(On click, as always, Yandex.Photos, where there is a horse-size for the curious)

So how is it done. While the victim of art awaits his sad fate, I hope you have already tried the tripod on a domestic cat, bought the rest of the equipment and even spent a sober evening for once. If you haven't done any of this, then first read again my articles about and. I also recommend it for blondes. You will need it. And what about those who are ready and have already learned the whole theory by heart?

The first step is to reversely connect the whale lens, with a pre-set aperture. Turn off autofocus and optical stabilizer first, if you have one. Unscrew all the filters from it if the sellers sold you these useless UV glasses. If you have a really useful polarik there, you will have to take it off too. Now it's time to screw the reversing ring by 58 millimeters in place of the filters. Connect the lens to the camera in the usual way, not through a freshly installed adapter. Set the focal length of the lens to 18 mm by turning the corresponding ring.

Then select Manual (M) or Aperture Priority (Av) by turning the DSLR wheel. Set the aperture to F8.0. As you already know from mine, this value for a whale is optimal when shooting a stack. If you open the aperture wider, the image quality will not improve, and the depth of field will decrease. If you close it even more, then the diffraction effect will appear.

After that, press the depth-of-field preview button, and without releasing it, unscrew the lens from the camera. Let me remind you that for the Canon 1100D, the depth-of-field preview function must first be set to the SET button in the menu settings. Now your lens is disabled, the aperture is forcibly set to F8.0. If you screw the lens back onto the camera in the normal way, the iris will open fully, so be sure to repeat the previous step again when detaching the lens.

Voila, a tuned lens can be connected back to the DSLR through the reversing ring. The macro monster is ready. Look through the camera's viewfinder. Can't see anything, one dark dregs? So you did everything right.

By the way, the victim of art can already be put in the freezer, if it is not there yet.

Now let's start setting up the "setup". Unfortunately, there is no Russian word yet for describing a scene with properly installed props, lights and a camera. Take a nightstand or small table, place a tripod next to it and adjust its height so that the camera mounted on it is slightly higher than the table.

Bring your old grandfather desk lamp and place it on the table. Do not forget to plug it in. Connect the lens to the camera through the reversing ring, if you have not already done so, and mount the latter on a tripod. Connect the cable to the camera. Set the focal length of the lens to between 24 and 35 mm. Turn the wheel to the manual settings mode (M), set the ISO to 100 (or whatever your minimum is), set the white balance to room lighting, this is important. Turn on Live View. Darkness? Well, what did you want, it is not for you to shoot on the machine. Set the shutter speed to about two seconds, then the black haze should turn brown (or so). If this does not happen, the exposure meter will tell you how to adjust the shutter speed correctly. And if these two words are abusive to you, just turn the second wheel of the camera left and right. Once the blackness is gone, it's time to stop. You have set everything up as it should.

Now you can get the victim out of the refrigerator and fix it on a needle. With beetles and cockroaches it is easier, they can shove a needle under hard elytra, with softer insects it is more difficult. It all depends on your disgust and craving for art. You can try stationery glue, hammer on a needle and cling to the animal's wings or legs with tweezers wrapped in an elastic band, or you can not be afraid and bravely pierce the insect with a needle. The holder of the photo model must be fixed in a structure that allows six degrees of freedom. A piece of plasticine taken from the child is perfect for this. By the way, the light reflected from it will make a pretty noticeable contribution to the final picture, so if you don't want special color effects, choose gray. If the height of the model holder itself is too small, a piece of plasticine can be hoisted onto the stand. Here's how it looked for me:

Now we need to focus on the model. Where did your hands reach? No, you don't need to touch the lens rings, it still won't help. Move the tripod so that there are about five centimeters from the tip of the lens to the insect. And, lo and behold, in the Live View mode his slightly vague silhouette should appear. Hooray! You can play a little. Take your first hazy megamacro photos, dance and dance. Well, the truth is, what a cool shade! Don't be shy, everyone does it. Having played enough, you can start to come up with a composition. Twist the model holder in the lens, straighten the insect's paws with the second needle, and at the same time, remove large debris from it and adjust the exposure on the camera so that there are no overexposures. By the way, you can change the magnification by turning the lens focal length ring only in the range from 24 to 35 mm, otherwise you won't be able to remove it without a rail. Here are the options I got:

