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Dewdrop flower refraction tutorial

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Thought I'd just put together a quick tutorial on how these are done.

You need to be shooting at around 2:1 to do them (100mm macro lens with 68mm of ext tubes is fine), although I'm normally shooting at about 3:1.
Need your camera rig , probably a dry mat ,a small daisy type flower about 2 to 3cms in diameter and a nice heavy early morning dew on your grass :). I use the camera in manual with ETTLflash manual focus, F10-F11 ,1/200th ISO200

Put the mat down carefully on the grass and kneel on it and try to spot an interesting dewdrop (smaller than about 2mm in diameter preferably) or group of dewdrops. Carefully place the flower about 2cms behind the drop in a vertical position and then find the dewdrop in the view finder.If you need to move the flower- remember it's upside down when viewed through the dewdrop. The camera is normally resting on my hand as low to the ground as I can get it. Take several pics whilst moving the camera forward very slightly until you have covered the focus points of all the dewdrops themselves in good focus and also the refracted images in good focus.
You need to make sure you are keeping the FOV the same and do not rotate the camera whilst taking the shots.

You then need to focus stack the images using combinez5 (see www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/ for details)

Below are the three pics I used in a recent image and the last shot is the focus stacked version. Notice that the focus is only very slightly different in the pre-stacked shots.

Image1
tutorial pic #1

Image2
tutorial pic #2

Image3
tutorial pic #3


Focus stack of all 3 images
Dewdrop flower refraction #2

Brian V.
Originally posted at 2:40AM, 5 October 2006 PDT (permalink)
Lord V edited this topic 69 months ago.

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Jon Law (Improvedimage.co.uk)  Pro User  says:

excellent tutorial, you do such great work thanks for sharing :)
Posted 69 months ago. (permalink)

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shkassa says:

Many many thanks for the tutorial.
I will try this morning.
Posted 69 months ago. (permalink)

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asbalyan (can call me Ballu)  Pro User  says:

Thats a Flickr-Spirit.. Need to jump outside..
Posted 69 months ago. (permalink)

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Spookygonk  Pro User  says:

Wow, that's excellent. We're having so much rain in the UK at the moment, it will be easy to try this out!
Posted 69 months ago. (permalink)

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MontyGreenman says:

Well, next time we get some Rain here in Melbourne I'llhave a go...

On the focus stacking: What aperture are you using? would it be possible to extend the exposure, use a tripod and get enough DOF that way?
Posted 66 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Heard about the lack of rain problems you have and smoke haze from bush fires- hope you get rain soon.
You can try using a smaller aperture than around F8-F11 I use for these shots but you will lose some sharpness due to diffraction softening.
If you have the patience and are careful you should be able to get both the drop and flower in focus by carefully moving the flower until you get the focal point of the dew drop (likely to be further back from the drop).
Brian V.
Posted 66 months ago. (permalink)

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MontyGreenman says:

Neat, Thanks :) Don't know if I have the patience yet, but I think I will be getting a spray bottle to try creating my own dew :)
Posted 66 months ago. (permalink)

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mdbassman says:

Darn fine tutorial "LordV". You do exceptional work and it is a pleasure to see someone take the initiave to "coach' us in "How To". Thanks!
Dan
(mdbassman)
Posted 65 months ago. (permalink)

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Fir.. says:

Wow, this is an amazing tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing all the info.
Posted 63 months ago. (permalink)

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Seluma  Pro User  says:

Brian, thank you, and congratulations! I have been playing with the stack technique and the dewdrop technique, but not both together, yet. And then yesterday my April edition of Practical Photography finally made it to the States, and I was thrilled to see your work and mini-tutorial. Thanks again!
Originally posted 62 months ago. (permalink)
Seluma edited this topic 62 months ago.

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maycos60 says:

Brian, thank you for sharing the info.
Posted 62 months ago. (permalink)

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Shaolin Tiger  Pro User  says:

Beautiful, thanks for sharing the insight on how to do this.
Posted 62 months ago. (permalink)

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mrselfdestruct0 says:

Brian, you are the Lord of the Macro. Your photos amaze me, and this particular shot is absolutely stunning!

Shane
Posted 62 months ago. (permalink)

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Merino Niranjan Lambert (orangecrazy)  Pro User  says:

Lord V! I'm a big fan of your work. I would like to thank you for taking your time to explain how you go about your beautiful dewdrop refractions. I'm quite impatient to try with dewdrops... instead I tried with a soap poof net =P.

Though it's not perfect (had a hard time with "slice focus" as my eye sight is becoming really poor), I did try a few shot and I dedicate them to you for being such an inspiration and for sharing your secret!

