Cheap Macro Photography: The Reverse Ring

Macro and super Macro lenses are not cheap with a starting price around £300… One consider a true macro lens offering a magnification ratio at least equal to 1:1; which means 1cm in real life would represent 1cm on the sensor or film. In the past i provided a cheap alternative to a macro lens by using Extension Tubes. Here is an other cheap option that could change any lens (new and old) into a macro  or even a super macro lens: The Reverse Ring

It cost around £5 on Ebay. There are two factors one needs to be careful with when considering the purchase:

1. The diameter of your filter thread (front of the lens)
2. The type of camera mount (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony etc.)

The way the Reverse Ring works is by enabling you to attach your favourite lens backwards (front to back). For some scientific reasons, the glass inside your lens, once reversed, will act as a bigger magnifier than with the normal use.

When applied on a standard 50mm lens, on can expect a rough 1:1 ratio (meaning true macro).

The interesting thing is where in the normal usage of a lens, the longer the Focal Length the bigger the magnification, when using a Reverse Ring it is the opposite. This means a cheap 18-55mm kit lens will magnify more at 18mm (about 4:1) than at 50mm (about 1:1:). Now you can understand the greatness of this little piece of equipment.

Aperture trick:

When doing macro photography, one ends up being quite close to the subject which will result in having to deal with a very shallow Depth of Field. To counter balance that, one needs to use a narrow Aperture. When using a Reverse Ring, there is no more electronic connection between the camera and the lens so unless you are using an old manual lens which has an Aperture ring, you will be stuck with the widest Aperture your lens offers (i.e 3.5 on the 18-50mm kit lens).

I have found a trick to lock the Aperture of modern lenses:

1. Mount your lens on your camera the normal way.
2. Turn on your camera and go on the Manual or Aperture priority mode.
3. Choose a small Aperture like f22.
4. Press the Depth of Field preview button located on your DSLR.
5. While keeping your finger on the button, turn off your camera.
6. Unmount your lens and mount it using the Reverse Ring.

The reason it works is that your camera normally sends the Aperture information when pressing the Shutter button. By pressing the DOF preview button, your are forcing the Aperture message to be sent from the camera to the lens which opens/closes the diaphragm accordingly (so you could check the effect of the Depth of Field). When you turn off your camera, you are shutting all electronics and your lens locks on the selected Aperture.

Then you can simply reverse the lens and start shooting macro.

Below are a few photographs i have captured on the day. While some might not look like big macro, note the Reverse Ring enabled me to be closer than the normal minimal focus distance (i.e. 45cm on 18-135mm).