Twisted Blade
Here's a fun and easy macro photograph for people to experiment with, requiring just a few simple ingredients and roughly 1:1 lifesize.
What I've done here is taken a blade of grass and twisted it, holding it on either ends with the clips of a Third Hand device just out of the frame. For those not familiar with such devices, they're of great help when setting up shots like this, and typically cost around $10: www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&...
Certain types of grasses allow water to bead up beautifully on its edges, and twisting the grass in this case allows for a slightly randomized appearance and a bit of depth to the image. The droplets are added through a simple spray bottle and when the right size and density has formed, I place the flower in the background.
The flower is held in place with another Third hand device, allowing for the specific positioning needed to make it refract inside the water droplets. The droplets act like lenses, showing an in-focus version of the flower inside the droplets what an out of focus version fills in the background of the image. It might take a bit of experimentation to find the right position and distance from the droplets to appear centered.
This image was shot around 1:1 lifesize at F/8. This gives enough depth of field to have most of the droplets in focus, and you could always take multiple frames at different focus points. These could be combined together in a focus stacking process, but it isn't always necessary. I think this image looks pretty good for just a single frame, and it's much easier to get results if you're attempting this for your first time. (If you're curious about focus stacking however, I discuss it at length in my book Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ )
To light this image, a flash is connected to the camera with an off-camera shoe cord and held above the scene to the left. A few shots might be required to get a feeling for how the light is hitting the grass and the subject, but I always find these shots more appealing when the flash is hitting the flower more than the foreground - the flower tends to "pop" more. Flash is set to E-TTL automatic metering and it does a decent job.
While I experimented quite a bit with this flower (a large Gerbera Daisy), this was the first image I captured in the shooting session. Sometimes the first try is the best!
If anyone in the macro photography community has questions about this process and how to experiment with water droplet images, ask in the comments and I'd be happy to answer. :)
Twisted Blade
Here's a fun and easy macro photograph for people to experiment with, requiring just a few simple ingredients and roughly 1:1 lifesize.
What I've done here is taken a blade of grass and twisted it, holding it on either ends with the clips of a Third Hand device just out of the frame. For those not familiar with such devices, they're of great help when setting up shots like this, and typically cost around $10: www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&...
Certain types of grasses allow water to bead up beautifully on its edges, and twisting the grass in this case allows for a slightly randomized appearance and a bit of depth to the image. The droplets are added through a simple spray bottle and when the right size and density has formed, I place the flower in the background.
The flower is held in place with another Third hand device, allowing for the specific positioning needed to make it refract inside the water droplets. The droplets act like lenses, showing an in-focus version of the flower inside the droplets what an out of focus version fills in the background of the image. It might take a bit of experimentation to find the right position and distance from the droplets to appear centered.
This image was shot around 1:1 lifesize at F/8. This gives enough depth of field to have most of the droplets in focus, and you could always take multiple frames at different focus points. These could be combined together in a focus stacking process, but it isn't always necessary. I think this image looks pretty good for just a single frame, and it's much easier to get results if you're attempting this for your first time. (If you're curious about focus stacking however, I discuss it at length in my book Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ )
To light this image, a flash is connected to the camera with an off-camera shoe cord and held above the scene to the left. A few shots might be required to get a feeling for how the light is hitting the grass and the subject, but I always find these shots more appealing when the flash is hitting the flower more than the foreground - the flower tends to "pop" more. Flash is set to E-TTL automatic metering and it does a decent job.
While I experimented quite a bit with this flower (a large Gerbera Daisy), this was the first image I captured in the shooting session. Sometimes the first try is the best!
If anyone in the macro photography community has questions about this process and how to experiment with water droplet images, ask in the comments and I'd be happy to answer. :)