ACCEPTING ENTRIES: Mini Competition #520
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Pansy refracted in raindrops
Narrow street in Périgueux
Re: Sunset over Lake Tahoe
This wasn't really a competition. Astonishing Keith, what a very great capture. How did you manage this?
Re: Pansy refracted in raindrops
You have a walk-away winner Keith! Congratulations! :D OK, I just got to know, do the drops contain glycern? ;)
Re: Pansy refracted in raindrops
Amazing shot Keith, such clarity and colour.
A worthy winner! Congrats.
Re: Pansy refracted in raindrops
Thanks for looking and commenting guys. I'm not sure where to post this reply so can I ask a Mod to move it as appropriate please.:)
Shooting droplet shots
It is a very old technique that I first tried some forty years ago and didn’t have a great deal of success with, however with digital it is so very much easier. Basically, find a nice blade(s) of grass with some lovely dewdrops or raindrops on them, place the flower just behind them, get down and personal with the ground and start snapping away.
The size of the bloom, distance between the bloom and the droplets and the size of the droplets are all crucial to getting a good diffracted image in the drops – as is the magnification of the lens setup and the flash angle.
To get an acceptable shot of the refracted images in the drops, simply focus on them. To get a finished result where the grass and drops themselves are in focus, then a series of shots, focussed at slightly different points that cover all the proposed image, are required. Then it’s off to the digital darkroom to use something like Combine ZP (Freeware) to carry out the focus stacking.
The rig I use is shown in this first photo and all these were taken last year. What I didn’t realise until I got down to check out the first shot was that I had forgotten my right-angle finder :o (which is essential for me) so please imagine it added to the setup.
http://i56.tinypic.com/1zxv6n8.jpg
Canon 5D, Sigma 105mm macro lens, Kenco extension tubes, Canon 430X flash, snoot made from a plastic milk bottle, paper towel diffuser and loads of duct tape!:)
This second photo is me just starting to struggle to my feet after realising I had forgotten the said R-A finder and my neighbour took the shot while I was moving, Never mind, it gives you the idea of what I mean by getting down and personal. :)
http://i54.tinypic.com/20a5m44.jpg
Sadly, with all my clumping around, I managed to knock all the drops off the grass I had picked out as most suitable so I had go on a search for another spot. Fortunately I found a nice clump of something (?) in a patch of unplanned and inappropriately situated flora (weeds) which served the purpose nicely. This third shot is the result of my efforts.
http://i55.tinypic.com/eldw8h.jpg
I am Britain’s answer to Agent Orange regarding anything horticultural, I grow old and can grow weeds but nothing else :( so I have to get flowers from various places, market stalls, garden centres, specialist growers etc and if I can’t persuade them to give me a couple of blooms for free then I buy them, this flower is called Alstromeria. Its fun to do but it can be very, very frustrating at times! I use a similar technique for shooting bugs but with them I consider a 5% success rate as being good! :( Note the height-of-fashion finger-tip-less gloves, :) excellent in cold weather.
Thanks to my neighbour for venturing out into the cold and damp to take the reference shots :)
I hope this inspires you to have a go. :)
Keith
Re: Pansy refracted in raindrops
Keith, this was an awesome shot. Thanks for posting how you did it. Congrats!!!
Re: Pansy refracted in raindrops
Another tutorial on water drop flower photography, by Steve Wall.