‘Raining Daisies’

Canon 5D Mk IV – EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro – 1/6, f/2.8, ISO 100, Eval Meter

Today’s Photo of the Day is artsy. I’ve done a few bland raindrop photos and I thought I’d spice things up a bit with each ‘raindrop’ containing a daisy. I call it ‘Raining Daisies’.

While it looks complicated, this was a rather easy photo to take. I actually read a very un-detailed article on a similar concept and thought I’d give it a try in my studio. The hardest part of the shoot was actually focusing on the raindrops. Since I was using a macro lens with a wide open aperture, and I was close to the drops, I had a razor thin depth of field. This entailed shooting tethered and using the computer screen to manually focus. In the end, this is a focus stack of 4 identical images but different focal lengths.

The shot itself was setup by using two baked bean cans and two drinking glasses with a piece of packing tape stretched across. I then used a spray bottle with water and sprayed the tape. Underneath, I set my iPad with a picture of a daisy. The camera was on the tripod with a remote trigger attached. The photos were stacked in Photoshop then minimally processed in Lightroom – mostly I cropped out the tape lines. Below, you can see the setup.

I had fun doing this and might try it again using something other than a flower. Maybe the grandkids faces?? Suggestions appreciated.