Snowflake shots

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Snowflake shots

Post by bralex »

I'm usually a mineral photographer, but I took my rig outside and captured some snowflakes. Some turned out pretty well. The background is the Beetle Black cardstock; I have tried a couple of materials so far for snowflakes and haven't been very happy with any yet. I just used ambient light (sun behind clouds); my rig is an Olympus EM5-mkII with the 40-150 Pro lens, 1.4x teleconverter, and a Raynox 250. Stacking done with Zerene; most of these were roughly 15 images with the in-camera focus bracketing. For the most part the flakes are 2-4 mm across.


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bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

Image

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

Image

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

Image

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

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bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

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zzffnn
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Location: Houston, Texas, USA
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Post by zzffnn »

Very nice, thank you for sharing.

Have you compared snowflakes images produced by focus bracketing vs single frames lit by flash? Do you think snowflakes contain enough fine details to benefit from focus bracketing?

I have a very similar Oly rig. I am guessing vibration may be an issue, when doing outdoor focus bracketing, using ambient light, at your magnification. It would be an issue for my rig, at least.
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

Smokedaddy
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Location: Bigfork, Montana
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Post by Smokedaddy »

Very nice images!

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
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Post by Smokedaddy »

zzffnn wrote:Very nice, thank you for sharing.

Have you compared snowflakes images produced by focus bracketing vs single frames lit by flash? Do you think snowflakes contain enough fine details to benefit from focus bracketing?
Just wondering if you've seen "Sky Crystals" by Don Komarechka. Outstanding book, very well illustrated and many how to techniques.

-JW:

razashaikh
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Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:40 pm
Location: India

Post by razashaikh »

Beautiful set!

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Post by bralex »

zzffnn wrote:Very nice, thank you for sharing.

Have you compared snowflakes images produced by focus bracketing vs single frames lit by flash? Do you think snowflakes contain enough fine details to benefit from focus bracketing?

I have a very similar Oly rig. I am guessing vibration may be an issue, when doing outdoor focus bracketing, using ambient light, at your magnification. It would be an issue for my rig, at least.
Thanks all for the kind words. This was only my second attempt at shooting snowflakes.

I've not tried much experimenting with flash - I don't own any besides the kit flash. At the settings and equipment combo I am currently using, I need a minimum of 5 shots to get the whole flake in focus.

Snowflake workflow: Set up camera and tripod on my front porch. Shiver. Take pre-cooled black material out into falling snow and wait a bit. Shiver some more. Visually note a few possible photo candidates among the bits on the material. Take it to the camera and line up the shot. Take the shot. Curse the foolishness of working outside when it's well below freezing. Take any other shots for that batch. Bang the material against the wall to get the snow off. Take it back out, get more flakes, repeat. I can manage about 20 minutes, 10-15 shots before I'm too cold to manage the camera effectively. Then I go inside and stack for a while.

My tripod is a heavy and sturdy one, and my porch is concrete, so I haven't had vibration issues there.

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Post by BugEZ »

A labor of love. Many thanks for sharing!

I have read a bit on snow flake photograph and watched videos on YouTube (see below). But can’t bring myself out in the cold for very long...

https://youtu.be/yzrHLIB_5zs

Keith

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