How to fake macro photography

Recently, Grant informed me of a pretty neat trick. “Did you know your lenses have a macro setting?” he asked me.

“Uh, no they don’t,” I replied.

Grant was unfaltering. “Sure it does! I’ll show you!”

He proceeded to take off my lens and flip it around so the front was facing the body, and the end that attaches to the body was at the front. Here’s an example of Grant using the “macro” lens.

Normal photo

"Macro" version

Now that is macro!

Since the lens isn’t attached to the body, you have to set the aperture and whatnot manually. Focusing is simply moving back and forth until you can get it comes into focus. This part is a little tricky, because the depth of field is so shallow, and it’s hard to tell if it’s in focus or not.

Here’s my attempt:

Normal photo

"Macro" version

Cool, huh? I think I’m going to be using this neat trick until I can get an actual macro lens for my camera.