Whatever you do at this stage, the lighting will leave a lot to be desired. The light from the lamp is quite hard, the contrast will go off scale. A cylindrical reflector, or paper "", will save us from this. Put it on the table, under the lamp, prop it up with Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, and place the long-suffering insect inside it. Sight the model again. Now, I think you have guessed why I recommended setting up the composition in advance. In a pipe obstructed by a camera, this will be much more difficult. In general, you should get something like the following construction:

The model is not visible in the photo, but it is there, inside, right under the center of the lamp. The light in this case will turn out to be much softer, although some correction of the exposure time may be required. Compare to my third option without a pipe:

Everything should be fine with the light, but the background is likely to be terrible. To correct this annoying misunderstanding, put some dark clothing or a rag behind the pipe. Black jeans, as opposed to white ( Promych I'm sorry) will do, although I used ski pants. Place something non-glare and colorful in front of your background clothing, such as a washcloth. I have four different ones.

The setup should look something like this:

By tinkering with the location of the sponge, you can remove something like this:

"Wait, wait, what kind of crap is so white, sticking out of the tube in front of the camera in the previous photo?" - an attentive reader will mentally ask me. And this is an additional reflector. It seemed to me that the lower part of the insect came out a little darkly. And I lit it up a little, with the light reflected from the paper. So it seemed to me better:

In general, everything is ready to shoot the stack. To make the last dash, turn on the mirror pre-lift on the camera. Owners of very budget DSLRs can sigh sadly and skip this point. Then turn on Live View and scroll the lens all the way to the right, but not completely all the way, but only by moving the focusing ring. The focal length of the lens should not change. Move the tripod towards the model so that the part closest to you is slightly out of focus. This is because if you make a mistake in the initial focusing, then after shooting the stack it will not be possible to correct it. Therefore, it is better to under-twist a little at first than to twist. Then rotate the lens to the left until the farthest part of the insect is in focus. Remember this position, and turn the lens back all the way to the right. Check the exposure again. The main thing is that there are no overexposures. Then, alas, nothing can be done about them.

Next, a titanic work begins, which will educate the patience of a monk in you. Turn off Live View, put the remote on the floor. Click on the remote button. The camera mirror will rise. We are waiting for about five seconds until the vibration dies down and press the button again. For those who simply do not raise the mirror, they get by with a single press of a button, and prayers so that everything will turn out abruptly. Congratulations, the first shot is taken. Now we rotate the lens to the left by a quarter to a third of the risks of the focal length ring. Better under-twist than twist. More frames - no less, if you skip part of the object in depth of field, the entire stack will have to be reshomed. Happened? Okay, we press the button, wait five seconds for the vibration to go out, and take the shot again. Again we rotate the lens by a quarter of the risk, take another shot, and so on, and so on. Until you rotate the lens in this way to the final position, which you should have remembered. This is how the process looks through the Live View:

And this is how it looks from the outside:

As a result, flipping through the obtained pictures on the camera screen, you should get something like the following:

Do not be alarmed that the size of the model decreases with every frame. Stack building programs are aware of this feature, and they correct it perfectly. But more about that, sometime next time.

Until then, watch the whole process of taking the title photo of the post, accelerated twenty-five times... As they said in my youth, in 3D (actually not) and in true color. What can you do, I had to eat a couple of bread crumbs from

I am a professor ( experimental psychology, but not entomology). Back in 1989, I started scanning images for use in my lectures, showing them in classrooms. In 2000, I purchased a digital camera to make family photos and document the dog's behavior. The camera was not as good as we wanted, it had slow autofocus and other specific limitations. I liked digital photography for the ability to take photos and see the result right away. Flash memory is like an endless reel of film. Given my past experience, I think of a digital camera, as you can see, more like a "scanner".

When I first got a camera, my five-year-old son came to my office one day and offered to photograph a beetle that caught his eye. That's exactly what I did. The photograph, by my current standards, was just awful, but then it allowed my son and me to see the beetle in more detail than we ourselves could have. This is what got me started with macro photography and what I like most about it.

Macro photography allows us to see the inaccessible. As a scientist, I am very curious by nature. I happily continued to photograph beetles, fortunately, my camera was well suited for such shooting. I also liked that the more I developed my skills in shooting beetles, the better my other photographs (dog, family, etc.) became.

