Sunday, January 23, 2011

{flashy} Reverse Lens Macro

Reverse lens macro is a technique I heard of quite some time ago but never bothered to try. Perhaps because I own a macro lens I didn't think it was necessary, or because I simply didn't want to make the time for something new. Actually, its probably a little bit of both. However, it is a great budget friendly way to dabble in macro photography. I'd say it even borders on being micro photography.

The basic idea is this: take your lens off your camera, turn it around and butt it up against the camera body, holding it flush so no light can leak through, and click away. Sounds simple enough, right? So I decided to finally give it a shot. I knew going in to it that I would lose control over my aperture setting, but on top of that I had to actually hold back the aperture lever (on the lens mount) to be able to see anything at all. If I did not do this my pictures were straight up black. So holding this lens in place, while holding the aperture lever, while holding the camera taking pictures can be a little tricky! Not to mention painful after holding that lever in place for a while!

It definitely takes some practice but it is pretty fun! Focus is out of the picture with this method as well considering your lens isn't actually attached to your camera. The only way you can focus is to move closer to or further from your subject. I have yet to get an image in sharp focus, but I'm guessing that has to do with me opening up the aperture completely, making my depth of field as shallow as it can possibly get. I will have to try again with either more light or a higher ISO, or maybe even both, and not hold my aperture wide open. Now that rain seems to finally be out of our forecast for a little while I am hopeful I can get outdoors and give this method another shot.

These two photos that I took are of condensation on the inside of a window

2 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous! I tried this one afternoon last summer but yes it is difficult. You've inspired me to give it a try once more!

    (By the way, I got your blog name from Flickr. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Arminda! I would love to see what you come up with if you try again! Just curious, how/where did you find my blog on flickr?

    ReplyDelete