How to Turn Vintage Lenses Into Macro Photography Powerhouses

Carla Step shoots beautiful close ups of flowers by combining unexpected combinations of lenses and camera bodies.

Photography

Words By

Carla Step

Photography By

Carla Step

In Carla Step’s studio, there are always fresh flowers. Between shoots, she stares at their delicate shapes and admires their many textures. But when she tries to capture their essence with her digital lenses, she would lose these magical details. Until she discovered the power of using a lens adapter to harness the macro potential of her vintage lenses.

I have a lot of lenses from my father’s old cameras. All of them are prime lenses with a very beautiful blur at their maximum aperture and exceptional sharpness. I also have a special affection for them because one day they belonged to my father and he took many of his photographs with them. When I discovered the Urth lens adapters I thought it was a good opportunity to put them back to use.

I usually work with a Sony A7III mirrorless camera with prime lenses. Thanks to the Urth M42 lens mount to Sony E camera mount adapter I can also use the M42 mount lenses from my father’s Pentax camera and take advantage of its build quality. But what I find most interesting is that this adapter has a wheel with which you can change the focal length between the lens and the sensor. That means you can make your lens focus much closer than it could normally do. In other words, it simulates a “macro” lens.

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Urth HQ

Why did you decide to use a lens adapter?

Carla Step

I had wanted to shoot flowers up close for a long time, but I didn’t have a macro lens for my camera. Then I discovered that with this Urth adapter I could use my analogue camera lenses on the digital camera, and even though they weren’t macro lenses, the adapter helped me change the focal length so that I could shoot much closer to the object.

Left

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Left

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Urth HQ

Can you describe your approach to using this adapter? How did you get the effect you wanted?

Carla Step

To get the “macro” effect I wanted with this adapter, I mounted a 55mm lens from my father’s old Pentax with an M42 mount adapter to my Sony camera. I set the diaphragm to shoot at the maximum aperture (f1.8) and began to play with the wheel that comes with the adapter to focus. This wheel allowed me to change the distance between the lens and the camera body and thus be able to focus on the flowers up close.

Being able to fit my analog lenses on my digital camera was amazing. Old lenses have a great quality in their construction and it is wonderful to be able to continue using them and mix them with the resolution that today’s mirrorless cameras offer us.

Above

Macro photo shot with a vintage lens and a lens adapter.

“The adapter helped me change the focal length so that I could shoot much closer to the object.”

— Carla Step

Left

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Center

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Left

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Center

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Above

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Urth HQ

Any challenges you experienced using this adapter? How did you overcome those challenges?

Carla Step

I have to confess that when I imagined taking macro photos I didn’t think it would be that complicated. To make the photo interesting, I had to keep the diaphragm very open to be able to play with focus and blur, but that also made it difficult to decide which area of the flower I wanted to focus on and which not.

My main goal was for the photos to have a very pictorial essence, and that you pay attention, above all, to the textures captured.

With a little patience I achieved the kind of photography that I had originally envisioned.

Left

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Left

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Right

Shot with a Sony A7III camera, a vintage 55m Pentax lens and an Urth M42 extendable lens adapter.

Urth HQ

Where did you find creative inspiration for taking these photos?

Carla Step

For these photographs I was inspired by the botanical photography series of Karl Blossfeldt and Robert Mapplethorpe. It is also very likely that these photos are indirectly influenced by the work of Edward Weston, who inspired me a lot in my early years as a photographer and from whom I have inherited a certain way of treating black and white photos.

The photos in this article are made possible by Urth lens adapters. Each lens adapter purchased plants 5 trees in areas affected by severe deforestation.

Photography

03 Jun 2021