In the previous article Beginners Tips for Sunrise Portraits : Part I,
we discussed a number of tips and tricks that will guarantee a
fantastic Sunrise Portrait-Shoot. Experiment with those tips and tricks
before taking on these techniques.
Every photographer in love with a good portrait session wants to push
the envelop with new techniques to improve results. We love capturing
personality and creating something truly beautiful with our photographs.
Personally, I’ve found sunrise shoots give me a thrill unlike any other
time I could photograph. Sunrise shoots have captivated me with
stunning images, enticed me with fond memories, and given me a new found
love for portraits.
While sunrise shoots aren’t particularly complicated, I have found a
few techniques that radically improve my results, and give my portraits a
unique look. Before moving forward with these techniques, I’d recommend
you start by watching for light – all the time and everywhere. After
all, using this breathtaking light is the entire point of getting up
before dawn for a photo-shoot. It’s soft. The shadows are long. Make the
most of this “magic hour” by paying close attention to light all around
you.
Photograph on Manual
So long as you are facing your subject into the light, Aperture
Priority is sufficient for a perfectly exposed portrait. However, with
Sunrise light you have so many options for more complicated exposures,
so manually exposing will be your friend.
Experiment with Under-Exposing and adding Fill Flash
Under-exposing the background will keep beautifully vivid color in
the sky backdrop. Sunrises can vary from deep reds and oranges, with
splashes of bright purples and blues. Including this gorgeous landscape
will make dynamic portraits! Avoid a silhouette in this kind of scenario
by adding a fill that will light up your subject. Furthermore, your
subject will stand out by golden rim lighting.
Have your subject stand with their back to the light.
Under-expose your shot by 1 – 2 full stops so that the background [the sunrise itself] is an even exposure.
Add a fill to light your subject with fill flash or reflector.
Over-Expose the Portrait for Variety
It’s easy to use over-exposure too much, but with a bit of
creativity, you can use the light in this way for a splash of variety.
Want your subject to be evenly exposed and the background to be washed
out? Try the following:
Position your subject in front of the light. [the sun]
Meter for your subject’s face.
Increase your exposure by 1/3 to 2/3 a stop to wash out the background without loosing too much detail in in your subjects skin.
One thing to consider, as in the image below, if you photograph
entirely into the sun, you may need to shoot on manual. This look is
very unique with over exposed images.
Capture Lens Flare
I love lens flare! Think of it as a dash of salt in a portrait shoot –
something that adds flavor but should not be the key component in your
entire dish. Lens flare is all about the angle of light and how it comes
through the lens. You can capture some awesome artistry with lens
flare.
Position your subject in front of the light.
Get down low OR turn your lens at an angle into the light.
Overexpose by 1/3 to 2/3 a stop to brighten your subject without loosing the flare.
Put your Sunrise Portrait Shoot on the calendar! It may require
getting up earlier than normal, but you will find the results to be far
worth it! Remember, maturing your eye for seeing light and capturing it
effectively will take both time and practice. Evaluate your shots with a
critical eye and learn from mistakes. You will make rapid progress with
a bit of time and energy! Share this article.
The last year I’ve embarked on a new adventure to create a series of
stunning portraits. My quest: Perfect the Sunrise Portrait shoot.
I’d heard stories of photographers who exclusively work with sunrise
light for their portrait sessions – even those who require wedding
portraits to be conducted during that time. My skepticism ran deep: who
in their right mind would subject themselves to several hours of lost
sleep and the early morning cold for a photo-shoot? Could the
end-product differences be that significant?
After a series of more than half a dozen sunrise shoots in
consecutive weeks, I have determined that no other time will produce
such stunning results. Scheduling sunrise Photo-shoots is without a
doubt an almost guaranteed way for gorgeous portraits. To be entirely
honest, I am now thrilled when I have the opportunity to schedule a
Sunrise Portrait session.
For best results, I’ve created somewhat of a routine for my Sunrise Portrait Shoot prep work to include the following:
Research the precise time of the sunrise
Take note of hour-by-hour weather for the morning of your shoot [this will drastically effect your results].
Know my preferred shooting spots within my location, so I capture exactly what I want, despite the rapidly changing light.
Prepare equipment and cards the previous day so nothing is left home on accident by early morning head fog.
Have all my equipment by the door [ready to grab and go in the morning]
Leave 15 minutes early to pick up coffee for myself and my subjects, to guarantee we are all awake and energetic to the max!