Bunch of Sunflowers

Just a drop

Flowery eyes

Peacock refraction
Posted 56 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Thanks orangecrazy- that worked beautifully- might have to try that myself :)

Brian V.
Posted 56 months ago. (permalink)

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Olga_Jones says:

Thank you!!!
Posted 53 months ago. (permalink)

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Taunya S photography says:

Wow, that was a great tutorial. I am gonna have to try both the Lord V and Orangecrazy versions. That is so neat. Thanks for sharing that.
Taunya
Posted 51 months ago. (permalink)

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dkian2000  Pro User  says:

Thanks for your excellent tutorial. I have learn a lots on that.
Waterdrop
Posted 47 months ago. (permalink)

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sleepymoondesign says:

Do you think i would be able to pull something like this off with a Olympus FE-340/x-b55/C-560
Posted 44 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

zoelver not sure what magnification that camera/lens system is capable of but if you can get to about 0.6:1 (equivalent to 2:1 with a 1.6crop DSLR) then yes you could but I suspect the focusing could be a problem
Posted 44 months ago. (permalink)

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~ Sandi ~  Pro User  says:

Excellent tutorial, Thankyou very mucc
Posted 44 months ago. (permalink)

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Ezhil Ramalingam  Pro User  says:

Great tutorial, Brian. Thanks a lot.
Posted 41 months ago. (permalink)

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miacat63  Pro User  says:

Wow, what a great thing to try to achieve for ourselves. Thanks for the great tutorial.
Posted 34 months ago. (permalink)

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LauriePix1  Pro User  says:

Thank you for posting this tutorial and the lenses that you use. This is extremely helpful! I absolutely love your dew drop refractions!
Posted 34 months ago. (permalink)

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anna.elizabeth.  Pro User  says:

Great shots! I like the 4th one best!! :))
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

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Weidotcom says:

Hi LordV - just wondering, if you're using macro bellows, instead of moving the camera forward/back to achieve the varied FOV, is it the same effect if you moved the lens fwd/back using the macro bellow's rail? cheers
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Weidotcom,
I think as long as the bellows movement is not too big it should be fine doing that. Either method results in FOV/magnification differences which are corrected by the stacking software
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

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PRotography EU says:

Great tutorial.
Posted 29 months ago. (permalink)

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PaPeR.cLiP  Pro User  says:

This is terrific -- thanks for sharing!!
Posted 29 months ago. (permalink)

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jermana_melody says:

Canon S95says:

wonderful group, thank you guys
Originally posted 21 months ago. (permalink)
jermana_melody edited this topic 21 months ago.

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armand_212  Pro User  says:

Thank you, this is an eye opener!
Posted 18 months ago. (permalink)

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oomphoto  Pro User  says:

Thank you so much. I love doing water drop shots and this is a big help.
Posted 18 months ago. (permalink)

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Lena M. Photography says:

Thank You, Brian!! This is so awesome, and I am so excited to have found your tutorial. I just got two lenses, and am wondering how suitable they would be for achieving the dewdrop refractions...

One is a Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm 1.7 and the other a Tamron 70-300mm TeleMacro.

I look forward to your reply! Have a great weekend.
Posted 18 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Lena - you really need to be shooting at 2:1 magnification or higher for these type of shots.
You may be able to fit the Tamron on your camera, set it between 100mm and 150mm focal length and reverse mount the 50mm lens onto the front of the tele lens. This should give you a suitably high magnification but the focus point will be very close to the front of the reversed lens. You can find reverse mount male/male adapter rings on ebay which match the filter sizes of your lenses.
Brian v.
Posted 18 months ago. (permalink)

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George Augustine  Pro User  says:

Thanks LordV for taking the time to share your know how with us.I always enjoy seeing your refraction images.I should try this some day.You seem to be a specialist in refraction shots.Thanks again.Keep them coming.:-)
Posted 15 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Thanks George - I just enjoy doing refraction shots.
Brian v.
Posted 15 months ago. (permalink)

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DisGuyLa  Pro User  says:

great tutorial!
Posted 9 months ago. (permalink)

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mrnickon  Pro User  says:

Hi Lord V,

You mentioned using extension tubes in your set-up. Doesn't that merely decrease camera to subject distance? I thought a teleconverter was necessary to increase magnification unless you are using a reversed lens.

MrNickon
Originally posted 9 months ago. (permalink)
mrnickon edited this topic 9 months ago.

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Mrnickon.
Extension tubes do decrease the working distance but they increase the magnification. A TC will preserve the working distance, give more magnification but will degrade the image IQ more than ext tubes.

Brian v.
Posted 9 months ago. (permalink)

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Shane_Anthony says:

Lord V great tutorial, i like the end result, i am now inspired to give this a go, thanks heaps.
Posted 9 months ago. (permalink)

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martinjamescook  Pro User  says:

Lord V, love your work. Very inspiring. Here is a self portrait I have managed. Not tried focus stacking as of yet

The Anaesthetist
Posted 8 months ago. (permalink)

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Lord V is a group administrator Lord V  Pro User  says:

Like it Martin
Posted 8 months ago. (permalink)

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