HarenArul

Clematis

Canon EOS REBEL T4i

settings

Aperture f/4.5 ISO 100 Shutter 1/800 Focal Length 50/1

upload_date

May, 2015

Views

1120

Likes

+56

Awards

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Creative Winter Award

Curator's Selection

Legendary Award

Great Shot

Superb Composition

+26

Top Choice

+19

Absolute Masterpiece

+14

Outstanding Creativity

Superior Skill

All Star

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Behind The Lens

Location

This macro of a Clematis was taken at home in my garden and forms part of a series of shots of the same flower where I was practising handheld reverse lens shots. This technique does take a lot of practice as you lose all the aperture control of your lens (so you will need to fix the aperture before you flip the lens) you also need to be good at manually focusing as you will also lose all auto-focus options. Exposure can only be controlled by shutter speed and ISO so it takes time to really understand and relearn many of the manual techniques.

Time

This is one of the most popular captures, whenever I have shared this photo it always get a great response. It was take rare sunny day in spring, in the middle of the day when the sun was at its highest so I could capture as much detail and colour as possible with this reverse lens technique. The bright light also gives you more options for exposure as it is the only thing you can control well with this technique.

Lighting

Reverse lens shots, like any macro capture, work really well under strong light conditions especially if you are working with natural light. I have found this technique can give you a more interesting image with a lot of depth and details with a prime lens. So if you have a prime lens with sharp optics then its worth £2 for a reverse mount to capture some unique images.

Equipment

This photo was taken with a Canon T4i with a 50mm f/1.8 (Canon Mk1) with a reverse mounted.

Inspiration

I had read about reverse lens techniques online and was amazed that such a simple change could take a great prime and make it more versatile. So I was really keen on practising this as I was looking for options to only take out one lens on days out, while still being able to capture some macro photography.

Editing

I was surprised how little need to be done to this image. Just a small amount of images sharpening and contrast adjustments but the light was really good on this day. I now pretty much have a reverse mount permanently attached to this 50mm lens for days when I am not sure what I will come across on trip.

In my camera bag

I now pretty much have a reverse mount permanently attached to this 50mm lens for days when I am not sure what I will come across on trip. I also tend to carry a wide angle lens for landscape photography.

Feedback

It is definitely worth practising reverse lens techniques and looking to lens stack to find what works best for you. Its not going to give you an image like a +£700 dedicated macro lens but for £2 and a decent prime lens you should not expect that. What you will get is a really great understanding of how your prime lens works and capture marco images with a lot of depth and a unique quality compared to a dedicated macro lens.

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HarenArul

HarenArul

Clematis

Behind The Lens

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