While a Sunrise Portrait shoot isn’t overly complicated, there are a
few tips I’ve learned that will help guarantee anyone a stunning
capture:
1. Work with Post-Dawn Light
If you start photographing your portraits before the sun comes up,
the light will have blue midtowns and highlights. While you can create
some sweet artistic shots during this time, you have to be careful that
your subject’s skin doesn’t look lifeless. One other issue you may have
if you start photographing when the sun is just rising above the
horizon, is intense highlights and mid-tones of red and orange. This may
warm up your subjects skin too much.
If you use the light just a few minutes
after sunrise, the highlights and mid-tones will create a lovely
combination of both warms and cools. This is the most flattering light
for skin tones and textures.
2. Take Advantage of the Light
Breathtaking light is the entire point of getting up before dawn for a
photos-hoot. The light is soft and golden to create lovely skin tones.
The contrast of highlights and shadows is minimized from the sidelight.
Additionally, colors are deep and rich, accentuated by the soft light.
Shoot on Aperture priority and use these qualities to the max!
3. Face your Subject Into the Light
Facing your subject into the light will accomplish several things:
Give a soft glow to your subject skin.
Create lovely catchlights in the eyes.
Provide for perfect exposure of both your subject and the background.
4. Be Specific with the Scenery
Wide and open spaces typically work as the best locations for a
sunrise shoot. Fields, vineyards, or streets without tall buildings that
will block the light. You will want to take special note of Eastward
facing backdrops for perfectly lit locations, so scouting out before
hand may be an additional step to take.
The best way to become proficient with Sunrise Photo-shoots is to go
out and practice! Setting up these shoots consistently week by week will
greatly aid your proficiency. I can guarantee with almost complete
certainty that you will enjoy what you create – even despite a few hours
of lost snooze time. Share this article.
Just because the weather outside is frightfully
bright (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) doesn’t mean that you have
to cancel all of your portrait photography. But taking advantage of the
clear skies doesn’t mean that you have to shoot in broad daylight
either.
If you want the best light for summer portraits, arrange your shoots
within the “golden hour”. Typically, this is during the hour right after
dawn, or the hour right before dusk. At this time, the quality of light
will be diffused and the angle of light will give definition to long
shadows.
Realistically though, it’ll be a hard sell to convince your client to
meet you, fully dressed and picture perfect by 6:00am. Where does that
leave you?
Aside from the standard “shoot behind a building” or “underneath trees”,
this technique will provide you with the ability to shoot portraits at
anytime of day in the brightest of open sunshine.
All you need is a). An assistant; b) A 32″ diffusion gobo and; c). A 22″ reflector.
1. Have your assistant hold the gobo above your subject’s head (or
wherever the sunlight is most direct) to block the light. This will
provide a small shaded area in which your subject will stand (keep in
mind that the larger the gobo, the larger the shaded area, and
vice-verse).
2. Place your reflector in direct sunlight to best “reflect” the
light onto your subject (use either the soft gold or white sides).
3. If you want a head shot, your assistant can hold the reflector
directly beneath your subjects face, or close to the side. Otherwise for
a full body shot, you will have to stand the reflector against a tripod
further away.
This technique sound too simple? Trust me. It’s the perfect way to keep
your portraits up and running all throughout the beautiful summer
season. Share this article.
Saturday, October 3, 2020
How to do Extreme Close-Up Photography with a Macro Bellows
Tags: Photography for Beginners, Macro Lens, Macro Photography, Ratio
Macro photography is technically designated as the ability to
photograph subjects at magnifications equal to or greater than life
size. This means that if the subject’s projection size on the camera’s
sensor is the same size as the subject itself, then you have life-size
magnification, also known as a 1:1 ratio.
Even though many lenses state they have macro functions, a true macro
lens must be able to do 1:1 or greater ratio magnification. These
specialized lenses allow for a closer focus distance and have great
image quality, but they tend to be expensive.
There are cheaper ways to create macro images though. Reverse rings,
extension tubes and close up lenses are good options, but my very
favorite one is the macro bellows. In this article, I will show you how
to use macro bellows to achieve great extreme macro images the easy way.
The Gear
I am very proud to be the lucky owner of one of the very rare
Spiratone Kenlock tilt-shift macro bellows sold by Hama in the 80s.
This is probably the rarest and the fullest featured bellows out there, designed originally for 35mm SLR cameras.
