“Freelensing” is a fun photography experiment. You detach the lens from the camera, and hold it in place. Then you move the lens around manually & tilt it to focus (kind of like using a lensbaby). It lets in extra light and you can get some cool light leaks, soft lighting, odd color temperatures and retro/vintage kinds of effects. It also lets you take extreme macro shots.. as in, I had things physically touching my lens to get them in focus. What worked best for me was: f8 or f11, widest angle possible, focus on something far away, then remove the lens (don’t change any settings), and then try to focus on something within 6″ of your lens.

I found it very tricky, and could only really get a corner in focus or just the bottom strip of a photo (kind of a like a tilt-shift lens).

Jeremy & I went to Little Manatee State Park to try out the technique by the lake, on a bitterly windy and cold Sunday:

(OK, so this wasn’t a freelensing shot, but I had to include it. It fits this little trio of shots!)

Some references for you:

- My talented man, Jeremy, had a good feel for freelensing and got some neat shots on this same day (of me, looking like a goober, freezing in my orange jacket!) He had a VERY wide lens on & that seems to work best.

- Here’s a freelensing group on flickr.