Lens Tip – Why a scratched lens is not the end of the world
I find it fascinating that this following tip actually works. I have heard people say that scratches lenses dont particularly bother them and that the image quality doesn’t noticeably suffer depending on the type of shot they are taking.
The tip is that if you want to make a scratch “dissappear” then you need to open up your aperture to a point at which you don’t notice it any longer. In short, the lower your f-number, the bigger scratch you can hide.
I tested this in a pretty crude manner myself by holding my car key a few mm in front of my lens and then taking two shots, one at f16 and one at f4. See if you can spot the difference…
Shot at f16
and…
Shot at f4
Now the key is still visible as a darker area in the clouds, but for the purpose of proving the point I think this is a great example. Of course it will depend on the photos you are making as to whether you can use this tip; a landscape shot where you really want to maximise depth of field with a large f-number might not work, but a nice soft portrait with a small depth of field might never show any sign of a scratch.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this tip – see you all soon!