In fact, it looks like a scaled down monorail camera with the ability to be adapted to an SLR body.
This is an amazing piece of gear, despite the fact it was built in
the 80s for film cameras, that remains perfectly actual and can be used
with modern digital cameras.
It has removable adapters for different brands of lenses and camera bodies.
In this particular setup, I’m using an M42 mount 50mm Tessar Carl Zeiss Jena DDR 2.8 lens and full frame sensor Canon 5D MKIII.
Because this equipment was made for old cameras with flat fronts
without a hand grip like the modern digital ones, I am also using a
Canon 25mm Extension Tube between the camera body and the bellows to
give me some space for the mount.
The magnification ratio is simply the relationship between the size
of the (in-focus) subject’s projection on the imaging sensor and the
subject’s size in reality.
Imagine a subject like a bug that is 1cm long in real life;
If its projection on the camera’s sensor is also 1cm then you have a 1:1 ratio.
You have a 2:1 ration if its projection on the camera’s sensor is 2cm.
And so forth…
This magnification is achieved by the extension of the bellows
operated by two knobs that allow you to move the front and rear
elements.
Extended, the macro bellows makes a greater magnification.
There is some really complex optics math behind this magnification
process that I am not able to calculate myself. So I used an online
calculator to try to understand what I could achieve with this setup and
these are the results I got.
I was able to find out that the combination of this particular lens
with this macro bellows allows me to get a magnification of 3:1 with the
bellows at its minimum extension and 5:1 at its maximum extension.
Focusing
The process of focusing is done by moving the whole set constituted
by the lens, macro bellows and camera body along a rail, making it
closer or further to the subject.
Although it might sound simple, it is, in fact, a very hard process
due to the scale of the image we are composing. Any minimal movement
throws everything out of focus. So the use of a sturdy tripod and making
sure the subject doesn’t move are critical factors to minimize error
and allow precise control.
The focusing process is usually done with the lens at its widest
aperture to allow enough light in and then it is changed to the chosen
aperture for the image capture.
This aperture open/close process is done automatically in modern
cameras and lenses, but with most bellows, it is not possible to have
the communication between the camera and the lens due to the lack of
electronic contacts, so it has to be done manually.
Sometimes this simple act of changing the lens aperture is enough to
change the focus plane, making it a really hard process to control.
Depth of Field
This is for sure the toughest factor to control in macro photography.
The depth of field is extremely reduced at this magnification even when
photographing with the lens’s narrowest aperture.
A tilt and shift bellows like the one I am using helps to minimize
the depth of field issues with some focal plane movements. But many
macro photographers choose to use a much more complex technique called focus stacking.
The process consists of digitally merging multiple images taken at
different focus distances, resulting in a greater depth of field in the
final image.
Getting the Picture
Now we’ve gone through the basic technicalities it is time to put everything in action.
For this setup, I will be photographing a dead house fly I found near
my living room window. The fact that is not moving makes it a perfect
case study to use in a macro stage.
To allow me full control of the equipment, I prepared a tethered setup
with the camera connected to a computer, being operated by its native
capture software. This way I can avoid touching the camera to release
the shutter.
For lighting, I will use two speedlights controlled by a transmitter
connected to the camera’s hotshoe that also allows power control through
software.
The intention was to create some light and shadow volume on the fly
and separate it from the dark background. Here is the result:
Illuminating such a small subject
is a very difficult task as the smallest changes produce totally
different results. Such is the case in this next image with softer light
where I used only one flash and one reflector, instead of two
speedlights.
To
me, it is really fascinating to see a fly at this magnification with
all the small details. It is a creepy experience for sure.
This was just with the macro bellows retracted. For the full
magnification experience, I will now extend the bellows all the way and
experiment greater magnification.
This time I will focus on the fly’s head and the lighting will be done with an LED panel and a small reflector.
It is amazing how an old lens and macro bellows can produce such a high-quality image.
Give this technique a try, I’m sure you will have a lot of fun and
make some great images along the way! Please share your macro images
with a bellows in the comment area below. Share this article.
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
How to take Great Flower Photos without a Macro Lens
Tags: Photography for Beginners, flower photography, flower photos
Are you interested to try some flower photography but you get
discouraged by guides telling you to get a macro lens? I was too at
first, but macro is not the only way to get some amazing pictures. Keep
reading for some tips on how to take great flower photos without a macro
lens or buying any new equipment or accessory.
