I stood by the window a few weeks ago, watching new snow fall on the snowdrops by the door. The tiny, white flowers were tightly closed against the chill – waiting for a moment of warmth. They were a quiet promise that Spring will come. I couldn’t help myself. I grabbed my camera and tripod, and went outside to kneel in the snow. :)
Here are a few tips for getting a shot like this one.
1. When photographing white objects against a white background, overexpose slightly. All that bright white throws off your camera’s meter. Check your histogram to be sure your whites are bright enough – but don’t let the details blow out.
2. When photographing water droplets with a macro lens, look closely at the reflections. Change your position if necessary to make sure the reflection isn’t distracting. In one shot from this morning, I noticed that the water droplet reflected the pattern of siding on my house. No good. I changed my angle and captured this shot instead.
Do you see the distracting lines of the house in the droplet?
The reflection in this droplet is much less distracting.
3. Pay close attention to your color balance. A slight shift towards blue will leave those greens looking dull and lifeless.
4. I chose an aperture of f/16 for this shot because I wanted to be sure that my droplets and the flower were in sharp focus. I was so close to the flower that a wider aperture would have left me with very little depth of field to work with. Because I was so close, f/16 let me keep the flower sharp while blurring out the snowy background for a very simple finished image.
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