Rainy Day Macro Water Drops

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DRwyoming

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Pretty gloomy day as we're full into mud season but I've been wanting to put my Z6 II through its paces as a macro camera and have been motivated by some of the excellent water refraction images posted in the macro forum. Had some fresh cut flowers in the house so I played around with some water drop refraction macro stuff today.

Here's one I like

Nikon Z6 II, 105mm AF-S Micro lens + TC-14 iii + 36mm extension tube for ~2:1 macro. Lit with Lumecube Panel Mini

Z62_2053--20210425-Edit.jpg
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The trick is getting the water drops big enough and getting them to stay put without either dripping or running backwards up the glossy side of the leaves due to surface tension. I see how you could go nuts with this kind of macro work playing with different: background flowers, foreground subjects, spacing, lighting, polarization, heck maybe even focus stacking if you could work fast and keep the lighting steady (was handholding the light and adjusting for look).

Fun stuff for sure and something I'd like to try with our native spring flowers when they bloom.
 
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Still playing with water refractions and came up with this image...

Nikon z6 II, 105mm AF-S Micro, TC-14 iii, 36mm extension tube.
Z62_2483--20210426-Edit-Edit.jpg
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Water droplets on a plate of glass suspended over flowers. Focus stack of 40 images.
 
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Played around with this again this evening using some different flowers and working a bit more carefully with the setup and lighting. Stacked in Zerene Stacker

2021-04-26-22.22.32 ZS PMax--20210426-Edit-2.jpg
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The second two photos are absolutely beautiful.
Thanks Woody!

It's pretty fun stuff to do optically and doesn't take much gear beyond a macro lens, tripod, sheet of glass (I used glass from an unused picture frame) and something like flowers to use as the background and focal target.
 
Beautiful photos. I enjoy doing macro work. It opens up a whole new world and enables us to see things we see everyday in a very different light. And, yes, it can be maddening, especially when trying to capture images up close out in nature.
 
I've gotten several requests to describe the setup for those last two shots above so here it is. It was just a simple improvised setup in the kitchen that looked like this:
850_6345--20210428.jpg
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A few notes:
- The lens is obviously a macro lens for close focus on the water drops. I've used both the bare 105mm lens and done some of these with a 1.4x TC and some with an added extension tube to get real close focus on the water droplets

- The glass is just out of a picture frame, cleaned and then I applied a coating of Rain-X (windshield treatment) buffed out with a micro fiber cloth to help the water bead up into big droplets but it works pretty nicely with just clean glass as well

- In the yellow flower shot above I used a spray bottle for a random placement of drops, in the second image I placed the drops with the syringe shown to control the size and position of the water drops

- You can light these lots of ways, the first shot above was lit with ambient room light but I wasn't pleased with the reflected highlights in some of the water drops so I used a small LED light panel (LumeCube Panel Go) placed right on the glass like what's shown above to light the flowers without creating specular highlights in the water droplets for the orange image

- I tried some just stopping the lens way down for additional DoF but was most happy with the focus stacked images(shot at f/8) though either approach can work
 
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I've gotten several requests to describe the setup for those last two shots above so here it is. It was just a simple improvised setup in the kitchen that looked like this:
View attachment 18030

A few notes:
- The lens is obviously a macro lens for close focus on the water drops. I've used both the bare 105mm lens and done some of these with a 1.4x TC and some with and added extension tube to get real close focus on the water droplets

- The glass is just out of a picture frame, cleaned and then I applied a coating of Rain-X (windshield treatment) buffed out with a micro fiber cloth to help the water bead up into big droplets but it works pretty nicely with just clean glass as well

- In the yellow flower shot above I just used a spray bottle for a random placement of drops, in the second image I placed the drops with the syringe shown to control the size and position of the water drops

- You can light these lots of ways, the first shot above was lit with ambient room light but I wasn't pleased with the reflected highlights in some of the water drops so I used a small LED light panel (LumeCube Panel Mini) placed right on the glass like what's shown above to light the flowers without creating specular highlights in the water droplets for the orange image

- I tried some just stopping the lens way down for additional DoF but was most happy with the focus stacked images(shot at f/8) though either approach can work
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your photos and set up. I greatly appreciate you doing so!
 
" Water droplets on a plate of glass suspended over flowers. Focus stack of 40 images. "
Ingenious, creative, beautiful work! The image of yellow daisies reflected on purple-light droplets is amazing. And here I thought you were just an outdoor guy!
🤣 👍 ⭐x 5
 
" Water droplets on a plate of glass suspended over flowers. Focus stack of 40 images. "
Ingenious, creative, beautiful work! The image of yellow daisies reflected on purple-light droplets is amazing. And here I thought you were just an outdoor guy!
🤣 👍 ⭐x 5
Thanks!

Yeah, I mostly shoot outdoors but love to play with optics and cameras in all kinds of situations :)
 
OH DEAR!! Just got into macro and have been chasing bugs. And now for something completely different! (I can not remember where that line came from ???)
 
Very nice work, I too have begun dabbling in macro and find it interesting. I have read where adding glycerin or clear kayro it gives the water a little body and makes it easier to work with. Haven’t tried it myself yet but I will soon. Also some recommend using a hypodermic needle for placement of water for you can add or subtract for size and placement.
 
Very nice work, I too have begun dabbling in macro and find it interesting. I have read where adding glycerin or clear kayro it gives the water a little body and makes it easier to work with. Haven’t tried it myself yet but I will soon. Also some recommend using a hypodermic needle for placement of water for you can add or subtract for size and placement.
Thanks.

Yeah, I've heard the same about adding glycerin but haven't tried it. I did use a syringe in both the image with the green leaves and the water droplet image over the orange flower. It does make it easier to precisely place the water droplets and to create droplets with specific size. As you say the cool thing is you can basically pick up and move a water drop with the syringe by sucking all the water back up and placing it elsewhere.
 
I'm looking forward to trying it with some of our local wildflowers or some big Sunflowers when they're in bloom.
Finally got a cut Sunflower to play with and came up with this image.

Nikon Z6 II, 105mm AF-S micro lens, f/8, 1/1.3", ISO 100, 40 image focus stack in Zerene Stacker
2021-09-08-15.00.29 ZS PMax--20210908-Web.jpg
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Finally got a cut Sunflower to play with and came up with this image.

Nikon Z6 II, 105mm AF-S micro lens, f/8, 1/1.3", ISO 100, 40 image focus stack
View attachment 24612
You really started something here! Due to Covid lockdown my camera got trapped in the repair shop in Melbourne (Australia) for 2 months! So I decided to build a "Macro Cage" based on the tutorials of Allan Walls. I recently tried the cage with some an old Canon 7D. My first 2 attempts below. Now I have to perfect the lighting. Allan has multiple videos on this topic alone. My D850 came back 2 days ago and last night I was out trying my new Pluto Trigger on Star Trails. As the man said "Always look on the bright side of life!" Tra la!!!

Water droplets on daisy petal.jpg
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Fly macro.jpg
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Macro cage.jpg
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Beautiful shots. Well thought and executed. I am not trying this approach (no room to do so). I am looking at how to better light my gardon shooting. Will see what I can worl out. Love the sunflowers!!!
 
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