[GerbenG]

In my opinion every photographer should have some great tricks in his arsenal. Simple fast things to boost up a portrait or give a picture some extra flare. Anyway; always good to experiment; especially if it's with cheap household products! 
I came across this video:  ( the vaseline trick I would only do on a very cheap filter!!) 

I got my own few tricks up my sleeve. One of them is that I've shot a few portraits with 4 TL-lamps, looks great in the eyes in my opinion! (and because of the warm color-temperature you can make the white in the back blue if you correct it right). Check out some pics here:




Do you have any simple but cool tricks to share? I would love to hear them!

[GrahamS]

The vaseline smeared on a filter is a very old trick that I first used back when God was a boy. There are many other materials that can be positioned in front of the lens, such as lace, splattered paint, nylon mesh, crayon. The smaller the aperture, the more defined the effect. I personally don't like eye-highlights that reflect an object in front of the subject - these shown here have a ghoulish effect. However, eye highlights are essential to a good portrait as without them the image is dead. You might try creating your own "light stops" by precisely drilling a number of concentric holes in a black disk to place in front of your lens. A medium focal length fast prime works best. Drill holes around the circumference and one in the middle. The diameter of the middle hole will have the greatest effect on DOF and softening. Zeiss used to make a portrait lens for plate cameras that was supplied with a set of these stops in various types.

[GerbenG]

The vaseline smeared on a filter is a very old trick that I first used back when God was a boy.  There are many other materials that can be positioned in front of the lens, such as lace, splattered paint, nylon mesh, crayon.  The smaller the aperture, the more defined the effect.  I personally don't like eye-highlights that reflect an object in front of the subject - these shown here have a ghoulish effect.  However, eye highlights are essential to a good portrait as without them the image is dead.  You might try creating your own "light stops" by precisely drilling a number of concentric holes in a black disk to place in front of your lens.  A medium focal length fast  prime works best.  Drill holes around the circumference and one in the middle.  The diameter of the middle hole will have the greatest effect on DOF and softening.  Zeiss used to make a portrait lens for plate cameras that was supplied with a set of these stops in various types.

Is it easy to clean the vaseline off? i can imagine it takes some time to get the fat off..  
The drilling holes sounds like a great idea! Have you tried to drill the holes and if so ; do you have any examples?

[GrahamS]

To clean the Vaseline off of the filter glass, simply remove the glass from the filter ring (if necessary - use an old UV filter and it's not necessary) and immerse in isopropyl alcohol. Swab with a lens tissue. Any MF examples that I may have will be amongst my MF archive which is not easily accessible now as it has not been digitized. Here are some examples of the Zeiss Imagon lens and a 35mm derivative of mine. The portrait was taken with a Zeiss Planar lens in Arri mount adapted to Nikon F - not with a Imagon.

[GerbenG]

To clean the Vaseline off of the filter glass, simply remove the glass from the filter ring (if necessary - use an old UV filter and it's not necessary) and immerse in isopropyl alcohol.  Swab with a lens tissue.  Any MF examples that I may have will be amongst my MF archive which is not easily accessible now as it has not been digitized.  Here are some examples of the Zeiss Imagon lens and a 35mm derivative of mine.  The portrait was taken with a Zeiss Planar lens in Arri mount adapted to Nikon F - not with a Imagon.

Wow that looks great! I need to get me a few of those, looks great to experiment with. Another thing for on the wishlist!

[Casey1721]

So simple, yet so effective. Some very interesting answers from you fellow photographers. I’ll borrow several of these ideas if you all don’t mind. Thanks for sharing.
I love what you do! You will definitely like this https://www.techicy.com/top-15-clipping-...vices.html

[jogesh12345]

In my opinion every photographer should have some great tricks in his arsenal. Simple fast things to boost up a portrait or give a picture some extra flare. Anyway; always good to experiment; especially if it's with cheap household products! 
I came across this video:  ( the vaseline trick I would only do on a very cheap filter!!) 

I got my own few tricks up my sleeve. One of them is that I've shot a few portraits with 4 TL-lamps, looks great in the eyes in my opinion! (and because of the warm color-temperature you can make the white in the back blue if you correct it right). Check out some pics here:




Do you have any simple but cool tricks to share? I would love to hear them!

Great photography tricks to follow. Helpful resources for a beginner who wants to be a professional Photographer.