“free-lensing” by christineellen

I recently discovered “free-lensing” as an alternative approach to using my “big girl camera.” Or rather, it’s a new perspective on an old favorite. In the event that I just started speaking a foreign language…free-lensing requires you to take your camera’s lens off of your camera and hold it very close to your camera. Sure it’s kinda risky since you’re definitely exposing your camera’s mirror to particles or dust, but the effect is quite magical.

Free Lensing in Blue

“Free Lensing in Blue” by what_marty_sees

Now that you know what free-lensing is…perhaps you’d be interested in achieving the same effect yourself. Here’s a few tips:

  • Use a lens that is at least 50mm.
  • Set your lens to infinity (looks like this  on your lens) and take your lens hood off if you have one.
  • Manually set your exposure while your lens is still on your camera (you can try it with it off your camera, but you’ll quickly realize why this doesn’t work)
  • Take your lens off of your camera slightly and move it around. You will see some really neat effects.
  • I rarely use live view, but this is a situation in which live view might be useful.

“Baby Feet” by Ashley Sisk

Beyond those few tips, throw your technical knowledge out the window and have fun with it. It does take a little practice to know what you’re doing, but this effect is meant to be an experiment…so enjoy the results of a new perspective.

Until next time,

Ashley of Ramblings and Photos