Lens Hacks - Part One

Freelensing

As the name may suggest the lens is used whilst detached from the camera body, the technique requires you to hold the lens in your left hand, up to the open lens mount of your camera. By then tilting the lens slightly you can affect the depth of field, in the same way, as a tilt shift lens would work.

The drawback is to free the lens, it will be further away than normal, so infinity focus is unfortunately out of the question. However you will be able to get some interesting portraits, and close-ups this way.

Reversing Lenses

This is the same freelensing technique; except with the lens facing backwards, you don’t need anything complicated just a 50mm prime that most people will already have. It’s a little easier if you have manual control over the aperture however it’s not essential. This will instantly give you the ability to get some really big magnifications for the small stuff.

Above: When you don't haven't made plans to take macro shots, reversing
your lens can get you that shot when the moment turns up.

You’ll find all sorts of gubbins for you to attach a lens to your camera backwards, but the truth is you don’t need anything extra, you can simply hold your lens up to the mount, and it will be pretty stable.

Reversing Tips

You are going to lose any focus control, as well as automatic aperture control. If you’re a Canon shooter that’s a little unfortunate, but for most other lens mounts you do have a manual aperture ring on the lens.

Don’t worry because when you’re shooting macro making small back and forward adjustments manually is perfectly normal anyway, so losing focus is no big deal. With practice you’ll learn to focus sharply and consistently.

It’s free if you already have a 50mm lens, so you’ve really got nothing to lose, and if you don’t well a 50mm lens is really a staple lens, and they’re so versatile. This technique also works well with fast 30’s/35’s on APS-C and fast 85’s on full frame, so lots of options, and no reason not to get experimenting!

Magnifying Glass Macro

There’s really no reason you should not be trying out macro, not only is lens reversing free, another quick and easy home made method is to dig out the old magnifying glass. Thanks to computers we rarely use these things any more, so it’s a perfect chance to recycle something gathering dust on a shelf.

Using a magnifying glass could not be simpler, remove any filters you have and just hold it up in front of the lens, and you’re ready. You keep any automatic controls your camera may already have, so just get clicking. Of course the magnifying glass depending on quality may lose you a bit of contrast, but it’s free and ready to go!

There’s another fun thing you can use with magnifiers or even spectacles, they both are optically active, and will redirect the light. You’ll therefore get some interesting effects where everything through the magnifier is in focus, but the rest of the shot is blurry.

Top and Above: You can literally use anything to hand, even a pair of glasses will work. Naturally the position will affect the way the image is made, but that's down to you getting out there and experimenting!
Images used with permission, © Dan and Shivy at Happy Times Photography2014