Freelensing

Will V|Photography

Senior Member
Has anyone tried this out? I just started getting into it and can't wait to try out some other ideas I have brewing. The first couple shots I took were more macro than anything. The first was taken with the 18-55 but I was free-lensing it reversed (turned around) and had a strobe outside of the light box aimed in through the right and towards the roof.



Telephoto Macro by FLWill, on Flickr


and I was having so much fun with free-lensing that I tried it out with the 55-200. Strobe was at 3/7 power camera left, aimed at the eye with no modifier.



The "Eye" Has It by FLWill, on Flickr
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Love the shot of the person's eye. Not sure I'm ready to try this. I have a hard enough time with the lens on frontward.
 

fotojack

Senior Member
I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand what you mean by this..." I was free-lensing it reversed (turned around)". How exactly did you achieve this shot? Looks interesting, but I don't understand the technique. Could you elaborate?
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand what you mean by this..." I was free-lensing it reversed (turned around)". How exactly did you achieve this shot? Looks interesting, but I don't understand the technique. Could you elaborate?

Jack, just go on flicker.com and do a search for "freelensing". You can also do a google search but it will bring back less informative posts.

the thing is that you just remove the lens from the body and move it around while looking at the viewfinder of liveview and take a shot when you get the desired effect.
 

Will V|Photography

Senior Member
Love the shot of the person's eye. Not sure I'm ready to try this. I have a hard enough time with the lens on frontward.

LOL, I thought the same thing. It's actually kind of easy and real fun once you get the hang of it.

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand what you mean by this..." I was free-lensing it reversed (turned around)". How exactly did you achieve this shot? Looks interesting, but I don't understand the technique. Could you elaborate?

Essentially what Marcel said. "Freelensing" is when you're shooting with the lens off the camera. This can be done with the lens pointing the correct way, and then you tilt the lens left/right/up/down which will give you a tilt/shift-like image. If you turn the lens around you can achieve macro shots without a macro lens. The shorter the lens focal length the more magnification you get, and the focus point is SUPER close. With AF-S lenses you have to use like blu-tac putty or a broken up toothpick to hold the aperture open, then you adjust ISO and SS to get proper exposure. I shot with a strobe though to make sure I was exposed at 1/250 or whatever SS I shot. Also, I didn't use live view, I just put my eye to the viewfinder. ;)
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Still too complex for my feeble talents. I'm still learning how to spell HDR. (Two shots so far). I'm old, and I can only learn so much at one time.
 

Will V|Photography

Senior Member
aah OK. Well I don't have Live View, so I guess it wouldn't work for me. No biggie. :) Thanks for the explanation though. :)

You can do it without Live View. In the post right above yours I said...

Also, I didn't use live view, I just put my eye to the viewfinder. ;)

Still too complex for my feeble talents. I'm still learning how to spell HDR. (Two shots so far). I'm old, and I can only learn so much at one time.

Like most things in photography, it's easy to do but hard to perfect. Try it out, I bet you'll like what you see.
 
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