The Internet and photo forums have become a source of knowledge about the art of photography for me. In this regard, I am especially grateful to those who wrote honest and constructive criticism. I think my dream is that my photographs will one day beautify children's books or some other educational material.

I wrote this article because it's not uncommon when I post my photos on the forums, people ask how they were made. And I decided to tell you. But keep in mind, I'm just a self-taught hobbyist who loves to experiment and has an insatiable curiosity. Therefore, you can have your own opinion. However, I hope you find this information helpful and will help you have more enjoyment of your photography.

Philosophy

Most of my beetles are photographed in their natural environment. I don't freeze, pollinate, glue or pin them. Sometimes I just move some blades of grass or sprouts to get more good overview... Even less often, I transfer the beetle to a new place. In any case, they are always alive when I take them off. Occasionally I photograph them on buildings (especially white ones) or other man-made structures.

The purpose of my shooting is to show the beetles in a positive light, in their in the best possible way... I especially like large "portraits", photographs that show the peculiarities of behavior and pictures of the insect in its entirety against a clean and smooth background.

Photo equipment

1. Canon Powershot G1 digital camera 35-103mm zoom lens, 3 megapixels (recently updated to Canon Powershot G3, 35-140mm zoom lens, 4 megapixels.
2. Lensmate Lens Adapter
3. Various macro lenses: Tiffen +10 and +7; Hanimex +6; Royal & Quantary Bundles (+3, +2, +1 in each bundle)
4. Tiffen Megaplus 2x Zoom / 2x Teleconverter
5. Pentax 50mm lens. F1.4 lens (normal, fast lens)
6. Macro ring (for installing a conventional lens on the other side)
7. Canon Flash 420ex
8. Various Stofen Omni-Bounce diffusers (translucent plastic cube)
9. Flash Mount Kirk, butterfly model
10. Remote cable (sync cable allows my flash to be attached to the holder)
11. Tripods
12. Rail-mounted tripod head for macro photography

Using macro lenses

Macro lenses allow the camera to focus on a closer area. As a result, due to the ability to move closer, the subject in the photograph is larger. Simply put, macro lenses allow you to magnify an image; such lenses actually work like a magnifying glass.

These lenses can be used several at a time, but remember, lenses with a greater degree of approximation should be closer to the camera. I managed to achieve an increase of +27. The only drawback that arises when using this technique is that the quality deteriorates, since more lenses are used. One more thing, the closer the zoom is, the shallower the depth of field will be. When zooming in really close, the depth of field is completely thinned out.

As already mentioned, macro lenses force us to get closer to the subject. The distance from the lens to the insect is called the "working distance". There is one technique that I use to increase the distance, for that with a macro lens I use a 2x teleconverter. Increasing the distance not only increases the likelihood of getting a good photo (since the insect will not be disturbed), but also makes it easier to obtain the required quality of lighting. The disadvantage of the 2x teleconverter is that some of the magnification power is lost when using it.

I have learned to use all kinds of options optical docking because some lens combinations work well and others don't. For example, I tried to use a two-fold teleconverter (2xTC) with the lens, but the result left much to be desired, so this combination of elements can be considered an unsuccessful "docking".

Inverting the lens

By using multiple macro lenses together, I got some great shots with good magnification. But this technique only partially satisfied me. I have found that stapling 2-3 lenses does not always give the desired effect, but only sometimes gives the desired quality.

I once read about a technique in which the lens is inverted to obtain good magnification... This has been covered in articles by Chris Breeze and Guy Parson, as well as in the book Nature and Macro Lenses by John Shaw. This technique is also called the "poor man's macro".

I first tried the inversion technique on a Canon 35-80mm lens, F4.5. The magnification was great, but there was a strong vignetting effect (black circle, like a frame in the image). So I took my camera and went to a photography store to try the 50mm lens. (regular). I bought a Pentax 50mm, F1.4 lens. "F1.4" means this is a fast lens (it lets in a lot of light). I ended up with minimal vignetting (only slight darkening around the edges). I think the zoom effect on the Canon G3 will completely eliminate the vignetting effect that the G1 has with this lens.

I take a standard 50 mm lens, digital Canon camera, I turn the lens over (I turn it on the other side - vice versa) thanks to the adapter (Lensmate), which also makes it possible to use additional lenses or filters, and only then I screw on the macro ring, which has a protruding thread on both sides. Links to resources where you can find such equipment are presented above in the previous sections.

