorphic lens portrait with flare
the original un-squished image SOOC
un squished anamorphic lens
and the same distance without the anamorphic.
normal 85 portrait
and just a quick video to demonstrate the flare in motion

now, why haven’t anamorphic lenses ever been used in still photography? i’m not too sure! probably because it would be difficult to print the images, but these days it’s (sadly) not as important to shoot in traditional print aspects ratios as most clients keep their images digital. it just so happens that the anamorphic lens i use creates an aspect ration that’s wonderful for cover photos on Facebook. shooting still images through anamorphic lenses makes more sense right now compared to video because you get to utilize more of the vertical data shooting a full 2×3 frame vs a 16×9 crop most cameras force you to record video with. having more of that vertical data means the resulting panoramic image isn’t too panoramic. if i made these same images using the anamorphic lens plus shooting in 16×9 mode on my slr, then it would result in an extremely panoramic image that wouldn’t be acceptable.

 

i’m sure that as more videographers move toward using dlsr bodies, lens makers will release anamoprhic lenses that are easier to work with, but for now, do some research and see what’s out there.

 

hopefully by now you realize creating images with this look is not possible by nearly cropping a frame in the same way, or even by zooming out wider or taking steps back to get a wider FOV. here are some more examples that i’ve made over the past 4 or 5 months. i’ve found that client’s get really inquisitive about what i’m doing when i pull out the gold covered anamorphic lens and they feel like i’m making the extra effort to make images that are thoughtful, artful, and unique for them.

 

anamorphic example still portrait
portrait of a bride anamoprhic
epic anamorphic portrait of dylan
panoramic photo of italian woman
tutorial on shooting with anamorphic lenses
anamorphic portrait of groom
// by sam hurd anamorphic lens dslr

Leave a Comment

29 Comments
  • Awesome! I’m certainly going to give this a go and see what happens. Love the tips and love your work Sam! Thanks!

  • Laura

    Love the effect. It really does make a big difference in the feel of the portrait.

  • Beautiful! Thanks for {always} sharing!

  • Amazing Sam! I love that you keep exploring different techniques. It’s really encouraging 🙂

  • Pardon my ignorance but how do you unsquish the image?

  • Love this lens, thanks for sharing..!!!

  • Impresionante!! Siempre quizé saber como se lograba en el cine ese aspecto tan curioso y hermoso, además como era posible que los cineastas tengan imagenes tan amplias en interiores sin tener las molestas curvaturas propias de los lentes gran angulares.

    Sam, es usted un maestro.

    From Perú.

  • ¿Cómo descomprime la imágen?

  • Very interesting, Will try that.
    Thank you for sharing.
    Arek

  • […] discovered this new tutorial on Sam’s blog and thought you might also want to learn how he went about this cool technique. […]

  • […] About the author: Sam Hurd is a portrait and wedding photographer based in Washington DC. Visit his website here. This post was originally published here. […]

  • […] About the author: Sam Hurd is a portrait and wedding photographer based in Washington DC. Visit his website here. This post was originally published here. […]

  • […] About the author: Sam Hurd is a portrait and wedding photographer based in Washington DC. Visit his website here. This post was originally published here. […]

  • […] Sam Hurd is a Washingtong DC Wedding Photographer Original Article: Here […]

  • Thanks for sharing. Looks like they are out of those lenses! Awesome work

  • […] Shooting With an Anamorphic Lens on a DSLR Camera […]

  • Sam I really love this! I’m drawn to the cinema-esque style of images, the compression of the fov is epic. Thank you for sharing!

  • versatile

    The anamorphic portrait of Dylan – where was it shot? Reminds me of Riga!

  • […] wedding photographer Sam Hurd wrote an excellent post on his blog describing how he uses an anamorphic lens. The post was later picked up by […]

  • fantastic, I love it! 🙂

  • acai berry

    shooting with anamorphic lens dslr camera tutorial for creative techniques

  • Hi Sam,

    love the technique, I was wondering what / how you post process the images to desqueeze them as it were?

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  • very interesting Thank You

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  • Sean Sheridan

    How does this compare to using a 3-shot Brenizer? Is it worth going anamorphic if you can get nearly the same look with a Brenizer?

  • don macdonald

    Great stuff! Could you explain the process of dual focussing? Do use a tripod when working? I want to shoot handheld with a Leica SL2, Zeiss 85 1.4 and ISCO anamorphic. Will this be feasible on street?