Photography Technique - Frozen Water Close-ups

By Author: Adam Coupe
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Photography Technique - Frozen Water Close-ups
Get outside and take some creative close-ups of our winter wonderland - or why not make your own at home?
When the temperature drops, the outside world gets a new lease of life which brings endless opportunities for macro photography. Fallen leaves frozen - get up early on frosty mornings and you'll be blessed with good light. But what if the weather's too mild for frost or you live in a warm climate? You can cultivate your own winter subjects in plastic containers by adding some water and popping them in the freezer - just remember to fill your frame when you shoot.
Go abstract
Striking winter macros plan on the contrast of texture and colours, which is why ice is such a godsend. You can make your own textured ice effect by placing a leaf and a little water in a plastic container and leave it just long enough to freeze partially, but not freeze solid. Use sandpaper to flatten out any random high points in the ice and to make it look more natural. Then place the container in front of a window for a backlit effect. Pick strongly coloured leaves (multicoloured ...
... are usually the most interesting) that will stand out against the cold hues of the frozen ice. Unless your frame is mostly coloured leaves and very little ice, be sure to overexpose by about 1 stop, so that the ice is bright and white, not dark and muddy. Take your frames of the frozen leaf in its entirety, then get in really close and go for intricate abstract macro shots with impact. You'll get something much more original this way. If you're blessed with icy conditions, you'll have the luxury of shooting a range of different frozen textures as they occur naturally. If not, manufacturing them is fairly easy. If you've frozen your leaves solid, try adding texture with sandpaper, or, if you want a really clear look, pour cold water on the ice to get rid of the crystals. You can also try stamping on or hitting the ice to create different textures. Depending on the amount of ice you're working with it can be a good idea to keep the ice in the container, as it can easily snap when removed.
Processing your images
Brighten up the whites of your ice by tweaking the levels. As it's so bright, ice is really brilliant at fooling your camera's light meter into underexposing. You may well find, even though you've compensated, that your whites aren't as white as you'd have liked. Luckily, you can adjust them to a gleaming level in the digital darkroom. It only takes a few seconds using Levels in Photoshop. Here's how to do it: open Levels then drag the highlights slider towards the centre to increase contrast and boost highlights. If you hold down the [Alt] key you'll be able to see the pixels that are clipped. The pixels you should be clipping are just the specular highlights (these contain no pixel data and are the brightest, shiniest parts of the image). Avoid clipping large patches and don't go overboard - aim to recreate a very light, faint pattern of the ice when you hold down the [Alt] key.
Essential Gear
Tripod - Essential for shake-free close-ups. A tripod will make it easier to focus, especially if you want a very shallow depth of field.
Flexible Head - Don't let your tripod hold you back. Invest in a good quality tripod head that enables you to easily and quickly change your position, so you can experiment.
Macro lens - If you really want to photograph the world in close-up, invest in a good macro lens. A ratio of 1:1 is best but 1:2 is still very close. Extension tubes are a cheaper option, but they are a bit more of a fiddle than a proper macro lens.
Adam Coupe is pro commercial photographer specialising in commercial photography and architectural photography for a wide range of organisations that need to project their products, people or brand in a vibrant way see http://www.adamcoupe.com and http://www.adamcoupe.com/portfolio/category/19/architectural_photography/projects.htm