Snowdrops 2019

I took my annual trip to photograph Snowdrops at Garston Wood on the 16th February – which is my kick off for shooting outdoor macro photos.  My normal gate was not open, so I had to walk over a mile to find the patch.  As I am suffering from a bad back, this meant I had to leave stuff behind – including my heavy tripod, and backgrounds.

However, I did have with me a new “phone” gorilla tripod (shown below).  Which was helpful in balancing the camera and lens.  It is not as stable as my main one though – and additionally the light was very dull – so I had to shoot the images at a much higher ISO than normal to get a reasonably sharp image ( ISO 1600 ).  With my normal setup I would of been able to shoot at a much lower ISO and get better sharpness in some of the shots.

 

Phone Gorrilla Tripod
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (164mm, f/8, 1/100 sec, ISO1600)
Phone Gorilla Tripod

As well as take some “normal” macro photos of the flowers, I also experimented with some shooting through some close snowdrops.  I also took some out of focus images to use, later with Topaz Texture Effects to merge with these ones.

Here are the before shots (straight from camera) – and the processed images.

Snowdrops in the Forest -before
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO1600)
Snowdrops in the Forest -before
Snowdrops in the Forest
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO1600)
Snowdrops in the Forest
Etheral Snowdrops - before
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO1600)
Etheral Snowdrops – before
Etheral Snowdrops
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO1600)
Etheral Snowdrops
Drifting in the breeze - before
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO1600)
Drifting in the breeze – before
Drifting in the breeze
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO1600)
Drifting in the breeze

The next image I just used Photoshop to blend this out of focus image with the in focus one, to give a bit of a glow to the image.

Out of focus snowdrops
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/3.5, 1/320 sec, ISO1600)
Out of focus snowdrops
Pre Merged Snowdrops
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/3.5, 1/500 sec, ISO1600)
Pre Merged Snowdrops
Merged Snowdrops
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/3.5, 1/500 sec, ISO1600)
Merged Snowdrops

And finally onto some photos, that are straight from camera. (Only some normal post processing on them).  With one exception – which I turned into a B&W.

Snowdrop with Dew
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/5, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)
Snowdrop with Dew
The unopened one
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO1600)
The unopened one
Foreground Focused
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec, ISO1600)
Foreground Focused
Delicate White
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)
Delicate White
Delicate White in Black and White
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (100mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)
Delicate White in Black and White W

All images taken on a Canon 5D Mark IV with Canon 100mm USM F2.8 Macro Lens

2 thoughts on “Snowdrops 2019

  • April 7, 2019 at 7:42 am
    Permalink

    Lovely set of images, nicely taken

    Reply

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