Photo Trick: Turn Your 50mm Into a Macro Lens

For those of you that don't know... my 50mm 1.4 (the newest addition to my lenses) is by far my FAVORITE lens. Before that it was the thrifty 50mm 1.8 (thrifty cause it's only $60!).

Anyway.

Jose picked me up Saturday night from church when I arrived from camp carrying these...



Simple carnations. But aren't they beautiful?! Honestly, I wouldn't have cared what kind of flowers... just him showing up with them was sweet. I try to pretend I'm not a flower kind of girl, but every time I receive them I realize how much I DO really like them. I love smelling them.

So I couldn't stop staring at them and taking photos of them, but I wanted to get even closer to the petals. Unfortunately my 50mm would just NOT focus that closely. It's not a macro lens.



DUN DUN DUN. Or is it?!

I remembered back when my photographer friend Brittany was visiting me and shared a secret with me. Apparently you can take your 50mm lens, turn it around so that the lens is facing the camera and the back of the lens is facing your subject to turn it into a macro lens. !!!

It would look like this...

(via DIY Photography)

...except you have to hold the lens while you're shooting. **Literally you are holding the lens while you shoot*** That photo up there is actually a tutorial on how to create a reverse ring so that you don't have to hold the lens and it locks into your camera backwards.

And viola....






I mean... ridiculous, right?! Not technically perfect, but who cares. Look how close you can get!



You literally hold the lens the other way around and move towards your subject. I couldn't focus since both my hands were occupied so I literally would just move myself around and get closer to the petals until they came into focus then just snapped the image. I took at least 20.



If you own a 50mm and have never tried this, will you take a few and send them to me? I'd LOVE to feature them! Just pick one object and we'll have a macro post party ;) Send them to alejandra[at]imaginaledesign.com :)



That's my favorite kind of beauty. When it almost goes unnoticed.

Let me know if you're still unsure of how to do this!