Focus on the subject and lock it in, now you can slightly change the position of the camera back and forth in order to find the best focus point (where the image will look clear on the monitor) It takes some experience to learn how to do this.

Maximum zoom

Use the maximum zoom. This is especially useful when there is a vignetting effect (for example, when using a 2xTC lens screwed in after several macro lenses).

Closed aperture

Use a closed aperture ( greater importance"F") to get maximum depth sharpness. The higher the magnification, the shallower the depth of field.

Fill flash

Fill-in flash usually works well. Most of my shots were taken at "F8" (the lowest possible with my camera) at 1/250 with fill flash.

Getting fill light

I usually use one trick, set the aperture to F8, choose Tv (shutter priority) mode, and set the shutter speed to 1/640. Since the flash is on, it will show a maximum speed of 1/250 from F8. Although this trick does not work with the G3, it already allows for a high sync speed (faster than 1/250 with an external flash), which is very useful for getting fill light.

Aperture priority

Another very useful mode that I use is aperture priority (Av), of course at F8 (the minimum aperture I can set on my camera). I like this mode because I allow a shutter speed of around 1/100 on a good day (when I had my coffee in the morning), but shots taken at a shutter speed of 1/160 or 1/200 will most likely be successful, while allowing get a lighter background than 1/250.

Manual mode

I also sometimes use manual mode, but in my case it poses a problem as with the Canon G1 the flash works at full power at these settings (in which case it can be wrapped in a cloth or a diffuser can be used). Since the G3 gives you so much more control over the flash, I think I'll use manual mode more often.

Lighting and flash

1. Shoot on sunny days for faster shutter speeds.
2. If you can afford an external flash, then you can really make a difference.
3. When using a flash, its light should be diffused (for example, from fabric) or reflected (for example, from a white card or a special reflector). Focusing light also opens up certain possibilities.
4. Using 2xTC with multiple macro lenses also allows for good lighting, since due to the increased distance, the light is distributed more evenly.
5. The butterfly holder (with sync cable) gives you even more control over your lighting.
6. Varying the exposure and flash power, as well as controlling the direction of the bounce, allow for flexible lighting control.

Use a tripod or not?

I took about 90% of the insect shots handheld, so I don't use a tripod very often. I think this is one of the main advantages of a digital camera with a flip-down monitor. When I use a tripod, I like to use the rail macro head, which allows me to move the camera back and forth by minimum distance without changing the position of the tripod itself. Given how shallow the depth of field is, I prefer to focus first and then move the camera, which is great with a rail head.

As I said, most of my shots are hand-held. Therefore, as you can see, I learned very well how to stabilize the camera. I use a variety of techniques to achieve this: leaning my back against a tree or a fence, pinning my elbows, squatting, or fixing the camera on my knees / legs. If possible, I rest the edge of the camera against magazines or other objects that come to hand, and even often, hanging the camera on the belt (or even holding it in my teeth), I press on the camera (pulling the belt) at the time of shooting. Next season I plan to try shooting with a monopod (tripod with only one support).

How to get closer?

The philosophy I described earlier fully applies to this section. For me, shooting insects is like hunting big game. You will have to try hard to earn your trophies. In this game you have to be able to track and chase, as you can see, these are the same skills that a real hunter needs to develop.

I am especially pleased with the dragonfly photo-hunting. I don’t go to shoot at any special time, and besides, I’m not an early bird. I have 3 hectares, from which about 15 minutes to the river through the swamps. This is why dragonflies are abundant there at certain times of the year, I was told. Water seems to be key when it comes about dragonflies.

Here are some tips for getting closer to your subject:

1. Walk slowly and be patient. Watch the insect for a while to understand how it behaves.
2. Some insects are calmer than others (both within a species and among different species).
3. Do not make sudden movements, try to stand so that your shadow does not fall on the insect. If the bug flew away, freeze and wait a few minutes - in most cases they return to their original place.
4. When you finally get close enough to the insect, immediately start filming like a man possessed. You must be prepared ahead of time by setting up your camera, because you may only get one chance.
5. Once you learn how to masterfully focus and expose, you can move on to work on the content of the photo.

