# 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.


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## Cheyenne (Jul 20, 2006)

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


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## spako (Jul 20, 2006)

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


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## 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! )


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## cumi (Jul 20, 2006)

Amazing!

BTW, what is "*reversed lens macro"?*


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## 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.


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## Arch (Jul 20, 2006)

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


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## 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??


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## Funkyflame (Jul 20, 2006)

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


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## 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.


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## 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?


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## 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.


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## JTHphoto (Jul 20, 2006)

great job corinna, the detail is amazing...


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## Chiller (Jul 20, 2006)

NIcely done Corinna. A flys eye is really a cool lookin thing.  WOW!!


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## SteveEllis (Jul 20, 2006)

Absolutely fantastic   I love these super macro shots :thumbup:


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## Alison (Jul 20, 2006)

Ew, but yet so cool! The last is my favorite. Very nicely executed!


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## LaFoto (Jul 21, 2006)

Thanks all, was fun doing it ... and yes, Alison, I am quite partial to the wing-pic, too. Managed to get it quite well into focus (in that small area that COULD get into focus) ... when you think a wing of a fly like that is some 5-6 mm in length...


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## cumi (Jul 21, 2006)

Thanks for describing this method, I will try this surely!


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## fightheheathens (Jul 21, 2006)

very sweet photos! a little gross but....

you said you were hand holding the reversed lens? i think reversal rings are pretty cheap and then you can adjust fstop


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## photo gal (Jul 21, 2006)

Wow Corinna you really got up close and personal....these are all great...I am however partial to number 7.....wonderful job!  : )


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## LaFoto (Jul 22, 2006)

Thank you all again. The fly as such was a bit gross (I do NOT like these green flies!), but trying the reversed lens technique on it was fun!  And the wing looks delicate enough to like that pic, I think ... not too much green fly to be seen there  :greenpbl:


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## LittleMan (Jul 22, 2006)

I love #2

really amazing. :thumbup:


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## Rathbone (Jul 22, 2006)

reverse lens macro...I'm going to have to try that! My second day here and I'm learning already!

I love this series, the subject matter is irrelevant, what is relevant is the effect and mood you accomplished. The depth of field or lack thereof is a great effect. ..kind of a dreamlike hyper-reality.


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## tpe (Jul 24, 2006)

Spactacular, really verging on microscopic. you may try cooling them down in the fridge too instead of clapping hands. The wing is my favorite, and i would recomend, unless you are really against loosing any rights over your pictures, adding it to the wikipedia, there are many liciencing systems so you can probably find one that suits you, and then it wont be just these phot buffs that see it but also kids learning for school etc.

Great stuff, i hope you find some other subjects too, something that would suit the dof is ice crystals, you could even make your own on a plane of glass, or pecock feathers, something with mites, eyghhhhhh

tim


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## jweebo2004 (Jul 24, 2006)

I'd have to say #7 is my favorite. Good job!


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## Mohain (Jul 24, 2006)

Great shots LaFoto. The level of detail is amazing. I just L O V E  the last one :thumbup:


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## darich (Apr 8, 2007)

LaFoto said:


> 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.



I've done something similar with a wasp.
Caught it in a film canister and popped it in the freezer for about 2minutes. It slows the wee guy down and he can't fly until he's warmed up again. He stayed stock still on a sheet of white paper meaning i could set my aperture to f maximum and used close up filter lenses.
The DOF was then at the maximum and i could get an exposure of around 6-8 seconds that was pin sharp.
EASY!


EDIT - here's my image


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## 250Gimp (Apr 8, 2007)

Very nice LaFoto!!  I like 5 & 7 the best.  

I may have to try that trick on eof these days.

Cheers


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## grafiks (Apr 8, 2007)

Very interesting shots and some great detail.  And a very creative technique I might add.  Bravo!  :thumbup:


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## Alex_B (Apr 11, 2007)

impressive! that is certainly more than my 300mm with a close up lens can do 

I guess many tries were needed?


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## Alex_B (Apr 11, 2007)

lostprophet said:


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



If you want full metering and automatic, go for the solution by Novoflex (Southern German company), where you actually attach the lens reversed to the camera body by an adapter and then you attach another adapter to the rear side of the lens which connects all the wires with the first adapter.

Was bidding on one of those kits for EOS on ebay recently, it went for 190ish EUR.


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## RedDevilUK (Apr 15, 2007)

i have tried that on my camera, and the camera wont take a picture?? why??

will only shoot when the lens is attached properly?? or am i doing something wrong?


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## Monster (Apr 18, 2007)

Beautiful


Do conventional macro lenses exist that're capable of this level of magnification? or can it only be achieved by this reverse trick. It's a shame about the blur.


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## neogfx (Apr 18, 2007)

Very nice macros. Great details.


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