Flower Photography Detail Close Up
Detail and depth of field
One of the reasons photographers recommend a macro lens is to capture small details with shallow depth of field. Some offer alternatives like extension tubes
or reverse rings that allow you to focus while being very close to your
subject. This is, in fact, a nice look for flower photography, but if
you’re not ready to invest in new gear, there are other ways to get it.
Focal Distance: 55mm, f/13, 1/400th, ISO 640
I shot this image using a 55mm lens with f/13, 1/400th shutter speed
and 640 ISO. As you can see, I managed to get reasonably close, so never
let the lack of equipment prevent you from practicing.
You can start by using a wide aperture
and the longest focal distance you have to experiment from there. In
order to make the best out of the equipment you have, check out the
article How to Control Depth of Field in Your Photography.
Draw inspiration from nature
Now that we’ve covered the macro effect,
let’s broaden the horizon and think big. There’s much more to flower
photography than just the details. Flowers come in all shapes and
colors, so include all those natural elements and use them to your
advantage.
In this photo below, I lowered my point of view so I could create three different segments following the rule of thirds: flowers, trees, and the sky.
The Rule of Thirds and point of view help your composition.
Color contrast
Using color as a compositional element is very easy to do when
photographing flowers. Because they are so vibrant, you’ll always find
one that stands out. You can put contrasting colors
next to each other to make elements stand out while still being in
harmony. You can start by isolating a subject against the background and
work your way up to include more elements.
Tones or patterns
Another way to use color in your images is to use only one to
dominate the image. It may sound easy and perhaps dull, but in reality,
if you incorporate different tones of the same color or a pattern, it
can become a subject in itself. Megan Kennedy wrote a number of articles
here on DPS called Master Colors Series covering the psychology and evolution of each color. Check them all out for inspiration!
The cultural aspect
Now that we’ve passed aesthetics and are into content let’s say that
flowers are much more than just pretty subjects. They speak their own
language as we have given them all sorts of cultural meanings. The
color, the season, and even the presentation change our perception. We
use them in joyous celebrations and on the occasion of grief, passing
through all other kinds of events. When you incorporate this matter on
top of the visual aspect, things can become really interesting.
Still life
Defining the line between photography genres is always a tricky
subject. Are all flower photography images a still life? No. Are all
still life images flower photography? Also, no. But the two genres often
intersect, so play within that field to stage your images. You can use
different elements, adjust the lighting and even some post-production.
To get you started here are some Simple Methods for Creating Better Still Life Images.
Still life is great for flower photography
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t buy a macro lens or any other gear
and accessories, especially if you are planning on becoming a
professional. However, there’s much versatility in flower photography so
you can do without them. Of course, you can also look into many
creative techniques like double exposure, light painting, or dynamic zoom.
Do you have other ideas to take flower photos without a macro lens? Share in the comment section!
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Just Dew It – Fun with Macro Dewdrop Photography
Tags: Photography for Beginners, dewdrops, Morning sun, dew
Some things are practically guaranteed to make great photo subjects –
dewdrops in the grass sparkling like diamonds in the morning sun,
flowers and foliage wet with the rain, a closeup of dewdrops suspended
in spiderweb-like pearls on a string or the crystal-ball look of a drop
with a refracted image inside. You can seek out such scenes in nature,
or you can create your own miniature macro world. However you do it,
dewdrop photography will test your skills plus give you the reward of
pleasing images, not everyone can make. So let’s take a look at what,
where, and how to “dew it.”
When the morning light hits the dew-covered lawn it can be like searching for diamonds in the grass.
Going natural
I’ve spent more than a few mornings lying in the grass with a macro
lens mounted on my camera searching for the perfect dewdrop. I’ve also
been out after the rain, looking for images where the drops have added a
clean, fresh look with increased saturation to a subject. While often
the subjects are found in nature, drops beaded on the surface of a freshly waxed car and other human-made objects can make for some great shots too.
Many
leaves will naturally bead water like the raindrops on this daylily.
Raindrop photography is
the “larger cousin” of dewdrop photography with
no macro lens needed .
A little spritz with a sprayer makes this rose look fresh and adds interest.
The
fine hairs on a lupine leaf naturally beaded the water sprayed with a
garden hose. 1/160 sec.
f/3.5 ISO100 with Tamron 90mm macro.
Just add water to take a nice photo to the next level. Raindrops on the hood of this freshly-waxed
Jaguar add some extra pizzaz.
