Homemade Center Spot Filter

Center Spot Filter is a filter that helps you create an extraordinary effect on your photos, namely Center Spot Filter leaves the central area of ​​the image untouched, and the edges of the frame make it more soft and blurry. The filter is very useful for creating portraits.

Homemade Center Spot Filter

Homemade Center Spot Filter

I tried to make such a filter myself, for this I used a regular film. Since I should have shoot outdoors in winter, I decided to make not just a Center Spot filter, but Cold Center Spot Filter, but because he took the blue film, which gives cold shade on photos. The filter is called 'Center Spot' because 'Central PointThe lens usually does not distort the image that the lens gives.

Homemade Center Spot Filter

Normal left protective filter 67mm diameter, on the right is a circle cut out of film.

I just cut out a circle in the center of the film, and then cut out the very inside with the circle, I made the radius of the outer circle equal to the diameter of the lens filter on which I planned to use this Center Spot filter.

Homemade Center Spot Filter

Homemade Center Spot Filter on Tamron 17-55 F2.8 Lens

Then I put the cut piece of film on the lens of the lens and fixed the film with protective filter as shown in the photo above.

Features of such a device:

  1. The center of the photo remains sharp as it would be without using the Center Spot filter. The narrower the diameter of the transparent hole of the Center Spot filter, the larger the blur area will be in the photo. I used the Center Spot filter's clear hole diameter about 3 times smaller than the lens filter diameter.
  2. The softest effect is only available when photographing on open apertures. The stronger the aperture is closed, the more noticeable transition from film to an empty central area.
  3. White balance when working with mine Cold center spot the filter constantly made the central region of the image warmer, thus creating a good contrast of the central and lateral parts of the frame.
  4. Normal focusing is only available with center focus points.
  5. The cost of such a filter is minimal, but the effect is very strong.
  6. Instead of a film, you can use gauze, transparent fabric, even a regular plastic bag. If not protective filter to fix the spot filter, you can stick it with tape. Previously, this effect was made even easier - by smearing the edge of the front lens of the objective with ordinary Vaseline.

Sample photos:

All shot with a lens Tamron AF 17-50mm f / 2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Nikon using the Spot Filter shown in the photo in this article. For the test I used a camera Nikon D80:

Personal experience

Spot filter is a very interesting toy, with its help you can get very unusual photographs that give off vintage and mysteriousness. With the help of such a Spot filter, you can get something mysterious from the simplest lens, and the picture itself becomes like a picture from extraordinary lenses, for example, such as Helios-40-2... I also recommend my entry about 'homemade bokeh'.

Conclusions:

With the homemade Spot filter, you can easily get a soft picture in the photo, the filter can be used for portraits or any other artistic intent.

↓↓↓ Like the idea :) ↓↓↓ Thank you for your attention. Arkady Shapoval.

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Comments: 58, on the topic: Home-made Center Spot filter

  • Ksenia

    Smart inventions, thank you very much. But is it possible to make the same filters only for photo contrast, well, like the sky is brighter, the river is deeper, or only expensive professional ones? Thanks.

    • Yarkiya

      Such a filter is called polarizing. Signature dear, Chinese penny.

      • Ksenia

        Thank you very much)))

  • Jury

    I am trying to use macro lenses with a hole in the middle. But! I can’t find the optimal hole diameter and reasonable diopters. On a zoom lens at a wide angle, large diopters (+4) seem to blur normally beautifully, they are very soapy at a long focus. How to drill a glass I will share, but how to choose the diameter of the hole and diopter? I think in the USSR Soviet photo were articles on this topic.

  • Jury

    Here I came to this conclusion. diopters need less the larger the focus of the lens and the smaller aperture. I drilled 25mm and there is no effect at the focus of 200mm, only a terrible loss of contrast. That would be a hole of about 10mm ???? After all, the angle of view of the "long" is small.

    • Eugene

      There is such a factory option. 52 mm, +1 lens, about 14 mm hole

      • Jury

        Thanks for the answer. And how to understand “there is such an option” I can buy just under the M52, I'm tired of drilling glass * it's not a simple matter).

  • anonym

    ;)

  • Andrei

    Even in film photography I used ordinary petroleum jelly. You smear around the edges and depending on how much you smeared, such a moire will be. And if you smear it on a soft filter, then generally a song! You just need to screw the UV filter so that the lens is not smeared. They removed the bottle through the colored broken glass, cut out the bottom of the bottle, as soon as they did not get rid of ...

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