Photo of the week © Adam Bliss Photography

© Adam Bliss Photography

© Adam Bliss Photography 2011

© Adam Bliss Photography 2011

© Adam Bliss Photography

If you want to see your images here just reach out with a link to your image in the contact form

©Adam Bliss Photography

If you want to see your images here just reach out with a link to your image in the contact form

Another new trend we’re going to be starting here on Knowphoto is the Saturday photo of the week. This is open to anyone wanting to have their photo highlighted here on Knowphoto. If you want to see your images here just reach out with a link to the image in the contact form

© Adam Bliss Photography

Photography has so many aspects some times it’s hard to focus, it’s when I’m in that mind set where I’m unfocused that I like to get up close and personal and shoot some macro photography.

Setting up for a macro shot you have a couple of things to think about -

• Depth of Field
• Background
• Color

Lets jump right into each of these items -

Depth of Field
Depth of Field in macro photography is a different animal then normal depth of field when your shooting say a landscape shot. This is because depth of field is based at least partially on the distance from your camera to the object your shooting. When shooting macro photography your camera is so close to your subject that even when shooting with a small aperture (f16 – f22) you will only obtain a limited level of acceptable focus. The question you have to ask yourself is do you want really shallow or just shallow.

Background
Once you’ve got that perfect shot all lined up did you remember to check out the background? What’s behind your subject can just as easily ruin your shot as bad focus or bad exposure. With macro photography background is even more important as a bad color or point of interest can draw interest away from your image more easily due to the size they become in the final image.

Color
Color has always been a big factor in photography but in macro photography the magnification of each element in the picture color plays an even bigger role. This means you need to be thinking of how each color will impact the feeling you want to get across in the final shot.

Here are a few more example shots for you to take a look at -

Weather changes all the time all around the world, this is a great thing for photographers. You just have to get out and take advantage of it. Here are seven reasons to get out and shoot when the weather turns on you, you may just get a perfect shot.

Cloud Formations-
These formations may bring you rain or snow or sleet but they can also add a unique look to your photos. Some very cool pictures have been taken when you have foreboding clouds rolling overhead.

Reflections in the Rain -
Reflections have long been a great picture opportunity and rain offers you many, many more choices in terms of what you can shoot reflections of. Areas that don’t normally have water are submerged or at least off a give off shimmer of light from the water on the ground.

Pristine Snow -
Snow is a great thing to photography, it covers details on the ground and shows you more clearly the lay of the land. It can offer a feeling of calm and peace.

Snow Storms -
Snow storms alos offer something cool to shoot, you’ll be wet and cold but you may be able to get some great shots of the harshness of the storm or the people braving the storm to get where they need to be.

Stillness -
This one can be captured in any shot from the city to country, it’s more a feeling that you get when you look at the photo. Not everyone may feel it for the same shot but it’s there and when you see it you’ll know exactly what I mean here.

Fog -
Fog is one of the coolest things to try to photograph, it’s hard to get it perfect however, sometimes it can be too dense and sometimes too light. Usually you’ll need a tripod to shoot in the fog as to get the details you’ll need a longer exposure.

Different Perspectives -
This is something you should always be looking for but sometimes in the rain or snow you can see things differently. For me at least being out in the weather seems to push me to look for the different shot and the different angle.

What do you think, are we missing anything? Let us know in the comments.

I’ve seen these types of shots all over the place and thought it was about time to sit down and just figure out how to do one myself.  The water drop shot can be a pretty simple shot if you want it to be or you can make it very complex for some cool looks.  Today I’m going to show you how to set up a pretty simple scenario, you’ll need a glass container, a flash or really bright shooting location, water, a tripod, and your camera.  You can always add more to this setup but this is the minimum you’ll need.

Ok so lets dig a little deeper into what you need to make this shoot happen -

• Glass container – I used a big punch bowl for my container but this is not ideal, if you have it you should try using a fish tank where you can shoot straight on and eliminate glare and reflections.
• Flash – You need to light the water drops and get them to stop the motion, you can do this easily with a flash but if you just have a bright area that will work too.  I also used wireless flash sync’s here to allow me to move the flash off camera but this is not a requirement.
• Camera – Any camera that has a telephoto or macro lens should work here.
• Water – You’ll need to fill the container with water and if you want to show water dropping into water you’ll need  another container of water as well.

The setup for these shots is simple but lets walk through it -

• Fill the container about half way with water
• Decide upon the background, move the container to where you’ll get that background.
• Set up your camera on a tripod
• Stick an item in the middle of the water and use that to manually focus the camera, you won’t have time to focus when your trying to catch the action.
• Get your flash ready, test it out a few times to get it right where you don’t have glare or bad reflections. I bounced my flash off the ceiling to soften the light a little but your milage may vary.
• Pour or drop stuff into the water and time your shutter release to the time of the drop. This may take some time to get it right, just keep playing until you get it.

You have some options here when you want to make your shot different, you could try adding a background and/or move the background away from the container and add a light to the background to make it really pop.

As you can see from the pics I shot water pouring into water, dropped broccoli and dropped tomato’s into the water. The options here are endless, I’ve seen some pretty cool options with strawberries, cut kiwi’s and other fruit. One other thing I’ve found is that larger items seem to have a better splash and more bubbles under the water use a bigger item or drop it from further, just make sure your ok with the mess.

Additional Images -

Let me know what you think of these shots and if you plan to take any of your own in the comments below.