Insane Macro - reverse lens shot - Mosquito

sirsloop

I generally dont upload full size shots, but this one DEFINITLY needs to be checked out at full resolution. I have included the link the the big boy below. This was a reverse lens shot using my Rebel XT, 17-85mm IS 4.0-5.6 EFS lens held onto the body backwards... set at 17mm, ISO100, 1/100th with flash and home made diffuser. This is a Mosquito!!!!

Full sizer - http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_3493.JPG

It was suprisingly photogenic too... He only flew away twice and I promptly caught him with a empty prego container and posed him again. He was there for like an hour! HAHAHAH - heres the little devil (with the lens on the right way) http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_3502.JPG

Who says you need to spend $1500 on the 65mm macro lens and macro flash. Everyone bust out your 18-55mm kit lenses and start catchin' bugs!! :rofl

Lord Vetinari

Amazing shot- Just shows what can be done with "normal" lenses
What aperture was the lens at- did you set it before reversing ?
Brian V.

DoctorIt

Indeed, excellent work! Neat lookin' little pest, isn't he?

sirsloop

I set it to F4 before taking the lens off... Need every bit of light possible....

Awais Yaqub

:cry :cry What a beautiful macro

you dont put any macro lens ? or you reversed your lens on some lens

wxwax

That's pretty darn cool!

Skippy

sirsloop wrote:

I generally dont upload full size shots, but this one DEFINITLY needs to be checked out at full resolution. I have included the link the the big boy below. This was a reverse lens shot using my Rebel XT, 17-85mm IS 4.0-5.6 EFS lens held onto the body backwards... set at 17mm, ISO100, 1/100th with flash and home made diffuser. This is a Mosquito!!!!

Full sizer - http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_3493.JPG

It was suprisingly photogenic too... He only flew away twice and I promptly caught him with a empty prego container and posed him again. He was there for like an hour! HAHAHAH - heres the little devil (with the lens on the right way) http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_3502.JPG

Who says you need to spend $1500 on the 65mm macro lens and macro flash. Everyone bust out your 18-55mm kit lenses and start catchin' bugs!!

Ahhhhhh I see we have another person HOOKED
Those eyes are quite amazing aren't they, like hundreds of tiny mirrors all carefully lined up in sequence.......allmost like a curcuite board.

You got some excellent detail in this shot, yep I can see why your excited about it Good for you ..... you keep posting them okay.
.....Skippy (Australia)

sirsloop

Awais Yaqub wrote:

:cry :cry What a beautiful macro

you dont put any macro lens ? or you reversed your lens on some lens

Grab your kit lens (18-55 or 17-85mm IS works well). Put the lens on the camera, set it to Av mode and set the aperture to the most open setting (F4 in this case). Shut off the camera and remove the lens. Turn the camera on without a lens. Physically hold the front of the lens up against the body of the camera, its on backwards now. Look through the viewfinder, adjust your range to focus (you'll need to be like 2-3 inches from the subject at 17mm... farther out at higher zoom settings). Press the shutter button!

Keep in mind, the DOF is like STUPID small. I could only capture a fraction of a mosquitos eyeball. I tried taking the shot at a 45° angle, but its just too narrow. You have to shoot something thats at the same range, or so small that its the only thing you want to see.

If you have tried it, you have without a doubt found it to be extremely difficult to get results. Light is VERY precious, and its VERY hard to see where the focus is.

Give it a shot on something stupid like a grain of rice, and I think you will REALLY appreciate how insanely crazy stupid nuts this macro really is. I picked up a few prints of this one...

David Taylor

Sweet I'll have to try that. Thanks for explaining.

sirsloop

Another good tip...

Make sure your front lens (the larger side) is absolutely clean. Normally a little dust on the far end of the lens wont hurt you much. Because its now right next to the sensor, you will get dust spots from crap on your UV filter or whatever.

And another one just to stress the DOF limitations of this style...this is what you are workin with here... the DOF on an eye of a mosquito




full: http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_3474.JPG

DoctorIt

sirsloop wrote:

Grab your kit lens (18-55 or 17-85mm IS works well). Put the lens on the camera, set it to Av mode and set the aperture to the most open setting (F4 in this case). Shut off the camera and remove the lens.

Some good advice, but since its the second time someone mentioned it in this thread, I just have to ask:

On new AF lenses, what's this about "setting the aperture on the lens first"... As far as I can tell, the aperture on all new electronic AF lenses is always wide open until the camera body closes it down, either by pressing the DOF preview button or actually tripping the shutter to make the aperture close down. Otherwise, you're always looking through a wide open lens. If not, you'd see less light as you changed the aperture - which you certainly don't. All that happens on your 20D or D70 as you change the aperture dial is the little digital number changes. I'm quite certain the lenses have no "memory" of the last aperture setting they were on.

This is kind of a moot point since default is wide open and thats what you want for reversed macro shots.

Did I mention this is a cool shot?

sirsloop

DoctorIt wrote:

Some good advice, but since its the second time someone mentioned it in this thread, I just have to ask:

On new AF lenses, what's this about "setting the aperture on the lens first"... As far as I can tell, the aperture on all new electronic AF lenses is always wide open until the camera body closes it down, either by pressing the DOF preview button or actually tripping the shutter to make the aperture close down. Otherwise, you're always looking through a wide open lens. If not, you'd see less light as you changed the aperture - which you certainly don't. All that happens on your 20D or D70 as you change the aperture dial is the little digital number changes. I'm quite certain the lenses have no "memory" of the last aperture setting they were on.

This is kind of a moot point since default is wide open and thats what you want for reversed macro shots.

Did I mention this is a cool shot?

Now that you mentioned this... I gotta agree! 100% correct.

Take your camera, put it in Av mode. Put the view finder up towards a light bulb or your computer monitor. Hold down the preview button while looking through the lens end, and adjust the stop knob at the same time. You will see the aperture close up as long as you hold that preview button down. If you turn off the camera, the aperture goes full open.

Good call!

Lord Vetinari

Just out of interest- you can preset the aperture on the lens by setting the desired aperture, pressing the DOF preview button and then remove the lens whilst keeping the DOF preview button depressed (and the camera still on) just tried it on ny 300D with a kit lens
Brian V.

DoctorIt

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Just out of interest- you can preset the aperture on the lens by setting the desired aperture, pressing the DOF preview button and then remove the lens whilst keeping the DOF preview button depressed (and the camera still on) just tried it on ny 300D with a kit lens
Brian V.

that's suprising... it's also something I'd be a bit afraid to try. thanks for experimenting Lord V!

Blue Snapshots

That is waaaay kewl


The first thought that came to me was..."how do you keep light from sneaking in the camera". Do you wrap everything with duct tape?

Think I have all your instructions. Will give this a try. Thanks for sharing this tip and the amazin' photo.

zacker

I believe you can get reverse mounting rings off ebay now. Chek it out! Maybe thats what Ill do...lol im still not selling my 100MM macro though, its a sharp puppy, prolly my sharpest lens!
great job!

Seefutlung

Nice!

DJKennedy

Apparently, I can't do this with my A100...the 20D I can, but I will have to try it again later with a different lens.

Pretty impresive tho!