Macro Photography for Beginners: Reverse the lens on the camera body.

It`s easy to do and the bits usually exist for this to be done. They are rarely used parts so may take some digging to find them. Some cameras are happier than others doing this. It is best suited to lenses that have manual aperture control on the lens itself. If you have a lens that can only control the aperture from the body then the price of the adapter rises dramatically as electrical signals have to be sent now to the end of the lens that is facing away from the camera. It`s easy with Nikon and hard with Canon.
The theory behind reversing a lens is to realise that normally the rear of the lens is close to the film and distant from the subject. When you get into macro-land the reverse is often true so the lens performs better when turned around so that the rear of the lens is pointed towards the closer subject. Usually have the lens right way around for anything down to about 1:1 then reverse the lens when trying to achieve enlargement onto the film ie. the image on the film will be larger than the subject.

It works best with simple lenses like primes but zooms can certainly be used. For example, my Nikon 28-105 zoom already focusses normally down close enough to achieve 1:2 (half life size on film) but the image is not so good around the edges. By reversing the lens and using the zoom function a better result was obtained plus also more spectacular close-ups were obtained by zooming towards the 28mm end. See my page on the 28-105 for some example shots.

In Nikon-land when the lens is reversed you have to manually focus with the aperture set wide open then move the aperture ring to the desired setting (usually try around f/8 to f/22) before shooting. With available light the camera must be in aperture priority mode so that it knows to accept what`s coming through the lens and only vary the shutter speed for exposure control. With flash in TTL mode, go to camera manual mode and set the camera to the flash sync speed or slower.

Be aware that once you reverse a lens you normally lose all control of the lens unless you have the expensive reverse attachments with contacts. For the simple adapters like Nikon uses you can employ any brand lens reversed as long as you can manually control the aperture. Usually the reversing attachment bayonets into the body and provides a male thread (Nikon = 52mm) that the lens filter ring screws onto. Nikon also makes an adapter to change the 52mm to 62mm to allow most of its other lenses to fit. It would not be recommended to use large and heavy lenses this way as all the weight is carried by the filter thread and may more easily damage the lens if roughly handled. See if you can get a simple reverser for your camera and then seek a cheap used lens (manual focus quite OK) around 28mm to 50mm to experiment with.

Speaking Nikon again there also exists an adapter to place on the now reversed lens so that filters or lens hoods can be attached to the now exposed bayonet end. There is also an adapter to place on the exposed rear of the lens to control the aperture shutdown with a cable release. This makes it easier to focus wide open then close down to shoot. There is less chance of disturbing the focus or alignment using this attachment.

Upside. Cheap way to get results, can try most of your normal lenses this way.
Downside. Some camera types lose aperture control and may need expensive adapters.