Droplets

[gardenersassistant]

These were captured in the grounds of the church opposite our house last November. The images were captured hand-held with a Canon EF mount Laowa 100mm 2X macro lens and a pair of 2X Kenko teleconverters attached to a Sony A7rii with a Sigma MC-11 EF to Sony E mount adapter, and a Yongnuo YN24EX twin flash with flash heads reversed and firing into a 12 inch (30cm) diameter bowl lined with printer paper over aluminium foil, and a single diffusion layer of artificial silk.

The first four images were captured using f/32 to f/40, with magnifications probably up to 6X or so, which would have given effective f-numbers in the region of f/100 or so. The last image was captured using the minimum aperture of this setup, with f/90 set on the camera and at 8X magnification giving an effective f-number of around f/270. All of the images are single-capture images (i.e. not focus stacked).

The raw files were processed with PhotoLab, Lightroom and various combinations of Topaz DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI. and Gigapixel AI. (I don't recall exactly, but I think Gigapixel got involved because I made a mistake somewhere along the line and used Gigapixel to kludge a solution because I couldn't be bothered to go back to the beginning and do it all again from scratch.)

There are 1300 pixel high versions on these images in this album at Flickr.

#1

1987 02 2021_11_20 DSC04394_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAIc-Edit LR -AIG 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

1987 08 2021_11_20 DSC04489_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAIc LR -AIG 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

1987 10a 2021_11_20 DSC04516_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAIc LR -AIG 1300h AIS by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

1987 12 2021_11_20 DSC04543_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAIc LR -AIG 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

1987 13a 2021_11_20 DSC04569_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAIc LR -AIG 1300h AIS4 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Enjoyable images in this set. It's amazing how much depth of field you can get in one shot.

 

[AlanLichty]

Crazy setup but you sure get interesting results from these techniques. I love #2 and #3 for the lens effect with the water droplets.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Amazing series. love the detail.

 

[JimFox]

Wow!!! I have tried to capture droplets a time or two, but never anything like this. What amazing quality! Love the detail and clarity in these.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

The use of droplets as fish eye lenses. Very nicely done.

 

[gardenersassistant]

Enjoyable images in this set. It's amazing how much depth of field you can get in one shot.

Crazy setup but you sure get interesting results from these techniques. I love #2 and #3 for the lens effect with the water droplets.

Amazing series. love the detail.

Wow!!! I have tried to capture droplets a time or two, but never anything like this. What amazing quality! Love the detail and clarity in these.

The use of droplets as fish eye lenses. Very nicely done.

Thanks all for the kind comments.