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I’ve recently become aware of the photographic technique known as “freelensing.” This is done in lieu of owning a $2,000 tilt-shift lens for your dSLR and it’s pretty effective if you can get the hang of it.
In theory, it sounds easy peasy – take your lens off your camera, hold it up to your mount and tilt it around to create the blur. But in reality it takes some getting used to (or maybe I’m just dense). I spent about 20 minutes sitting on my kitchen floor today photographing my new jacket (pictured above) and it was only towards the end that I started to grasp the real mechanics of it all.
And yes, that is a real light leak in the photo on the right! To achieve light leaks while freelensing, simply tilt the lens away from a light source, so that you open up a crevice for light to spill in. For example, in the photo above I tilted my lens to the left, and to the right of me was my kitchen window.
I’m definitely going to spend more time experimenting with this technique but, in all honesty? I’d rather drop a couple thou on a tilt-shift lens and spend less time fiddling around with my camera guts exposed.
Here’s some photos from folks that actually know what they’re doing when it comes to freelensing.
1. toastyoats 2. PIERREPOX 3. Amanda Flinn-Simmons 4. rogvon 5. GregPierceImages 6. SvenMarck 7. kronick_ 8. IsabellAndersson
Perhaps I just need to get outside and give it a go. Sometimes a change of environment and some good natural light can make all the difference.
For anyone who wants to attempt this, Photojojo has an in-depth article explaining how to go about it. Luke Roberts also has some visual guides that made the lightbulb go on for me.
[…] some reason I decided to give freelensing another go. I still don’t completely “get it” but I did get some shots that I […]