This week I finally got round to experimenting the homemade technique of reversing a 50mm lens to create an impressive Macro effect. I was sceptical as to whether it would work so I was pleasantly surprised when I got some great shots.
So how did I do it...
There are several combinations of lenses and adapters you can use to achieve macro, and by all means I am not saying that the way I have done this is the best, as I am new to this. I decided to use my standard, 18-55mm kit lens with my 50mm prime lens
I attached my standard lens to the camera as normal and then used a coupling ring 55-50mm (£7.50 from Amazon) that allowed me to attach the reversed 50mm lens to the standard
It might take a little time to work out the best settings due to not being able to adjust the focus and aperture (unless you have an aperture ring on your lens.) When I first attached it all together I noticed that it created a large vignette (ring) around the image but after adjusting the zoom and aperture I was able to widen the vignette around the image. I do recommend you have the aperture set to around f8 due to the extreme shallow depth of field this technique creates. This does mean however that you need a lot of light. I used my external Canon Speedlite to help with this, which is something I highly recommend using as I found that I needed it even when I was outside in bright sunshine. Also as there is not much focus adjustment, it is a case of physically moving the camera backwards and forwards when pointing at the object to get the correct focus. Doing this handheld can be difficult so where possible use a tripod or a monopod like I used.
As I said this is new to me so if you are thinking about doing it I would advise you read a more detailed account on ways to do this lens reversal technique. Here is a blog tutorial I found really useful - Reverse Lens Macro tutorial
Here are some of the photos I have taken so far... Im still getting to grips with this technique and look forward to playing with it more and even trying to film with it.