Digital darkroom

The higher the magnification, the shallower the depth of field you get. This rule cannot be circumvented. I try to use what little I have, the best way... In addition, I try to take pictures so that later there is no need to process and improve them for a long time. In fact, I realized that truly perfect photographs are rare, they do not follow one after another.

When I digitally process photographs, my goal is only to improve the image that the camera gives me, and not to change it. Nevertheless, sometimes I still resort to changes: I add clouds to the sky, remove unnecessary elements and in rare cases change the background.

V recent times I am experimenting using photos taken within a few seconds. These images have different focus points, which, thanks to the composition, allows for a greater depth of field (which I do more often when using extremely high magnification, where the depth is too limited). The following photo is just an example of the use of this technique.

Take as many shots as possible, while trying to change the focus plane, this way you will get several photos in which the focus will be in the "golden mean".

Get in the habit of deleting most of the photos you take. With experience, the chances of success gradually increase (sometimes).

Use basic tools such as rotating, cropping, levels, curves, saturation and contrast to enhance your photo, as well as sharpening your subject, and blurring the background.

Masking hides certain areas of the image, which allows you to work with other areas without affecting the hidden ones. It is advisable to apply masking to the foreground in order to process the background. I usually do this to blur the background a little and remove digital noise (I have to do this, since I do not have a modern digital camera that allows me to take photos with almost no noise).

Creating a mask is a tedious process, but it can be done different ways... I like the tool " Magic wand"(magic wand), which selects similar areas based on their color. As a rule, I start my work with this tool, and only then use others in order to make the mask more accurate.

A tool that I think is very useful for doing digital processing is a graphics tablet, which allows you to use the pen instead of the mouse to control the cursor. I have a Wacom tablet.

Close-up photography is shooting from a very close distance, in which you can capture details that are invisible to the human eye. it complex view shooting, for which you need to know the basics of macro photography and have the appropriate equipment at your disposal.

The most popular macro objects are flowers, insects, human eyes and any other highly detailed small objects.

Macro camera

When choosing a camera for macro photography, keep in mind the following guidelines:

• The camera must have special settings for the macro photography mode;
• A digital camera must have good program turning on the macro mode. It is usually started with a dial selector;
• For macro photography, an SLR film camera is better suited. It is even better if the camera is not electronic, but mechanical. Only macro photography with a DSLR allows you to perfectly position the frame and assess the focus of the lens. It also makes it possible to use special rings that are installed between the lock and the camera lens.

Varieties of rings for macro photography

• Wraparound (reversible) ring. An inexpensive and easy-to-use device that allows you to work in macro mode. Before starting work, you need to wind it up instead of a light filter and attach the lens to the carcass reverse side. Advantages: low price, compactness, does not degrade image quality. Minuses: you cannot change the macro scale, automatic functions do not work;
• Furs for macro photography... They are presented in the form of an "accordion" that allows you to increase the distance between the lens and the camera. Advantages: stepless zoom, no deterioration in photo quality, no need to remove the lens to zoom. Minuses: automatic functions do not work, the aperture of the lens decreases when the object being shot approaches, dimensions are not quite convenient;
• Extension ring set... Their work is similar to the work of bellows, but in this case it is possible to change the scale of the image only stepwise. Advantages: Image quality does not deteriorate, and the camera's automatic functions continue to operate. Minuses: the aperture of the lens decreases, to change the scale you have to remove the lens, high cost;
• Lens set for macro photography... The lenses are screwed onto the filter thread, so there is no need to remove the lens. Advantages: aperture is not lost, compactness, low price, automatic functions work, can be used with a removable lens. Minuses: Image quality deteriorates, especially with cheap lenses.

Macro lens

The macro lens features a close focusing distance and increased resolution for sharp, high-contrast images. If you are not really into macro photography, it makes sense to think carefully about whether you need a special lens, because portrait and landscape photography... Macro objects are expensive.

Armed with following tips and the rules, you can take stunning macro photography right at home.