Hunting for such subjects is fun. Like much of photography, it’s a
matter of getting out with your camera when the conditions are right,
often early in the morning in the case of dew or right after a rain
shower. Sometimes you’ll find some great subjects where the drops, the
light, and the subject all come together. I’ve not yet made the classic
dew-drop-festooned-spider-web shot,
but I’m still looking. Luck plays a certain part in getting such
shots. The fun is in the search. But sometimes when you want to leave it
less to chance, that could be the time to…
Fake it to make it
You realize in those great movie rain scenes it wasn’t really
raining when filming took place, right? So is it cheating when we as
artistic photographers “enhance” our shots with the addition of
raindrops or dewdrops? I think not. I guarantee the photographer created
the vast majority of great dewdrop photos you’ve seen. Take two
otherwise identical flower photos; the only difference being one is
covered with dewdrops. The wet one will win the prize almost every time.
Drops sparkle,
shimmer, refract light in interesting ways, and can take an image from
“meh” to “wow!” So if you haven’t already done so, consider adding a
little spray bottle to your camera kit with some “magic juice” inside.
“Magic Juice?”
You can often use plain water to enhance your shot. If you’re
simulating raindrops that might work okay. Spraying the foliage with the
garden hose often works too. But when you want smaller, more rounded
beads that hang where you place them and stay for a longer time without
moving or evaporating, get some glycerine.
Here’s the special ingredient for making photographer’s “Magic Juice.”
Often found in the baking section of the grocery store, glycerin is
very transparent, much thicker than water, and just plain works better
for photography. Use it straight from the bottle and apply where you
like with an eyedropper, or mix one-part glycerine to two parts water
for use in a spray bottle.
You can enhance the look of flowers and foliage, simulate
condensation on glassware or other objects, give subjects a wet-look,
enhance your food photography or even simulate sweat on human subjects
if you need that look. Great stuff!
Using the Live View mode of your camera can really help in getting critical focus.
Equipment needs
For more distant shots of things like raindrops, you might get by
with standard, close-focusing lenses and also be able to work
hand-held. But dewdrops are tiny. When it’s time to get close, closer,
and ultra-close, you’ll be entering the world of macro photography. You will definitely need a tripod and one of several ways to get up close to your tiny subject:
Here all three Kenko extension tubes (Canon, Nikon, Sony), plus a Canon 25mm tube, are all combined
with a Canon “nifty fifty” 50mm f/1.8 lens.
This gives 93mm of extension. You can combine tubes in
any sequence or
combination depending on how close you need to get to your subject and
how much
magnification you’re seeking.
Standard Macro Lenses
Many lenses may state they have macro capability, but to truly be a macro lens,
they should be able to create a 1:1 image. That means the image
rendered on the camera sensor is the same size as the physical object or
bigger. Full-frame cameras are called that because their sensor size is
roughly equivalent to a full-frame of 35mm film, (24mm X 36mm), so if
the lens you’re using can fill the frame with an object that’s about
35mm wide, it’s a true macro.
Here’s a quick test you can try: a U.S. quarter is 24.26mm in
diameter. So, if you can focus on and fill the frame top to bottom with
an uncropped shot of a quarter, you have a macro lens. On a crop sensor
camera where the sensor is 14.9×22.2mm (Canon), a 1:1 shot of a quarter
would more than fill the frame.
Catching
the light source in the drops with a small aperture produced a star
effect. 3 tubes plus
Tamron 90mm macro. 1.6 sec. f/16, ISO 800
Extension Tubes/Bellows
Increasing the distance between your lens and camera sensor will have
the effect of allowing you to focus closer than with the lens alone and
thus appear to magnify the image. Stacking multiple tubes or making
the bellows
longer will get you in even closer. You can also get into macro
territory with something simple like a 50mm prime lens plus an extension tube set. Much less money than a dedicated macro lens!
You can just see the end of the reversed Vivitar 28-105 zoom in this shot. Note how close I’m able to
get the lens to my subject.
Here’s
what the reversed lens zoomed out to 28mm produced. Thinking backward
helps here –
Wider zoom settings allow closer focusing than more zoomed
settings.
Reversed lenses
Mount a lens backward on your camera and you will be able to get in much, much closer than you would otherwise. I did a whole article on this technique which allows you to use even inexpensive old film camera lenses for great macro effects.
