Rix Mascarenhas
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In this macro photography tutorial you will learn that a rainy day doesn’t need to be a failure as raindrops you can really bring great plans to life.
Macro photography, raindrops or raindrops
Water drops are an excellent subject for shooting under a macro setting and they look particularly attractive in flowers.
We will need a rainy day so our ‘drips’ providing our own water, using the good old spray bottle.
This is a very useful piece in photo kit for a macro session.
The water drops will add a touch of brilliance in virtually any subject, from insects and cobwebs to still life.
The secret to capturing successful macro photos is finding the right flower, orange-yellow stamens against the blue petals can create an impressive effect.
It’s also cool to be on a calm wind tip so you can have a very sharp focus.
In this session, a 105mm macro lens capable of shooting in a 1:1 aspect ratio was used. this means that we can get too close to the topic to be photographed.
If you don’t have a macro lens you’ll use extender tubes to take care of the job.
Chose a theme
Choose a flower that has variety of colors and interesting details, and preferably one that is positioned in partial shade to diffuse sunlight.
If the subject is in direct light you can take advantage of a diffuser, it can even be improvised, to soften the light. Adjust your camera on a tripod and set all its settings firmly
Camera settings
Adjust your camera to Aperture Priority mode and set a narrow aperture, f/11 is a good call for captures a good depth of field so that most flowers and water droplets are sharp-focused.
Setting a low ISO, 100 for example, will help maintain the quality of the photo.
Even if the camera is mounted on a tripod, the wind may force you to raise the ISO a bit so you can use faster shutter speed
Add water
Use your spray bottle to give a beautiful and thin snowy water on your flower.
Add water where you want it to appear, but be careful not to add too much water so it doesn’t run through the petals
Use manual focus
Set your lens to manual mode, turn on the camera’s live view and zoom in on it about 10x, aim for the center of the flower, and adjust the focus so you can get the sharpest photo possible.
For shooting always use the self-timer option, one that waits a few seconds to fire after you press the button, or better yet use a remote control.
Small shakes can ruin your photo when we are talking about macro photography.
Post production is always important
If you don’t use Camera Raw or Lightroom you’d better start using it, they’ll help you a lot with your photos.
Then collect all the photos you’ve taken of your flower for one of these programs. In them you can resize or recompose your photo. Recompose it so that we have only the subject on the screen.
Set exposure
Adjust the exposure of the photo so that it is clearer, not overexposed, and also set the contrast adjustment from the outside so that you can see the water drops more clearly.
Also adjust the levels of shadows and whites to add light and fill the photo.
Finally push the Clarity control to bring more clarity to the flower and water drops.
Photoshop can also be useful
To give that more detail in your image you may need tools beyond the ones you’ve already used, and at this point Adobe Photoshop can help you.
Set a high value for the Sharpen Mask control and set about 2 pixels for the Radius parameter as well as 0 for the Threshold parameter, apply, and ready.
All that remains is to layer, Layer, and then go on flatten image, flatten image, and save in Jpeg to distribute through the networks its newest composition.
Inspiration
You can combine flowers and water drops in many ways to create a variety of stunning effects
Dandelion seed
Rain Effect
You can create spectacular effects with falling water. In this photo a flash was used to luminate the drops behind the flower. Use a shutter speed of about 1/250 and a dark backdrop will help paralyze the drops.
It is this use the imagination and some water and it is not wrong the pictures of the flowers of grandma’s house have become much more beautiful.
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