Snow Flakes Macro

Cindy

Took my first ever photos of snow flakes and oh my... I think I could become addicted to this.






Gallery of 7 at: http://www.inspiringdesigns.net/gallery/7115795_geeW4/1/456290140_VTbzQ

Set-up: I used a cake pan and put a black t-shirt in it for the background. On top of that I had a clear glass pie dish to collect the snow flakes in as the fell into it (had to keep wiping them out every so often). Outside was about 8 degree (I was freezing after an hour and had to quit but it has to be really cold so they don't melt). I left everything outside for about 30 minutes to get good and cold before I started. All shot with my Nikon 105 VR Macro on a tripod with natural light. I pointed the macro lens mounted on the tripod straight down over the collection pie dish when one landed I wanted to capture. Natural light only. I used auto focus initially only to help find the flake and then manually adjusted the focus till it was what I wanted. I then opened the images in Nikon Capture and cropped to enlarge 200%. I was afraid to go any higher than that (gotta get me some of them tubes or something someday - what do you'll recommend Then opened in PS to clean up the background some, slight levels adjustment if needed, S curve and USM to sharpen.
I'd like to try lighting these from the underside next time and I read somewhere that multi-colored gels over the light that are darker in the center create great reflections. I think the light would have to be bounced in from the underside somehow in order to keep a fairly solid dark background... lots of experimenting to do if we get more snow... if we don't I won't complain - lol!

Critiques and suggestions on how to improve and/or what to add to get closer macros greatly appreciated.

GOLDENORFE

Very nice Cindy.

look better bigger on your web page, you should post alot bigger for everyone to see details.
go for the Kenko auto extension tube set to get x2 magnification.

phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/

rustic

Beautiful! I would become addicted to that as well...

Cindy

Thanks Phil and Rustic. I'll check into the tubes you recommended. I thought large was the biggest that were sapposed to post...? I'm off to work now but will try a bigger one later tonight. Again, thank you!

Lord Vetinari

Good ones Cindy
Brian V.

timbo13

these are great, Cindy! I like how you placed them in the frame and I
enjoyed seeing your whole gallery.

I enjoyed reading about your set-up as I have been doing some
snowflake macros myself, I will post them up when I get a chance.

Skippy

Cindy wrote:

Took my first ever photos of snow flakes and oh my... I think I could become addicted to this.


Gallery of 7 at: http://www.inspiringdesigns.net/gallery/7115795_geeW4/1/456290140_VTbzQ

Set-up: I used a cake pan and put a black t-shirt in it for the background. On top of that I had a clear glass pie dish to collect the snow flakes in as the fell into it (had to keep wiping them out every so often). Outside was about 8 degree (I was freezing after an hour and had to quit but it has to be really cold so they don't melt). I left everything outside for about 30 minutes to get good and cold before I started. All shot with my Nikon 105 VR Macro on a tripod with natural light. I pointed the macro lens mounted on the tripod straight down over the collection pie dish when one landed I wanted to capture. Natural light only. I used auto focus initially only to help find the flake and then manually adjusted the focus till it was what I wanted. I then opened the images in Nikon Capture and cropped to enlarge 200%. I was afraid to go any higher than that (gotta get me some of them tubes or something someday - what do you'll recommend Then opened in PS to clean up the background some, slight levels adjustment if needed, S curve and USM to sharpen.
I'd like to try lighting these from the underside next time and I read somewhere that multi-colored gels over the light that are darker in the center create great reflections. I think the light would have to be bounced in from the underside somehow in order to keep a fairly solid dark background... lots of experimenting to do if we get more snow... if we don't I won't complain - lol!

Critiques and suggestions on how to improve and/or what to add to get closer macros greatly appreciated.

Cindy these are just beautiful, I love them
I tell you I am truly in awe of Snow and Ice and anything inbetween
.... I wish it would snow here... aint gonna happen.

Nicely done Cindy .... Skippy
.

Cindy

Thanks Brian, Tim & Skippy. Tim I'm looking forward to seeing yours.

If we get more snow I'm ready to try again. I'm looking everywhere for various transparent plastics (bread bags, etc) to use for filters to try and bounce in some color highlights. We'll see how it goes
Any suggestions on how to bounce in the colors to just the snowflakes and maintain a solid background?

Cindy

How will the kenkos differ from a teleconverter?
I was checking out the Kenko tubes and then discovered I could use my Nikon-TC-20E II Teleconverter with my 105 Macro (I had forgotten they would work together and for some reason had it stuck in my head they couldn't so I didn't even try).
Question is: How will the Kenko tubes differ from the Teleconverter? Will they provide more magnification? Clearer, sharper, etc???

Thanks for any & all advice in advance!

Lord Vetinari

Cindy wrote:

I was checking out the Kenko tubes and then discovered I could use my Nikon-TC-20E II Teleconverter with my 105 Macro (I had forgotten they would work together and for some reason had it stuck in my head they couldn't so I didn't even try).
Question is: How will the Kenko tubes differ from the Teleconverter? Will they provide more magnification? Clearer, sharper, etc???

Thanks for any & all advice in advance!

Both the Kenko tubes and the TC will give you 2:1 max magnification.
The TC will lose some image quality but preserve working distance.
The extension tubes will lose very little image quality but will give you closer focus distances.

Brian V.

Cindy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Both the Kenko tubes and the TC will give you 2:1 max magnification.
The TC will lose some image quality but preserve working distance.
The extension tubes will lose very little image quality but will give you closer focus distances.

Brian V.

Thank you, thank you Brian! Eventually I do want the kenko tubes (when $ allows) but so glad the TC will do for now. :ivar

Candid Arts

Lord Vetinari wrote:

The extension tubes will lose very little image quality but will give you closer focus distances.

Brian V.

I didn't think extension tubes had any loss of IQ since there are no optics in them?