Trip Drop
May, 2017Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Macro Water Drops Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Macro And Patterns Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
The popular expression is "Location, Location, Location". However, one of the the beauties of macro photography is that you can utilise almost anywhere as your studio. This shot was taken in my garage on a wooden workbench !Time
The shot took about an hour to set up, shoot and process during an afternoon.Lighting
I chose to use my Speedlite 430EXIII-RT to illuminate the rear image.Equipment
My camera is a Canon EOS 5D MKIV, I used the EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, the Speedlite 430EXIII-RT and my Manfrotto tripod.Inspiration
I've seen quite a few water drop images and experimented with flowers in the water drop. I thought that a circular image, such as a Mandala, would make an interesting change.Editing
The images were all shot as RAW and processed in Adobe Camera RAW. These were blended together in Photoshop CC using Select = All Layers, Edit => Auto-Align, Projection Auto followed by Edit => Auto-Blend, Stack.In my camera bag
My daily working bag is a Lowepro Sling. Four outdoor shooting I always carry a freshly charged spare battery and a spare memory card (just in case). I don't usually take an additional lens as I like to plan what I'm going to shoot in advance and take what I consider to be the best lens for that purpose.Feedback
The mandala image was printed onto a sheet of white A4 plain paper. This was stuck to the bottom of an Amazon cardboard box with sellotape. The sewing needle was held by a wooden clothes peg that was gripped by a G-clamp (the sort used in woodworking to hold bits of glued wood together while they set) these are quite heavy and are ideal for supporting subjects. The water drops were applied to the eye of the needle using a syringe and long hypodermic needle (available from Amazon). Adding a few drops of liquid glycerin to the water helps it adhere to the needle. With the needle supported about six inches in front of the mandala image I positioned the flash so that it would bounce off of the image. I focussed on the eye of the need;e initially and adjusted the manual settings until I captured a good looking image, in this case f/9.0 at 1/125s. I'd also adjusted the flash output power down to about 1/2. I then took shots of the three water drops by using 10x zoom in live view and focusing on the image magnified in the water drops. These images were combined in Photoshop CC to produce the final image.
