I thought I would share 3 images with you that I managed to create yesterday whilst at home and in my attempt to learn a little bit more about macro photography.
I have to say, it is really bloody hard and I can see why people become totally obsessed by it along with the need for specialised lighting equipment and triggers that fire flashes automatically. I am still on the quest for a Pringles tube so I can make a directional flash ( see yesterdays blog), who would have thought that it would be so difficult to find one. I am thinking about putting out an appeal to the local community, but then it opens up the whole question of essential journeys and social distancing which I am not going to even comment on.
However you have to use the best of what you have and once I understood the principles of how to create the shots, I just had to work with what I had got.
To talk you through things - I was using a Canon 1dx and I was using live view, Settings were - 8000th of a second, iso anywhere between 400 and 1600, f8. Lens was a sigma 50mm f2.8 1:1 macro lens. I used a bowl of water which was placed in direct sunlight, tripod and a remote shutter release.
The hardest part was to ensure that the water droplet fell directly in the focal plane, Easier said than done when hand holding the syringe above the water whist your other hand operates the remote shutter release. The reason I was using live view on the back of the camera, is that I found it was easier see where the droplet was falling and I found myself looking at the back of the camera rather than the actual bowl of water. I totally get why photographers that are brilliant at macro photography use rigs so they can position where the droplet will fall. Once I had worked this out, it was just a case of shooting until the camera buffer filled up and then had a look at what I had taken. In all it took about 20 minutes to start and get ok results and in all I took well over 1000 images. Most had no droplets in them as I would start shooting before depressing the syringe to release a drop of water. In all I think I had about 10 images that were useable and the 3 below are the best.
A couple of things to think about in post processing. It is fairly easy to sharpen the image and you can easily bump the noise reduction slider up as there is very little detail that this will effect, which is great as it allows you to achieve the highest shutter speed possible. You can also get as creative as you want with colours and white balance to create an effect that you are pleased with.
Lots to learn still but its good fun and if you fancy a go, then why not see what you can create. All that you need to get started was in yesterdays blog.
Thats it for now, stay safe.
To see my previous blog entires from this year then click on the following link.