• Focus on important subjects manually;
• Flash during macro photography will help you see very fine details in more detail;
• To prevent the blur effect, fix inanimate objects in motion with a regular clothespin or a professional macro tripod;
• Use high saturation color films with medium sensitivity;
• Try to get away from the temptation to shoot at maximum magnification, as this significantly decreases the depth of field, most of the image looks blurry and indistinct;
• Use a lens hood when shooting against the sun;
• Use safety filters. They will protect an expensive lens from pollen and other particles;
• It is not worth doing macro photography in cloudy weather, since the play of light is important, perhaps the main thing in macro photography;
• Every part of the day is an opportunity for good macro photography. Use it! A sunny afternoon will open up the macrocosm in all its splendor for the camera, sunset will give you the opportunity to shoot with backlight or oblique light. In the early morning, macro photography of insects is most accessible, since insects are weakly mobile;
• Try to make the background neutral, monochrome. To do this, you just need to change the shooting angle or put a cloth, backpack, jacket;
• To create artificial dew, it is enough to lubricate the surface with glycerin and sprinkle with water. A beautiful effect is created when shooting with the Star diffraction filter;
• Use a cable release, the self-timer function can replace it. Using the shutter button may result in vibration, which will ruin the photo;

Macro mode in inexpensive cameras

Some cheap digital cameras also have a macro mode. The button to turn it on is usually labeled as a flower icon. Of course, professional macro photography with such a camera cannot be achieved, but in this mode you can get much closer to the subject, which is impossible in the standard mode.

Conclusion

Macro photography is a rather complex branch of the art of photography. Before doing it, purchase required list equipment. Otherwise, all your experiments will inevitably end up with getting vague photographs. And armed with the secrets of macro photography described in this article, your shots will be much better.

Macro photography attracts many photographers with the ability to capture the smallest objects and show that beauty to the viewer. Today we are going to walk you through the camera settings that will help you take great macro photography.

It can take a lot of time and effort to master macro photography, but the results are worth the effort. First, remember that characteristic feature A close-up shot is a clear and sharp foreground subject and a background with a shallow depth of field.

Camera settings for macro photography. Classic close-up

Take pictures in manual exposure mode, this will give you complete control over your subject. Aperture priority mode is preferred; start macro photography with an aperture value of f / 11.

• Focusing. When photographing static subjects, use manual focus mode and focus on the central area of ​​the subject;
• For macro close-ups, set the aperture to f / 11. For greater depth of field, use a smaller aperture, such as f / 16 or f / 22;
• Set the shutter speed depending on the lighting;
• ISO 100;
• Focal length from 50mm to 100mm;

Camera settings for macro photography. Shallow depth of field

There are two key points to achieve a shallow depth of field. First, choose the widest aperture available on the lens. With most macro lenses, it is f / 2.8, which is much wider than most zoom lenses.

The distance between the subject and the camera is the second step in achieving a shallow depth of field. The closer the subject is to the camera, the shallower the depth of field.

• Focusing. Precise focusing is absolutely essential when shooting with shallow depth of field and is difficult to achieve with autofocus. To fix this, you should try manual mode;
• Exposure mode. Give priority to aperture priority (Av or A);
• The shutter speed will be set automatically;
• ISO 200;
• Focal length - from 50mm to 100mm;
• Set the white balance according to the light source.

Camera settings for handheld macro photography

Shooting insects or other tiny creatures at close range with Aperture Priority mode gives you control over depth of field.

• Focusing. Choose one-point focus, and concentrate on the eyes of the insects, or the core of the flower;
• To achieve a blurred background, it is desirable that the aperture is as open as possible;
• The shutter speed should be about 1/250 sec. or faster. Otherwise, photos may appear blurry;
• ISO 200;
• Set the white balance according to the light source.

Macro photography is almost an inaccessible area for the budding photographer on a budget, as true macro lenses are very expensive and inexpensive macro optics have major drawbacks. For example, my Tamron (one of the most budget lenses in its class) is marked "macro", but the minimum distance to an object in this mode is about one and a half meters. The inscription "macro" here, in my opinion, is just a publicity stunt, because from such a distance you can take a picture of a butterfly or something of a similar size. And it seems to me that such pictures can be called macro, only with a big stretch. Yes, large, but still not macro. Below is a photo from this lens (Tamron 70-300) in "macro" mode

And the next two pictures were taken with the help of macro optics, the production of which we will analyze in detail in this article.

