Ice storm versus a tree 2

[Manfred M]

After completing some shots of the branches of one of our trees after some freezing rain, I went back and changed from the f/2 105 DC lens for the f/2.8 70-200mm lens. The sun was higher in the sky, so I looked at trying to shoot with the light refracting through the thin layer of ice, creating some interesting specular highlights and some lens flare as a compostional element.

One has to open the image in Lytebox to see these tiny starbusts that come through the ice.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured. Did you still have a lens hood on?

[Marie Hass]

What fun, Manfred!!!!

I love shots such as this! It looks like an abstract.

'Rie

[FootLoose]

Nice shot, Manfred. Natural glow - sure beats Topaz etc.

[Nicks Pics]

Beautiful photo! I don't think the lens flare would have worked for me if it were not for the different colors in it offers to the image. The sparkling light in the ice is charming. It is a little hard to see where the focus was in this image. Maybe it's just because of the subject matter not showing which parts are in focus well.

[Manfred M]

Beautiful photo! I don't think the lens flare would have worked for me if it were not for the different colors in it offers to the image. The sparkling light in the ice is charming. It is a little hard to see where the focus was in this image. Maybe it's just because of the subject matter not showing which parts are in focus well.

The focus was pretty well in the middle of the main branch in the image. I used a single point focus and with a focal length of 70mm and aperture of f/22 I was hoped that pretty well everything would be in focus. Some parts of the branch were closer to me than the focus point and others were further away.

I was a bit concerned that diffraction was going to soften the small specular highlights too much, but things turned out pretty much as I had hoped.

[Manfred M]

What fun, Manfred!!!!

I love shots such as this! It looks like an abstract.

'Rie

I think you've figured out what I'm trying to do. I've been looking at some abstract images by other photographers (Brett Weston and Bruce Barnbaum), but want to pull back from what they are doing a bit so people can still recognize the subject, but the overall image still hints at abstraction / has abstract elements.

[Manfred M]

Nicely captured. Did you still have a lens hood on?

Yes, this shot used the lens hood. I tried some shots without it, but with the sun just out of view on the left, I got too much flare / burnout.

In retrospect, I should have also removed the UV filter to see how that would have impacted the image. Hopefully, I'll remember the next time I try something like this.

I've had problems getting lens flare with the Nikkor Nanocoated lenses and was pleasantly surprised when this worked. I suspect that shooting at f/22 resulted in some light reflecting of the iris leaves and this might have helped out here.

[cuilin]

i don't mind the lens flare so much in this one. i like the sparkles from the light hitting the ice. and that blue sky background.

[IzzieK]

The whole shot is actually mesmerizing just looking at it then bang! that blue dust bunny stopped my look-see tracks...

[FootLoose]

dust bunny? I thought it was a droplet of water dripping from higher up the branch

[Manfred M]

The whole shot is actually mesmerizing just looking at it then bang! that blue dust bunny stopped my look-see tracks...

I rarely remove them in my posted images; just not productive use of my time, unless there are lots that really make a mess of the image, I tend to ignore them in my (and others) postings. For serious stuff; i.e. when I post to my Behance site or prepare for printing, I do a fairly careful cleanup (and occasionally miss some then too).

There are probably a couple of dozen small flaws like dust bunnies in this shot. I'm not quite sure what the blue streak is; it doesn't seem to have the right shape and density to be a dust bunny.

[GBO25]

Great shot. At first it struck me as something that had been way over sharpened but when I opened it in lightbox it really lifted now that I could see the ice and sun stars. Well done.

[NorthernFocus]

Interesting, Manfred. I'm forever looking at the spectral effects in hoar frost on branches, icicles, etc, and am just to lazy to try to capture them. You may be inspiring me to get out and get my hands cold. Did you take any tighter shots?

[Manfred M]

Interesting, Manfred. I'm forever looking at the spectral effects in hoar frost on branches, icicles, etc, and am just to lazy to try to capture them. You may be inspiring me to get out and get my hands cold. Did you take any tighter shots?

No I didn't Dan. These shots were 100% experimental on my part.

I was purely trying to see if I could take advantage of the optical properties of the ice as an element that transmits light, rather than the usual approach using it as more of a reflector. I didn't get a chance to try anything yesterday as we are out most of the day, and this morning we woke up to having everything covered in snow, so nothing to work with right now.

I think a closeup would havebeen very interesting, but none of my lenses focus particularly close. I might want to try the 50mm prime because it is the one that I can focus closest with. Getting those star-shaped specular hightlights on a larger scale would make for an interesting image.