36 Digital SLR Photography Ma y 2019
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CAMERA SETTINGS Set your camera to aperture-priority mode and
dial in a starting aperture of f/5.6 to assess the level of sharpness. As
the droplet is curved and, depending on your focal length and focusing
distance, you’ll likely need plenty of depth-of-field; you may find
you need to stop down to as small as f/11 to f/16. To avoid very long
exposures, you may want to increase your ISO rating slightly too.3
CAMERA’S POSITION You’ll need to adjust the height of your tripod to
see the entire subject within the droplet; a few millimetres can make
all the difference. As you move it, be careful to keep the camera parallel
to the twig as otherwise you’ll limit depth-of-field even more. Focus on
the image refracted in the droplet – you may find that using LiveView
and manual focus are more precise than relying on AF.1
SET-UP In front of a large window for soft light, clamp a thin colourful
branch, reed or the stem of a flower in front of your lens to suspend
the droplets from. As the droplets will refract everything that’s behind
them, you’ll want to make the background as clean as possible to allow
the flower to stand alone. Here I chose to position a black background
just behind a flower, which is 20-30cm behind the branch.2
APPLY THE DROPLETS If you want lots of random droplets, you could
use a spray bottle to replicate the look of raindrops, but eye drops
allow for more precision and hold their form for much longer giving
you time to refine focus. Droplets look best in odd numbers so try
with one first and build up to five. You’ll need ample-sized drops to
refract a clear image so keep adding until they’re big enough.