Free Lensing

What is free lensing?

Luke Roberts gave a pretty straight forward definition.

“ 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.

Also:
* Gives extra bokeh by shrinking the area in focus (aperture is 0)
* Allows for super macro shots
* Delicious light leaks
* Tilt-shift effects “

You can join the discussion about this technique at  WholeWhyWorld and MyCanikon.

You can come up with some amazing pictures, but it does take practice. This is a shot I took today of my kitten while free lensing. It took at least 20 tries before she would sit still long enough for me to catch more than a blur. Its a little blown out above her eyes too, but I’ll take it. I plan on doing more with this and trying to get some cool portraits out of it.

EDIT: Another shot I took tonight, came out pretty well also! Check it out here too!