A focusing rail like this simple Neewer unit
can be especially helpful when working to get good focus
with
sliver-thin depth of field. It’s also excellent for making focus-stacked
images where you take a
shot, adjust focus slightly, make another shot,
and repeat getting multiple focus points on the subject
which are later
combined to get more depth of field than is possible with a single
shot.
Focusing rail
Working with tiny subjects and macro lens techniques, you will
quickly find your depth of field is sliver-thin, sometimes only a few
millimeters. Often rather than trying to focus as usual, (and forget
about using auto-focus when making shots like this), physically moving
the camera forward or back is the way to focus.
A focusing rail is a finely-geared device which, with the use of
knobs, allows you to move the camera in and out in tiny increments. Like
most camera gear, you can spend a lot on the sophisticated rails, and
there are even computer-controlled versions for doing macros that
focus-stack.
If you’re just entering the world of macro however, very serviceable versions can be had for under $50.00 US.
With
a depth of field only a few millimeters, sometimes focus stacking will
be required to get what
you want in focus. This shot is a 5-image stack.
Lighting
With your lens so close to your subject, you will often be in your
own light, and shading your subject. There are many ways to light macro
subjects and no single “right” way. It’s simply a matter of what works.
Do you know that things like extension tubes and bellows reduce the
light reaching the sensor? Most often, you will be stopping down your
lens, seeking more depth of field. Adding more light or increasing the
exposure time will often be required. One advantage of the latter is
that a several second exposure can sometimes allow you to “light-paint” your subject.
I did many of the really close-up images in this article that way. I
light-painted during the exposure with a simple LED flashlight.
Note the difference aperture
makes. The shot at left is at f/22 while the one on the right is at
f/5.6.
The background is affected more that the refracted image in the
drops.
In practice – a look at some samples
The following images show a tabletop session with glycerin “dewdrops”
hanging from a strand of sewing thread. I used a combination of a macro
lens (a Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 Di mounted on a Canon 6D camera),
as well as a combination of extension tubes and a reversed old Vivitar
28-105mm zoom from my old Pentax ME Super film camera.
Some of the images used a combination of those devices stacked together in a quest to see just how close I could get.
This
is about as close as the Tamron 90mm macro alone could focus. The drops
are tiny, so this
probably is the 1:1 ratio the lens is capable of.
Using this combination allowed the three-drop shot below.
3 extension tubes plus the Tamron Macro. 1.6 sec. f/16 ISO 800
Combining the Tamron 90mm macro with all three extension tubes (for a total of 68mm of extension).
The
reversed Vivitar film lens plus a 36mm extension tube focused close
enough to fill the frame
with two drops. The long exposure also allowed
time to light-paint the sunflower. 15 seconds, f/22,
ISO 100.
Bear in mind that the drops in the shot are really
tiny, around 2-3mm, so filling the frame with a single drop was way
more than a 1:1 magnification ratio. If calculating the magnification
factor is your bag, there are places with calculation tools to do that. For example, for one image I used all my extension tubes, (a Kenko set with 12, 20, and 36mm tubes plus a Canon 25mm tube
= total 93mm extension) and a Canon 50mm f/1.8 “nifty 50” prime. Per
the calculator, that produced about a 2:1 magnification ratio, filling
the frame with about 3 of the drops. I achieved the closest shot
(below), with the reversed Vivitar at 28mm with the three Kenko tubes
attached. I figure it’s over 3:1, uncropped and almost filling the
frame with a single drop.
To
get this close with no cropping took all three (12mm, 20mm, and 36mm)
extension tubes combined
with the reversed Vivitar film lens at 28mm.
The drop is only about 2mm wide. This is also a
2-image focus stack,
one for the
drop and the other for the flower inside.
Take note of how in the images the drop acts like a tiny lens,
refracting and inverting the image inside it. If you want the image
inside to be right-side-up, be sure to invert the real physical object
before you snap the shot. Also, with such limited depth of field, even a
small aperture may not give you the range of focus you need. Making
shots like this will also give you a reason to learn focus-stacking techniques.
The captions on the shots reveal what I used to achieve each dewdrop
photography image. So, see what you can learn here, get your camera,
maybe buy some entry-level macro gear and then… just go “dew” it!
Share the images you make with us in the comments section! Share this article.
Just because the weather outside is frightfully
bright (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) doesn’t mean that you have
to cancel all of your portrait photography. But taking advantage of the
clear skies doesn’t mean that you have to shoot in broad daylight
either.
