New toy: Some test shots with the Lensbaby Spark

As I mentioned in my previous post, after pressing my nose up against the Lensbaby candy store window, I decided to take a small bite of the system with the LensBaby Spark.

It's the least expensive of the line ... in fact, the site calls it a "the perfect Lensbaby for young photo enthusiasts." And since I am secretly a nine-year-old (sometimes a little older, sometimes a little younger, depending) it seemed like a good fit.

Still Life With Toes

I took some test shots with the Spark and with my 50 mm f/1.8 lens. Unfortunately, the comparison isn't quite fair in these two sets of image because I didn't use the same in-camera settings. And for the 50 mm shots I changed the lighting a bit, as well. 

An aside: One of my goals is to learn how to batch edit in Photoshop so that the pictures are consistent--as opposed to editing levels on each photo individually, which makes it difficult to get consistent results, as you'll see below. It's especially noticeable in the second pair of images. 

Left: Lensbaby Spark
f/5.6 (fixed)
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/30th second
Levels adjusted in Photoshop

Right: 50 mm
f/1.8 (I should have used a larger aperture for a fair comparison)
ISO 640
Shutter speed 1/250th second (and a slower shutter speed)
Levels adjusted in Photoshop



Left: Lensbaby Spark

f/5.6 (fixed)
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/30th second
Levels adjusted (poorly) in Photoshop


Right: 50 mm
f/1.8
ISO 640
Shutter speed 1/400th second
Levels adjusted (poorly) in Photoshop

I tried more test shots this morning using comparable settings and lighting conditions on photos taken with both lenses; will post those here and on my Flickr page soon.

How to batch edit in PhotoShop
How to save actions in PhotoShop Elements