Artistic Lenses for Your Mobile Phone

Your smartphone camera may be upgraded in many ways. In one of our previous posts we’ve told about detachable lenses for smartphones which can turn a phone into a digital camera (in terms of capabilities and image quality). This time we are going to tell you how to bring more fun to your photography with unusual attachable lenses for smartphones.
 

Holga Lenses for Lomographers

If you wish to go lo-fi, detachable Holga lenses are what you need for your mobile camera! Holga solution is a rotating disk with 9 different lenses that can be used as color filters, vignette makers, etc.

The Holga kit with a number of detachable lenses for mobile phones

Here are shots taken with one of the lenses from the Holga kit.

An out-of-focus landscape photo talen with a lens for, Holga kit Photo of a house taken with pro Canon camera and a lens from Holga kit

And while you are waiting for your kit to be shipped you can try a photo editor that produces similar effects and even better ones! Look at two photos below, edited with Pho.to Lab (a mobile app that duplicates the majority of effects from Funny.Pho.to) templates: the Vintage Card and the 60s Retro Effect. They look marvelous! Besides, the 60s Retro Effect lets you imitate paper scratches and texture of an old photo.

Photo of two dancing girls edited with a color filter Photo of a beautiful woman singing, edited with a photo template to imitate a look of an old photo of 60s

 

Dope and Sticky Jelly Lenses

Jelly lenses come with a little jelly ring that sticks to your phone over the basic lens. You can buy them one by one (they are really cheap) e.g. on Amazon. They can be also bought in kit on eBay. Here is a review of three interesting lenses from this series.
 
Jelly Spark Lenses
Jelly Spark Lenses let you imitate a specific kind of bokeh effect that changes shape of lights and makes them look like sparkling stars.

Photo of a Christmas tree taken with Jelly Spark Lenses to acquire an artistic bokeh effect

This lens shows its full potential in night street photography.

A photo of night lights taken with Jelly spark lenses to add bokeh Photo of night city lights taken with Jelly spark lenses to add bokeh effect

Speaking of bokeh, there are two bokeh templates on Funny.Pho.to, the Light Bokeh and the Christmas bokeh, which are totally different in style and design. If you don’t have the spark lenses you can use them to apply bokeh and blurred lights effects to your photos.

A photo of loving couple edited with mobile app to add bokeh effect Photo young woman taken in Christmas and edited to add festive bokeh effect

 
The Jelly Lens Antique
The Jelly Lens Antique imitates yellowish look of photos taken with old cameras.

Shot of a road taken with a lens yellow filter for mobile phone Photo of lemons taken with a Jelly lens Antique to make the shot yellow

There are several retro effects in the Pho.to Lab mobile app (available for Android and iOS). With them you can turn photos into vintage cards and imitate the same effect. They are not so yellow but we think that it’s an advantage. What’s your opinion?

A portrait photo of a girl edited with a color filter to add warm and golden tints A portrait photo of two beautiful girls edited with a color filter to add warm and golden tints

 
Jelly Soft Lenses
Jelly Soft Lenses produce a special kind of vignetting with an extreme blur effect on the edges of the frame.

Photo of color pencils with a hard white vignette applied A portrait photo of a girl with a hard dark vignette applied

 
For those who prefer a more subtle vignetting we have a suitable photo effect. The Vignetting template lets you choose between two kinds of vignette: white and dark.

A portrait photo of a girl edited to add a light dark vignette A portrait photo of a girl in flower wreath edited with mobile app to add a light white vignette

 

Color Filters for Your Lenses

Color filters for detachable lenses can help you make dreamy and colourful shots. E.g. a Dream Scope kit comes with three 37mm pro glass gradient filters which can be attached to any smartphone, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices.
 

Detachable color filters for smartphone lenses

 
Shooting with color filters, you add multi-hued tints, awesome color patterns or a lens flare effect to your photos. Besides, it’s interesting to see the way the surroundings change on the display of your phone. You can buy the whole kit for $30.

Landscape and cityscape photos taken in lo-fi style

 
For those who prefer to edit photos with mobile apps, we can recommend that you check the Stylized Effects category of Pho.to Lab. There are lots of awesome effects, e.g. the new Lilac Haze filter can add a cold tint and fumose effect to your photos, while the Soft Lilac effect turns your photo into a dreamy and romantic image with gentle colors.

A photo of 4 people dancing in water on a beach, edited with a color filter A photo of roller coaster edited with a color filter to accentuate its atmospheric mood

 
No lens can do what the Rainbow Sketch photo effect does, turning a photo into a romantic sketch with pastel coloring. The Dramatic Bronze is another interesting effect that changes colors and adds a slight vignette simultaneously.

A landscape photo edited to turn it into a dreamy sketch A landscape edited to add slight fumose and stylized colors

 
That’s it for today. Take great photos and enjoy marvelous post-processing and photo editing!

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