Personally, I was seriously puzzled by the "construction" of a macro lens, because I really wanted to photograph the iris of the human eye, the pollen on the wings of a butterfly, the "face" of a fly, snowflakes, but you never know of all kinds of beauty hiding in the "macro world". And the desire to capture what was hidden right under our noses, plus a very limited budget, led me to such a design. I put the Helios 44-2 bought for 1000 rubles with the reverse side to another lens mounted on the camera. And that's it, the macro optics are ready, you can take pictures. I made the first option simply by wrapping the second lens on electrical tape.

But the electrical tape is blocking access to the second lens aperture ring. But even without a mount at all is not an option either, because all the time holding the camera with one hand and the other lens with the other is inconvenient and not realistic in general, because you still need to press buttons, turn the tuning rings on the mechanical Helios and do many others manipulations where at least one free hand is needed. So, we attach two lenses to each other, with the possibility of placing on it also a light source (flashlight)

Materials and tools:

Two lenses (eg Helios 44-2 and Tamron 70-300) The Tamron 70-300 lens is available for purchase.
A piece of ABS plastic (which does not prick)
Soldering iron
Files (round and semi-winged)
Gas hairdryer (available for purchase)
Stationery knife
Jigsaw (You can do without it)
Pliers or clamp (optional)

Step 1
We take a piece of plastic, apply a hood (such plastic nonsense that is attached to the end of the lens and covers the lens from side light) from Tamron and outline the mounts to the lens. Then we cut a hole along the drawn lines. You can do it with a jigsaw or drill small holes in a circle, as you like, I did it with a soldering iron. As a result, we need to copy the attachments of the hood so that the piece of plastic will then hold tightly in its place.

At first, I did not take into account that the plastic should not be sharp, and when I had already cut a hole, I immediately split the workpiece, starting to process the edges.
I took the next piece of plastic from an old phone case. He, too, is not quite what you need, but nothing more suitable was found. Then I repeated the procedure with a soldering iron, adjusted the hole to the shape of the mounts on the lens, and finished the edges.

Step 2
We take Helios 44, unscrew the adapter ring (through this ring it is attached to my DSLR) and screw it back in back to front, so it will be more convenient to make fasteners for it and there will be no need to seal the joint between the lenses.

Trying on Helios with an inverted adapter to Tamron, which is already wearing a piece of plastic with a ready-made fastener. I got it so that the adapter ring is a millimeter larger than the diameter of the lens installed on the camera, so the whole structure does not have any gaps into which unwanted light could enter. If there are any, for example, when assembling this homemade product from other lenses, then they must be carefully insulated, otherwise there will be glare or other defects during shooting.

Step 3
We unscrew the adapter ring from the lens so that it does not interfere while we are making mounts. We warm up the edges of the plastic dressed instead of the hood, bend and press the adapter ring with them. We do it with three sides to create a "pocket" into which a ring with a screwed lens will be inserted from above. You can make such bends on all four sides so that the second lens can be removed with the mount. But I decided to use one of the sides (top) to place the flashlight on it.

Step 4
In our design for macro photography, the focal zone will be 20-30 mm from the edge of the second lens, that is, we will shoot directly at point-blank range. For example, when shooting a human eye, the lens practically touches the eyelashes. Therefore, the built-in flash, like the “shoe” flash, simply does not hit the subject and additional light is needed to illuminate the area directly in front of the lens.

I use a bright flashlight with a movable mount to be able to adjust the direction of the light in the illuminated area. Subsequently, after the tests, the flashlight was pushed even closer to the edge of the lens by a few centimeters.

Conclusion

Of course, this "macro optics" has some drawbacks. For example without additional light or a bright sun of this design lacks lighting, plus the camera electronics in auto modes incorrectly estimate the amount of light and choose incorrect settings. Although, in my personal opinion, the only serious drawback is the small depth of field (depth of field) when shooting flat objects such as snowflakes, this does not affect the pictures in any way, but when shooting voluminous objects, I already want to increase this indicator. And it increases only in direct proportion to the decrease in light sensitivity due to the closing of the diaphragm.
But such a macro adaptation does not require money if you have two lenses, it gives an excellent magnification steeper than any macro rings (which, by the way, also cost money), allows you to look into the "macro-world" and take pictures there. It seems to me that these pluses outweigh the minuses.

All that remains is to set the convenient shooting mode on the camera (I shot it completely manually), choose the appropriate settings for the camera and both lenses, and voila, we get such interesting pictures that not even all serious photographers can boast of.

I wish you creative success!