Experiments in macro photography
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http://picasaweb.google.com/stephan.ahonen/20070218MacroExperiment
No actual macro photography equipment was used in the creation of these images. I took my decade-old 35-80mm zoom (closest focus distance: 1.2 feet for a max magnification of 1:4.6 by my extremely sketchy math) and just held it in front of my camera body. By moving the lens and camera around I could achieve focus, and if I were feeling up to it I could get some Tilt/Shift effects in there too. The major limiting factor was shaky hands, I used a desk lamp a couple inches over the table for light and 400 ISO to get a quick a shutter as possible. Nominal aperture of the lens at that focal length was f/5.6, but I have no idea how doing what I did affects actual focal length, so actual aperture may be different.
You get some fun light leaks using this method. Not for serious macro photography but great for the Holga type that likes quirky pictures.
Way to improvise! I’m guessing you could do some of that with extension tubes? Also, did you know they make adapter rings to mount your lens backwards (and thus use it as a macro lens). Interesting stuff. I’m liking your improvised macro shots, though. The light is very nice.
I got the idea from extension tubes, but I decided to be a little ghetto and do basically the same thing as an extension tube, only without the tube.
I’m going to have to try holding my lens backwards in front of the camera. =D
EDIT: All I can say is… HOLY COW. Holding the lens backwards gave me even closer shots than the pseudo extension tube. Check out the macro gallery again and look at the last 5 shots.
Downsides: Metering is whack, I had to manually expose. There are parallax problems with the viewfinder, the full frame shot of the penny was centered in the viewfinder but appeared too low in the final image.
They sell adapters so you can mount any lens with a __mm filter mount on your ____-compatible camera body. They’re like $10 on ebay. Combined with an old, cheap fully manual lens it’s really handy. The whole thing can be yours for the low low price of $___.
Nifty stuff, Analogy! I learned about the backwards lens thing from Saint_Diluted, to give credit where credit is due. He’s done some interesting macro shots just holding the lens up to his camera without an adapter ring. I haven’t messed with it too much, and didn’t think about metering issues, so that’s good to know.
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