The dew condensation on the leaves over a long night is a wonderful gift that nature offers us. They are both fragile, pristine, and delicate. The reflections in each dewdrop attract our attention and draw us into another world. Refracting photography “flowers in the mist” is one of the most beautiful subjects in Macro photography that you will probably be impressed at first sight.
What you need includes:
+ Camera
+ Macro lens
+ Flash (preferably turn the camera off)
+ Small daisies or small flowers with a diameter of about 2-3cm
+ Nice morning dew on your grass 🙂
+ Solid tripod
Shooting techniques
Set your flash to E-TTL and Flash Exposure Compensation to its normal position (+1 FEC with 430ex). The number of reflections you’ll get in a dewdrop varies a lot, but it tends to be less with lighter crops, perhaps because lighter flowers have less flash power to properly expose.
Carefully place your face down on the ground and kneel on it to spot an interesting beam of water (preferably less than 2mm)
Carefully place the flower about 2cm behind the dewdrop or the water drop in an upright position and then look for the water drop in the viewfinder. (If you need to move the flower, remember: the refracted image is upside down when looking through the water drop)
Put the camera in your hand as low as possible. Take several shots while moving the camera forward until you take the entire focus range containing all the dewdrops and their respective refractive images. Make sure you keep the same FOV throughout all the photos and do not rotate the camera while taking pictures
Finally, you will need to use the technique (Focus Stacking), also known as the technique of “overlaying” images using the CombineZM image mixing software. “Technically, it requires multiple shots, and each will focus on different areas in the same location. That means during shooting we have to fix the camera position and the subject. The number of shots depends on the size of the subject and the depth of field, you will shoot and focus on each part until you have all the clear areas of the subject. use the software to reassemble it. This technique is mainly used when taking close-ups, macros or using microscopes. “