Simple Lens Hack Creates ‘Bokeh Explosion’ Night Portraits

Photo lens experimenter and prolific YouTube filmmaker Mathieu Stern is at it again. This time, he took one of his old, cheap (do we even have to mention that?) Russian lenses and made one small modification to create what he calls a ‘bokeh explosion.’

The process involves just one step: take out the front element and reverse it. And, voilà! You have a lens that is only sharp in the very center. As you move away from the center, the image will blur and elongate towards the periphery, creating a really interesting effect.

If you shoot something with bokeh circles in it, they will ‘explode’ into a medley of oblong shapes that point towards your subject.

The result looks something like this:

Check out the full experiment and demonstration in the video up top, and if you like what you see, check out some of Mathieu’s other quirky experiments and weird lens reviews on his website or by subscribing to his channel on YouTube.

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