Take your DSLR in one hand. Unscrew the lens with the opposite. Tilt the lens far from the camera body-perhaps even flip the optics backwards. And take photos that you simply never imagined that you could without expensive upgrades.

Lead Shot

With the deadline for this challenge just some hours away I determined to find out out this complete ” freelensing” thing. I tried it on random stuff I had around my apartment but ultimate ended up in front of my bathroom mirror. I had a couple of pictures with some interesting lighting but I stopped up liking this one the ideal. Sony NEX-5 with an 18-55mm kit lens (1/25 sec/ISO 800).
-Adam King

Pumpkins

I visited a corn maze this past weekend and was shooting of every kind of things and experimenting with freelensing, but these small pumpkins caught my eye and ended up being my best shot. Shot with a Canon T1i, 50mm f/1.8, ISO 100.
-Aaron Lovell

Toothbrush Villi

I had done some free-lensing before, so I was excited when this challenge popped up. I got this shot by taking an old 18-55 lens and holding backwards in front of a toothbrush. By holding it backwards, (by the best way one can do that with any lens) you get these insane macro shots. The lower the mm of the lens, the closer you will get.

Theres a beautiful cool guide to hacking this kind of lenses so that it is usually attached to an EF/S body with full electronic function. (minus AF) It looks pretty simple and I plan on giving it a shot sometime since these lenses are about 50 bucks used. 7D, 18-55 (detached, backwards), ISO 1600, 1/40 shutter
-Michael Salisbury

3D Conversion

For this shot I simply hooked up a 500watt halogen work light facing this canvas print of a forest and a waterfall. From there it was just a question for purchasing my lens inside the right position to add depth to this flat surface. Canon 7D, Canon 50mm f/1.4, ISO: 640, f/0
-Chris Humphrey

Burj Khalifa

I am currently working in Dubai and had the opportunity to visit the terrace on the 112th floor of the Burj Khalifa, snapped this while up there…holding my lens very tightly for fear I would drop it a number of thousand feet. 5D MKII, 24-70mm L at roughly 50mm, ISO: 100, Shutter: 1/1000
-Ian Doss

Mr. T Needs Oil

Never knew of this system until i saw the challenge, so i grabbed an old spare camera (like hell am i getting dust within the canon!) and began experimenting. I was really proud of the effects and this was one of my favs, it was accomplished by reversing the lens for the macro and shining a robust torch on the subject. Which thus was one of my necklaces =D Now just watching for a sunny day to head bug hunting! Olympus E-410, 40-150mm, ISO 100, Flash off, the remaining was auto
-Joe Kelly

Fall Fell

Top on my wish list is the Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens, so it follows that my favorite thing about freelensing is the selective focus possible by manually tilting your lens. Accordingly, I tilted my lens down a little and blew this waning tree into beautiful bokeh, while capturing the detritus on the ground below in crisp focus. I even have trouble saying much beyond that, I feel this photo speaks for itself. Shot with a Canon 5d2 at ISO 200 and 1/500th, with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime at f13. (Remember, the Fall Leaves Part II Challenge remains going. Anything you’ve shot all autumn counts!)
-Charlie Dwyer

Flowers

I was driving to my hometown and in the course of the drive I saw some cows hanging out inside the field. I finished to take some pictures of the scenery and after I looked down I saw these little flowers, I told my-self ” It is a perfect time to check out freelensing!” So I did, it was plenty harder that I assumed it’d be. You should move closer and additional to highlight the subject and that’s impossible to exploit your photometer. So I did several tests before getting the lighting that I needed without blurring the photo because I was moving. It was hard to stand still because cars were going really fast on the road next to me. They honked at me, probably asking themselves ” what is that guy doing crouched next to the highway holding his camera like a crazy person?” Well I was freelensing! So here’s my first try at macro-freelensing. I processed the picture using picasa (v3) and photoshop for resolution. Nikon D40x equipped with a Nikkor 18-55 mm. ISO : 242, 1/320, Aperture: Impossible to determine
-John Tremblay

Chili Weather

That is my first and last chili harvest of the year, a combination of Habanero’s, Scotchbonnets, Thai Hot and Fatalli’s. I had just picked them and set them on the windowsill and it was a stunning subject, especially for the good topic of this week’s challenge. So many colours and shapes, so it was great to check out it out. Held the lens slightly faraway from the body and tilted it left. Nikon D90, Nikor 50 mm 1.8, 1/60 sec ISO 320
-Nils Rohwer

The Quintessential Eye

Ok, here’s my first shooting contest entry, had quite a few fun with it. I had my girlfriend stand inches far from a bright studio light and got this picture after about 200 shots from a terribly small distance (after eliminating light leaks by having a chunk of black cloth draped over my head like a 19th century photographer). I had experimented with freelensing for a couple of days, but I might not have thought I’d get this sort of sharp and fragment-less picture. The photo is serious about a Canon 7D (iso 640, 1/60s), with a 40 year old minolta mc 58mm 1.4 lens held in front of it. The lens was stepped all the way down to 2.8, to get as a minimum a couple of millimeters of sharpness within the picture. The photo was photoshopped to minimize noise and dramatize the contrast and colours, but nothing more.
-Robert Kirberich

Texture, Color, Rot

I was hiking the most important cliff in town after I noticed it was about to get dark right away, so I began making my way backtrack the hill after I saw a natural backdrop on mini ” trees” . I believed it was my chance to check out the free lensing challenge, so I took a number of shots and got caught up in it. Suffice it to claim I had to walk backtrack the hill at midnight. Canon EOS 550D, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, ISO 1250, Shutter Speed 1/80
-Patrick Tilghman

WINNER – ‘The Fighter’

(It’s OK Everyone, The Chick Lived)

I might never have anticipated this may are becoming my subject for this challenge, but his baby chick hatched just in time for it – although it was born a day later than the alternative chicks and was abandoned and forgotten by the hen. The one reason it wasn’t thrown out was because it was peeping loudly from inside its shell. Once warmed up, the chick was finally ready to push out from the shell while I documented the whole lot. Of your entire other shots I took, this one turned out to be my favorite. Contextually, I really like how this shot really encompasses the complete experience of struggling to survive and the exhaustion felt inside the moments of repose after succeeding. Visually, I love how the main focus from tilting the lens falls diagonally right on the top, wing, and foot – while the pinnacle and body of the chick lie in a horizontal line that ends with the out of focus remains of the egg shell inside the background. Canon Rebel XSi, Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro Lens ISO 100, Shutter Speed 1/500
-Esmer Olvera

So many incredible entries this week! There was just a little criticism when this challenge was announced that ” freelensing” wasn’t a sound technique. For the naysayers still inside the audience, fine, call it a hack in the event you prefer. But I suspect Gizmodo photographers have proven that freelensing has unquestionable potential in one’s artistic arsenal. Full galleries below. Wallpaper sizes on flickr .

Gallery 1 ( one-page view )

Gallery 2 ( one-page view )

Now that you simply’ve mastered the art of freelensing, come use it some more on my site Life, Panoramic . Did that little plug come off as an order? Good.

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This post is tagged: bathroom mirror, chris humphrey, halogen work light, michael salisbury, right position