The Fly - reversed lens macro (6 pics)

LaFoto · Jul 19, 2006

My daughter came up yesterday with one of my most favourite (ugh! not) flies in her hand, one of those green ones, you know

er:

uke: ), which she had caught alive, and she asked: "Would you like to take some photos of this one? I caught it for you!"

So I had her knock it a little more unconscious (she clapped her HOLLOW hands, that did the trick to make it quite dazed so it would not move much), took off the kit lens, turned it around and took some pics.

DOF is razor thin in this technique, so there can always only be very small parts of the fly in focus, and the closer I get (by moving from 55mm, which allows me to capture the whole fly in one frame, to 18mm, which means greatest magnification, but the lens then already touches the subject, I must move in so close), the less DOF of what little there always is I get. But it was fun. What do you say?

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6.

Cheyenne · Jul 20, 2006

Horrible subject (I'm with you I HATE them) but great photots

spako · Jul 20, 2006

Wow! amazing shots! 4 Is my favourite, you can see so much detail in the eyes its amazing!

LaFoto · Jul 20, 2006

When I look at #4, I think I can see dust specs on her eyes ... or whatever that white fluff is ... those are things you'd never see with your own eyes and not in the camera display, either, only once you get the pics onto your screen.

I photographed a dead fly the day before, but those are very icky pics now, since that dead fly had collected heaps of dust already, a thing I had NEVER seen with my own eyes, nor through the viewfinder or on the display, but once they appeared in their full size on the screen I went all "Yuk!" It looks too dead for my liking ... but I might want to manipulate the photos so they can go into the darkside!?!? (Ha, I am just struck by an idea!

)

cumi · Jul 20, 2006

Amazing!

BTW, what is "reversed lens macro"?

LaFoto · Jul 20, 2006

I take the lens off my DSLR so all I see is the gaping hole where it used to be, turn the lens around so that part looks to the front that is usually screwed to the camera body, while the part that usually points towards whatever I take a photo of is turned towards the big hole. I hold it on tightly like that to the "hole" (I personally never fasten it in any way) and thus have a big "magnifying glass" on my camera. Of course, like that it is absolutely impossible to still do any adjustments other than shutter speed, so focussing works via body movement: I must move very, very closely onto my subject (provided I want most magnification which I get at 18mm with my kit lens), and then I must stop to breathe and force my heart to beat only very slowly, else it is extremely difficult to stay in the razor thin line of focus I have. For these I had the advantage (in some) of the window sill onto which I could rest the reversed lens and my hands.

I think reversed lens macro is great fun and the outcome is often quite surprising ... and what I must try out soon is whether when prior to taking off the lens I put the aperture to very small (high f-number) I can achieve a deeper DOF ... deeper probably meaning: from a fraction of a millimetre to maybe one entire millimetre? That is for me to find out.

Arch · Jul 20, 2006

good job corinna..... you've done well considering the shallowness of the dof.... i like number 5 best :thumbup:

lostprophet · Jul 20, 2006

The detail is amazing, how do you reverse the lens?? Is it on your EOS? and if so how does the metering work??

Funkyflame · Jul 20, 2006

uagh .. so disgusting, but my cats will love it ... great shots

LaFoto · Jul 20, 2006

Andy, it is my EOS 350D kit lens, all right, and I just take it off and hold it to the body outside in or so... I am describing it above.
Metering (light) still works if you are on M, nothing else, does, though. How I focus I also describe for Cumi above.
My tests with a preset very small aperture have proved that I cannot increase DOF very much like that ... it remains razor thin.

el_shorty · Jul 20, 2006

Great Photos, number 5 is my favorite, I've tried to photograph flies but they always have other plans, and just fly away, How did you get the fly to remain still?

LaFoto · Jul 20, 2006

As I said, my daughter had it in her cupped hands and clapped those. May have been the air compression or sound or whatever that made the fly quite dazed and "k.o" ... Else there would not have been ONE chance to photograph this in this method.
But it remained alive.
Later it flew away from the spot.