My friend & fellow photographer Shelby and I shot a couple of weddings together recently when I decided to experiment with a macro lens trick she showed me, sans an actual macro lens. This is not a new trick as my friend Noah also mentioned this method to me before, many of you may have tried this already. The process is simple – take a 50mm lens and hold it with the front of the lens facing towards the front of your camera body. Align the lens with your lens mount area and tweak the aperture ring on the 50mm lens by hand. See the photo below to get a sense of the action… in this case I quickly grabbed Shelby’s Nikon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens for this shot (one of my personal favs from Nikon BTW!)…
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- Here is a photo of me snapping a ring shot up close with the “backwards 50mm” lens. I’m holding a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens up against my Canon 5D Mark II – a rare coupling for some
I’ve tried it with the Canon 50mm f/1.2L lens but found it too bulky to handle and not as sharp shooting through it this way. I think a Canon 50mm f/1.4 would be a better match.
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- And the result! It will take some practice to find that sweet spot and the right aperture setting to get everything sharp, but the effect is pretty cool for a macro shot WITHOUT using a macro lens.
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- Oh I guess I should post at least one other photo from Sandra’s wedding… more to come at a later date! (Taken with the Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm lens)
:):)
by Armin
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