8/12/2023 0 Comments Macro photography snowflakes![]() ![]() As soon as you find a snowflake, turn off the light. Since snowflakes are small and sometimes hard to find, it’s good to shine a pocket light to find them more easily. It’s not always smart to set the highest possible f-stop. So I recommend that you find the f-stops on your camera where you have the sharpest detail. On my old 40mm Nikon lens, I generally never used an f-stop higher than f/8. When taking the shots, I choose an aperture where there won’t be diffraction, so on my Tamron 90 mm lens I choose apertures in the f/8–16 range in combination with the macro conversion lens. Personally I use a macro lens with a Raynox DCR – 250 macro conversion lens. When shooting with a DSLR, you can use a macro lens, or attach a fixed lens backwards, or use extension tubes. You’ll be using multiple shots, and a second flake landing in the middle of them will ruin every previous photo in your shoot. Once you find “your” snowflake, carry the snowflake and its background under a tree or roof, or cover it with an umbrella or the jacket from a photographer’s backpack. You can see some pretty shapes around its edges. This picture shows a clump of snowflakes. But you can also photograph snowflakes clumped together. Once snowflakes catch on it, use the brush to turn them onto the side that you like better. If you use a glove, you’ll want to leave it out thrown into the snow for a bit, to cool it down so that snowflakes won’t melt on it. If you fall in love with photographing snowflakes, you can get yourself a black matte board or a piece of chemise to serve as an attractive background. While it’s not a completely ideal background due to the large number of fibers, it’s enough for some first efforts. You’ll want to use a black glove as your foundation for photographing snowflakes. So when you see that beautifully formed snowflakes are falling and not just snow crystals, it’s the right time to ready your gear. You can check a snowflake by eye, or magnify it to 100% on your camera. macro conversion lenses (I use a Raynox DCR-250)Ĭheck the weather before heading out.Other accessories that, while not needed, are useful: a fine paintbrush for transferring the flakes.Ideally head out when it is about -2 ☌ (28 ☏), right during or after a snowfall. The most important things to take are truly warm clothing and a thermos with coffee or tea to warm you up, because like it or not, it will take a while before you get a decent picture. It serves as a background and a snowflake “catcher.” You can also see that these flakes were not ideal subjects-they landed a bit melted. This picture shows flakes that stuck on a black glove. In general lower temperatures mean larger snowflakes. From -2 to -14 ☌ (7 to 28 ☏) you can discover various types of snowflakes with various shapes and sizes. The flakes’ shape is influenced by the air temperature. There’s likewise no point in seeking snowflakes during a wet, heavy snow. When photographing two-day-old snow, you’d be hard-pressed to find a snowflake. To photograph snowflakes, ideally you need to be shooting right when it’s snowing, or when it’s just snowed. Nikon D3100, Nikon 40 mm f/2.8, 1/200 s, f/8, ISO 100, EV +0.7, focal length 60 mm (EQ 35: 40 mm), assembled from 10 pictures Wait for the Right Weatherīut don’t run straight out into the cold it’s not that simple. His equipment was primitive, so today any macro-capable compact or any DSLR with a macro lens will serve you sufficiently. The first photograph of a snowflake was taken by Wilson Bentley in 1885, using a bellows camera attached to a compound microscope. Thanks to the freezing temperatures, you can photograph things like glaze ice… but snowflakes are a much bigger challenge.Ĭonvinced it’s not possible to photograph a snowflake with the gear you own? You can do macro even with just a good compact. But in reality this cold period offers much more than it might seem. ![]() ![]() Winter’s a season when most photographers put away their macro lenses until spring. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |