Using a kit lens for Macro photography

So, after reading a few of my favourite articles about how to get the best from my budget equipment, I came across an interesting read about how you can turn a standard kit lens around and hold it in place to create a surprisingly good macro lens, ensuring you never miss the shot!

After a little trial and error I did manage to capture some images -

As you have flipped the lens around, you will no longer be able to autofocus or change any aperture settings. To combat this I set it to the aperture I wanted before flipping the lens. I opted for an F-stop of around f7.0 and the fastest shutter speed my flash would allow, on my Canon EOS 2000D this was 1/200 to combat camera shake, to which there was an incredible amount! I almost felt myself having to time shots between heartbeats to keep them sharp at my point of focus. I manually moved my body closer to the subject until it came into focus. Depending on your focal length this can be really close, to the point of almost touching the subject.

I was also shooting this image inside a Portable Lightbox such as the one linked which made illuminating the subject extremely simple. If you are not using a lightbox or something similar ensure you have a diffused flash or another form of bright soft light or your images will come out underexposed.

By increasing the focal length to 55mm I was able to capture images from a little further away with a slightly increased depth of field, such as this one I captured of my daughter's eye.

As you can see, the sharpness of the image at the point of focus is incredible considering this is a kit lens used backwards.

Obviously specified macro lenses such as the Canon EF 100 mm f2.8L Macro IS USM Lens are much better in terms of quality and versatility but also come at a much higher cost! For those looking to see if this style is for you, the one off macro shot or if your budget doesn't allow for niche lenses then give this a try, you'll be amazed at what you can do!

If there are any questions on how to use this method, or you would like to share your own macro photography feel free to do so in the comments, forums or drop me an email.