Do you feel stunted? Like you're stuck in a rut and not happy with your work? Feel like you just cant be any more creative then you already are? Well, I have a suggestion for you that has helped for me.
When I feel like I am bored with my work and feel uninspired. I try something new. Any time you try something new your brain works on over drive and you will naturally feel inspired and creative. One of the things I have tried and absolutely fell in love with is free lensing.
When I first tried free lensing I just wasn't happy. My images were not what I was looking for or what I have seen around the photography community. I took a break from it and went back a few weeks later and tried again. After doing a bit of research. I quickly found out I wasn't doing it the suggested way. I'm sure you don't have to do it this way but this is the way that worked best for me.
First, I set my lens on manual focus and turned it to focus infinity. If you aren't sure what that means heres a link that will help. focus infinity After you have your lens on focus infinity detach your lens from your camera body and hold it up in front of your camera. To start, put it in where the lens would naturally be as far as you can get it in the camera body and then look through your view finder and slowly pull the lens away from the camera body. You should see when it hits focus. Pull it back in and then try it again until you know about where it hits focus. After you get used to that start moving your lens side to side slowly, twisting it and turning your lens after you pull it away from body and hit focus. Take some shots. have fun...
Now the fun thing about free lensing is you don't have to hit focus every shot and images can still be so beautiful. I purposely miss focus when free lensing. The more you play with it and turn and twist and figure out what your lens does. The more creative you can get with it. The looks you can achieve with free lensing are endless. Theres so much you can do. Something fun I do. Is stand above my subject so I am looking down with my camera when the sun is high in the sky. so once your lens is away from your camera body it allows for some amazing light leaks. Like this image below. I stood above him and shot down so the sun went directly into the lens as I pulled it away from the body and made a pretty light leak.
Free lensing has really brought my creativity back. I feel refreshed and inspired. Every image is different. So take your camera out and get yourself out of this creative rut you have been in. Here are some more images I free lensed...
A couple great lenses to free lens with are the 50mm and the 85mm. My preference is the 85mm. So I use my 1.8 that is much cheaper than any other lens I have. The 85mm is so dreamy to free lens with. but the 50 is great to. I just prefer the 85. Some photographers actually use a cheaper lens like the 50 1.8 and rip the back of it off so you have more room to move around. Here is a link to see what I am talking about. modifying 50mm for free lensing I shoot canon but this was a great nikon tutorial for modifying your lens for free lensing. Remember you do not want anything getting in your camera. So be very cautious when you are free lensing. Don't take a break and forget to put the lens on. Don't leave your camera wide open for too long. Take breaks often and attach the lens. Be smart, be careful but have fun... Thank you for reading I hope you this helps some people with it. Once you catch on to how it works you will not want to stop. It is addicting, you've been warned...until next time, XOXO
