Product concept
A lens filter that accentuates the main subject with a swirling blur that envelops it. It can produce rainbow-colored rings and ghosts depending on the way light is captured. Enjoy creative photography and videography with fantastic images that differ greatly from the world seen by the naked eye. Designed for creative photography and videography.
Swirling bokeh draws the eye to the main subject
The swirling blur that envelops the subject leads the eye and makes it stand out. The center of the image is sharp, and the subject in the center is blurred in a swirling pattern around it.
Comparing the photos taken with and without the filter, the peripheral rendering changes so dramatically that it is hard to believe that the photos were taken at the same location. The impression of the effect will vary depending on the subject and camera settings.
The way the swirls appear depends on the focal length of the lens, the aperture, and the shooting position. The shorter the focal length of the lens, the larger the area of spiral blur.
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Blurring out unwanted objects
It is also useful when you want to blur artificial objects or other extraneous objects. Instead of blurring monotonously, you can creatively blur the image by taking advantage of the mysterious swirling effect unique to the RAINBOW HALO. If you do not want the swirl effect to be too strong, use a telephoto lens with a wide aperture.
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Add colors with rainbow rings and ghosts
Kenko RAINBOW HALO can produce rainbow-colored rings or ghosts depending on the way the light is captured. To produce beautiful rainbow colors, shoot outdoors on a clear day and include a point light source in the center of the image, sunlight reflected off glass, metal, or water, or small whitish glowing objects such as sunlight filtering through trees. The smaller the light source, the thinner and more beautiful the rainbow-colored ring will be. If the light source has a large area, the ring of light will be thicker. In this case, you can make a thin ring by hiding the light source slightly with the subject.
When the filter is illuminated from an angle by strong light such as the sun, streetlights, or smartphone lights, iridescent ghosts (arcs or lines) appear in color. The combination of aperture and focal length also affects how long the lines would appear.
Tips and precautions
- The shorter the focal length of the lens, the larger the area of swirling blur.
- Not all scenes will produce rainbow colors.
- Please switch to MF when the lens is not in focus in AF mode.
- When shooting against the light flashy ghosting or loss of contrast can occur.
- Depending on the lens used and the subject, the image may appear blurred when the aperture is wide open.
- In this case, please stop down the aperture a little.
- To bring out the swirling colors beautifully, we recommend adjusting brightness, shadows, highlights, saturation, etc. using image editing software after shooting if desired.
- When shooting night scenes, please be aware of the flickering. LEDs blink at a high speed, so if the shutter speed is too fast, the image will appear striped with bright and dark areas (flicker phenomenon). Therefore, when using rainbow halo, the swirls may appear unnatural.
- It is recommended to apply a square format to match the shape of the swirls.
- Use Kenko "Step Up Ring" for lenses with a diameter smaller than 82mm.
- When using a lens with a smaller filter diameter, the area of the peripheral spiral effect may be reduced.
