Freelensing
Posted December 26th, 2009 by Luke | 10,331 views
What is Freelensing?
Photos taken with the lens detached from the camera but held in place and moved around to focus. This also lets extra light in sometimes causing light leaks and giving a vintage look and feel.
Freelensing can also:
- Give extra bokeh by shrinking the area in focus (aperture is 0)
- Allow for super macro shots
- Produce ethereal lighting by allowing stray light to get in to the sensor
- Make delicious light leaks
- Create tilt-shift effects
How do I do it?
If you just want the tilt-shift effect, you can detach the lens, but hold it in place against the camera. Slightly move the lens left, right, up or down.
It’s easier if your camera has a “live view” so you can see what it looks like, but it’s not too much harder with the view finder.
You only need to move the lens a few millimetres (fractions of an inch), and doing it this way, there’s not much risk of dust getting in to the sensor.
If you want lightleaks or the super-macro kind of effect, you will need to hold the lens a little bit further away (probably no more than a finger width, though). This is a bit more risky if you’re worried about dust, so try not to hold the lens away from the camera for too long and only do it in a dust-free environment.
For light leaks, I’ve found it’s best to be in a fairly dark room, with a big window in front of you. This lets the outside light get in to the camera (i.e. not through the lens, but just going straight in to the gap between the lens and the camera) but limits the ambient light getting in (which makes the photos less defined).
Will it work with my (SLR) camera?
Canon – Yes
Nikon – Yes – You have to put the camera into manual mode (thanks Eddie Barksdale)
Sony – Yes – In your camera’s menus, look for the “Release w/o Lens” option, and make sure it is enabled. You might also need to make something that will hold the aperture lever on the back of the lens in the open position (thanks ted @ndes)
If you’ve had success with your camera and it’s not on the list, let us know in the comments here or on the freelensing forum on Flickr.
Examples
See more on the Flickr Freelensing pool.
Related Posts
Tags: flickr, freelensing, Photos
23 Responses to “Freelensing”
January 16th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Another reason for me to get a camera. Cool trick!
January 16th, 2010 at 7:03 am
This is a neat technique. I’m going to have to try it out soon. Thanks!
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:37 am
awesome trick, thanks for sharing. Have to give it a try as soon as I have a DSLR again.
January 25th, 2010 at 10:31 am
excellent, the images you displayed above are these yours and what post processing did you do the effect is exactly what i am after in some of my photos (top right image in particular)
January 25th, 2010 at 11:05 am
photoshop does it as well
January 25th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Dust is a serious concern. You can pretty much guarantee to get the sensor dirty.
You’d be better of using a purpose built lens (eBay?), like a lensbaby or tiltshift.
January 26th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
[...] zeige ich Euch einen weiteren Trick, der in die gleiche Kategorie passt und auf den ich gestern in diesem Artikel aufmerksam wurde.Damit kann es uns gelingen, Tiltshift-ähnliche Effekte mit der Kamera zu erzielen, ohne [...]
January 26th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Lensbaby? Looks like the same effect.
January 27th, 2010 at 12:12 am
I don’t know about “guarantee” – maybe if you’re taking the lens completely off for long periods and shooting. Trying to get lightleaks increases the likelihood of dust getting in, but just disconnecting the lens slightly moving it is pretty safe.
A tiltshift would obviously be better, but that’s out of most peoples budget. Lensbaby would be fun too, but this is free and you can try it right away
I guess people can try this and see if they like it, then move on to a Lensbaby if they do.
January 27th, 2010 at 12:15 am
It’s a similar effect to a Lensbaby, yes, but you can do it with your normal lens. If you like the effect and are concerned about dust, it might be better to get a real lensbaby, though. But this is a good way to try it out for free.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Very cool tutorial. I am going to try this out on my D90 soon.
February 1st, 2010 at 4:18 am
Good idea..i’m going to try before spend money on a lensbaby..
February 1st, 2010 at 10:02 am
[...] lukeroberts » Blog Archive » Freelensing. [...]
February 1st, 2010 at 2:22 pm
cool thing!
I’m going to try it with my film slr soon!
February 1st, 2010 at 11:30 pm
[...] Freelensing [...]
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:50 pm
[...] photojojo.com/content/tutorials/tilt-shift-and-macro-free… lukeroberts.us/2009/12/freelensing/ [...]
February 8th, 2010 at 5:33 am
[...] vor nicht ganz zwei wochen hat martin auf seinem blog kwefeldein einen interessanten artikel veröffentlicht, der den (männlichen) spieltrieb fördert und auch absolut befriedigt. es geht dabei um die technik des “freelensing” [...]
February 8th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
[...] Select Category Found Chasing the Light Blog twitter Freelensing via lukeroberts.us Nikon D300 AF Nikkor 35-70mm 3.3-4.5 Gallery Warning: Division by zero in [...]
February 10th, 2010 at 12:08 am
[...] Effekten som blir påminner ju om de man får med en lensbaby. Men med freelansing använder du din egen optik som du lossar från kamerahuset. Det finns en superbra illustration hur man gör och hur det fungerar på lukeroberts.us. [...]
February 10th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Hey! I like this. And I have tried it. I wonder if I can publish your illustration of this on my blog. Of course your name and link to this will be there too. Would that be ok? Now I only have this page linked from my blog, but I really would loved to have this illustration there too.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:06 am
Hi Camilla – yes that’s fine
Glad you found the illustrations helpful.
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:54 am
[...] of magical, raindrop bokeh in the backyard. i even tried out a new technique to get the OOF shots ~ Freelensing. i didn’t really get the hang of freelensing, and none of my freelensing shots had anything [...]
March 6th, 2010 at 12:12 am
[...] had to freelens this one, but I ordered an adapter ring which should get here soon, meaning more macro stuff. Stay [...]
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