Snowflake Macro Photos First Attempt

[zkogut]

Hi Everybody,

I finally got tired of colorization for a little bit and decided I'd try to do some snowflake photos with my macro lens. I've only used it for photographing bugs up until now. I think these came out somewhat decent considering it's a 1:1 magnification and only 85mm f/4.5. Let me know what you think.

Zak

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Those are cool Zak.
How do you go about isolating a single flake and keep it from melting too?

[NorthernFocus]

I'd say to did well for a first attempt. There are some folks around here who shoot them and they won't share their technique. There is opportunity for some really nice imagery.

[Stagecoach]

Good attempt at this Zak, I suspect the success with doing these very much relies upon the ambient temperature determining how much time you have before they melt

Out of interest what method did you use for focusing?

Grahame

[zkogut]

Those are cool Zak.
How do you go about isolating a single flake and keep it from melting too?

Hi Alan,
I have a piece of jewelry cloth that I lay over a few things like a wool hat and a knitted glove to keep the heat away from melting the snow that'll land on the upper cloth. I typically will let flakes fall on the cloth and I'll keep an eye out for a star looking flake. They are generally lumped together but will easily fall apart if you bounce the rag around.

[zkogut]

Good attempt at this Zak, I suspect the success with doing these very much relies upon the ambient temperature determining how much time you have before they melt

Out of interest what method did you use for focusing?

Grahame

Hi Grahame,

I did everything hand held. I hold a folded rag in my left hand and then with my camera in my right hand with the lens adjusted to the closest setting I'll bring my left hand in and out to bring the flakes into focus. Once I see edges are sharp on the flake I'll take the picture. I had 1 clear shot out of groups of 5 typically. The flakes where I used flash they turned out looking bad and very "contrasty." My settings for the 85mm were: F/18 or 22, 1/320 up to 1/400, ISO 1600-2000, WB Auto, Manual focus, VR off.

[Rita]

These seem to have turned out quit well. I have found that snowflakes are a big challenge.

[plugsnpixels]

Living in SoCal I don't know what those things are, but you captured great shots of them! ;-)

[Stagecoach]

Hi Grahame,

I did everything hand held. I hold a folded rag in my left hand and then with my camera in my right hand with the lens adjusted to the closest setting I'll bring my left hand in and out to bring the flakes into focus. Once I see edges are sharp on the flake I'll take the picture. I had 1 clear shot out of groups of 5 typically. The flakes where I used flash they turned out looking bad and very "contrasty." My settings for the 85mm were: F/18 or 22, 1/320 up to 1/400, ISO 1600-2000, WB Auto, Manual focus, VR off.

Thanks for the explanation Zak, it's certainly something I will not get a chance to have a go at here

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[JR1]

Well executed, IS this your FIRST attemp

They appear too god for a first attempt

[zkogut]

Well executed, IS this your FIRST attemp

They appear too god for a first attempt

Haha, well to be honest it was my second attempt of the day. I tried earlier but was getting very frustrated with the results because of the flash and hard contrasts. I finally figured out that boosting my iso up to 1600 or 2000 gave good results and I could take the noise out in camera raw. I shoot with a dx camera and it is pretty noisy above 1200 iso. Cleaned up nicely though.

[JR1]

Almost impossible to believe that despite the Ice age, snow falls since the start of snow on the planet, the snow in the Arctic and Antarctic and glaciers that all of the snow that has, and ever will fall no two are the same

[Loose Canon]

Nice job with these Zak! I dig the red BG myself!

I’ve read a pretty good bit about different techniques folks use to do this. Along with some lighting techniques as well. I wanted to try it this winter. Unfortunately I have yet to be in the same place at the same time as my camera and snow!

Now, since I have already had it up to there with winter, I am hoping it will wait until next winter! Those snow flakes are all happy, gorgeous, and delicate until you have to shovel 8’ of them!

[chauncey]

FWIW, the technique that I've tried revolves around this...http://digital-photography-school.co...s-with-a-dslr/
while shooting tethered and stacking, kinda never mastered it though.

[zkogut]

FWIW, the technique that I've tried revolves around this...http://digital-photography-school.co...s-with-a-dslr/
while shooting tethered and stacking, kinda never mastered it though.

Thanks. I've read that article before awhile ago. I focus stack bugs a lot but since I'm using handheld to photograph the snowflake and I'm only slightly above 1:1 magnification if I use my tubes, it doesn't work for me. I just take about a hundred shots of different flakes I catch on my jewelers rag and pick my favorites. The setup that person uses in the article is about $3k with the ring flash, remote, tubes, macro, teleconverter etc. I use my 85mm macro without extension tubes and no flash to get this kind of a picture. If I come up with a better result using a different setup I'll let you know for sure.