HDR in Macro Photography?

Even though HDR is usually associated with landscape photography I have applied the same technique to macro shots. When I came across a water condensation on a window pane that was facing sun about an hour after sunrise (sun was very low) and the sun was reflected in water drops I knew that I will be dealing with very high dynamic range of light. The clear sky sun was magnified in the water drops while the background was very dark reflecting dark street and lawn in front of the house. I fired sequence of three shots (normal exposure, +2 and -2 stops) and then I have processed these shots in Photomatix Pro 4. The setup for shots were exactly same as in my previous blog from February 12th on macro photography. Actually, the water drops were in the very same spot. The photo generated by Photomatix was cleaned up in Photoshop Elements 10 and rotated 180°. Finished image looks like a shot from Sci-Fi movie.

Here is one of un-retouched photos that I have used.

Since I had my macro gear out I took few more shots, this time of condensation that was bunched together. For steadying my camera I used bag filled with lentils, it makes an excellent “tripod” that I use for my ground level shots.

The setup.

Bean bag is so useful!

Photographing Water Drops on Window Pane

ISO 100, 50mm 1:1 macro lens with 2X macro extender, f/16 @ 1 sec., natural light.

Last fall I was experimenting with shooting close-ups of water condensation on window pane. Since I was using macro lens at 2:1 magnification ratio (double life-size image) I can safely consider this as micro photography. At this magnification it can be a problem to get sharp focus since depth-of-field is very shallow and the water drops are half of a sphere. I had to go all the way down to f/16 with aperture to get sharp images. Because of that, focusing rail is essential for really sharp image.
The photographs of water drops and set-up were done few months apart, as you can see. There is a snow on the ground on set-up pictures but looking through water drops on window pane there is very green grass .

In order to get close to window and water drops I had to place 2 legs of tripod on window sill and third leg on the floor.

Camera mounted on focusing rail.

Image flipped 180 °.

Stony Creek Revisited

We got some fresh snow overnight and sun was hiding behind thin clouds creating nice defused light so I grabbed my gear and headed back to Stony Creek. The exposures are definitely lot better than first time. Lesson learned: Don’t bother taking photos in super high contrast light situations or you will spend hours fixing it in Photoshop.

Oil on Water Abstract Images Set-Up

As promised here is simple way to take some amazing abstract pictures of oil droplets on water. All you need is a glass dish with clear bottom, some sort of glass table if you will be using small dish like I did, some colorful picture or paper for background and spot light or table lamp (with mini fluorescent or halogen bulb), small bowl for oil and eye dropper. Since the focusing is so critical good tripod is a must and focusing rail is big help but not necessary. The tripod, background and eye dropper are the most important items for this shoot. I used birthday card with images of different color golf balls and tees and also book cover from “Color mixing bible”. Both have bold and clear colors. When you start shooting it is good idea to pre-focus the lens and get everything ready. Use the depth-of-field button on your camera to make sure that the background is out of focus. Since I was using 50mm macro lens in 1:1 ratio with very shallow depth-of-field even at f/11 it is not a problem. If the background is too sharp even at lowest f-stop you have to increase distance between water surface and background picture. All is left to do now is to play around with exposure and start dropping tiny drops of oil. If the droplets combine, break them up with sharp needle or toothpick just like stirring coffee with a spoon. When you do that and look through viewfinder you will see amazing scene.

I shaded the lamp with silver Mylar to protect lens from stray light and to reflect more light on background. It is the background that lights up the picture. Notice the small dish for water.

Camera is mounted to focusing rail.

Background for pictures #1 and #5.

 Background for pictures #2, 3 and 4.

I took a movie of breaking the oil drops and it looks like some Sci-Fi flick.

Oil on Water Abstract Images

Surfing Internet can lead you to some very interesting places. Yesterday I was looking for technique to shoot “dancing smoke”. Since every web page or blog has links to other places I came across another interesting project for indoor photography that I found fascinating – oil droplets on water surface. Nice images but no explanation how it was done. Within minutes of searching I came across Karli’s blog that had what I was looking for. How nice of her to share her knowledge!

I have decided to share my little secrets as well. I will post my set-up for these interesting images on my next blog.

Strobe Photography - More Fun with Camera

As I was surfing YouTube I came across interesting movie about photographing water droplets. Since I had everything needed for this specialised form of photography, generally called “strobing”, I just had to try it. I needed solid tripod, flash, radio strobe trigger set and lots of time on hand. The fact that I also have a light tent for close-ups was big advantage. Here are the results. Watch the video on YouTube to see how the set-up and focusing works.

In this shot I used Cloudy White Balance setting. Rest of the photographs were taken with Tungsten White Balance.

Canon Rebel T1i, Manual mode, 1/60 shutter, Macro lens 50mm 1:3.5 set at f/16 and 1:3 magnification, ISO 400, Yongnuo Digital flash YN468 at 1/16 power, Jianisi PT-04TM radio trigger, Cullmann 2904 tripod and head.