Exploring Photography: Lens-Reversal Macro
You don’t necessarily need a macro lens to do macro photography. By mounting a prime lens “backward”—with the front elements closest to the imaging sensor—you can turn it into a low-cost macro lens. All you need is an inexpensive adapter called a reversal ring. A sense of adventure helps, too, because your camera’s normal metering and focusing features don’t work when the lens is attached backward.
In this course, photographer Ben Long details the tools and techniques of lens-reversal macro photography. After investigating reversal ring options, the course explores the focusing and exposure techniques involved when shooting with a reversed lens.

About the Author
Ben Long is an award-winning photographer and senior editor at Macworld magazine.
Ben is a San Francisco-based photographer, writer, and teacher. The author of over two dozen books on digital photography and digital video, he is also a senior contributing editor to Macworld magazine, and a senior editor at CreativePro.com. His photography clients have included 20th Century Fox, Blue Note Records, Global Business Network, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Pickle Family Circus, and Grammy-nominated jazz musicians Don Byron and Dafnis Prieto. He has taught and lectured on photography around the world, including workshops at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence and a class for imaging engineers at Apple, Inc. He occasionally dabbles in computer programming, and has written image editing utilities that are used by National Geographic, the British Museum, and the White House.
Product Details
- Full Video Tutorials
- Video File Format: MP4
- Skill Level: Intermediate
- Video Duration: 32m 32s
- Instructor: Ben Long
- Language: English