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Keep still
When the motorised platform begins to
move, everything on the light pad will move –
so it’s a good idea to x any lightweight
objects to the surface with tape or, in the
case of seriously lightweight objects such as
ornamental grasses, a sheet of glass.
Be patient
Botanical mandalas can take hours or
sometimes even days to perfect. ‘It’s not a
one and run technique,’ laughs Elizabeth.
Treat the exercise as an almost therapeutic
act and enjoy the sense of calm that you
experience from being ‘in the zone’.Banish the dust
Elizabeth shoots in raw and imports les into
Lightroom, where she carries out basic
adjustments. She often tweaks exposure,
white balance, texture, clarity, colour, vibrance,
saturation and sharpening. Any dust spots
are removed in Photoshop.get everything measured and level or your
mandala will not come out symmetrical,’
she warns. When everything is aligned she
sets the camera on the tripod and positions
it directly over the light pad.
It takes time, and a little pre-visualisation,to work out where to place her subject on
the light pad, but once she has decided
Elizabeth takes care to secure any
lightweight subjects to the surface using
tape or, in some cases, a sheet of glass.
‘The subject can’t move,’ she stresses. ‘As
soon as the platform rotates and things
move out of position the symmetry will
be destroyed.’
All the mandalas shown on these pageswere shot on a Nikon D850 with a
Lensbaby Velvet 85mm. ‘I love the way this
lens gives an almost painterly look to the
images,’ says Elizabeth. The Velvet 85mm
is a manual-focus lens, which suits her style
perfectly. ‘Everything I do is manual,’ she
laughs. ‘I work in manual mode and I use
manual focusing – it gives me more
flexibility.’ To help her to keep everything
sharp she shoots around f/8 and uses a
combination of viewfinder and live view
to refine her focus. ‘I also use a remote
release and I switch the camera to Mirror
Up mode,’ she adds.
With the camera set to multiple exposuremode, Elizabeth takes one shot then rotates
the platform the predetermined amount
and shoots another. The process is repeated
until the platform has completed its full
rotation. ‘The camera combines the shots
and that’s how the mandala is
created,’ she concludes.
Mandala with Fern
Nikon D850, Lensbaby Velvet 85mm
1/8sec at f/8, ISO 64
12 in-camera exposures