How to Photograph Snowflakes - Snowflake photography with Don Komarechka
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Don Komarechka is famous for his amazing snowflake photos. In this video, he gives us a quick lesson on how to photograph snowflakes.
Here's another video with a detailed overview of Don's editing process:
• Watch Me Work - Don Ko...
Check out Don's snowflake book, Sky Crystals: Unraveling the Mysteries of Snowflakes:
skycrystals.ca...
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Definitely on my macro photography bucket list to do this! I hope we get some snow here in Sweden soon :) Thanks for the video Don!
Agreed. It’s on my list and Don’s work is such an inspiration.
I'm in Sweden and I was overjoyed when I noticed them on my mailbox today! So I borrowed a macro lens and tried to shoot but... I get subtle motion blur and super weird grainy light in the background D: Trying to find out how to do it properly now
Finally - a video that goes straight to the point and covers all the important parts - including the setup, the background, isolating a snowflake with the brush and the post processing :) And yes, I also found that I must hold my LED ring flashlight while shooting or rest it on the nearest surface because otherwise I loose my focus. I'm still working on holding my breath for long enough :) Great video thanks for sharing :) And I love the idea of preserving the snowflakes ❤ must give it a try, I always have some super glue around :)
Great video! I really enjoyed hearing Don speak! He's a natural in front of the camera and the content is stellar. I'm kind of upset that it was so short, but you packed a fair amount into that space. I'm looking forward to more from Don, and more topics like this (out of the mainstream ideas).
That Crying Jordan Calendar is amazing.
Hah, I always wondered "how do they do these macro photos where everything is in focus". Turns out - you don't, just make several dozen or hundred pictures and merge them :D
in fact this is possible (some limitations) with only one shot: "Scheimpflug principle"
It's possible with a super small aperture (large f stop number) but you loose a lot of light, so you need long exposures, and the snowflake could move or melt, and you need a super steady tripod.
What he's doing is basically manual focus bracketing, in this method you would normally set up a tripod and take a series of photos and stitch them together in post. Some cameras can do this automatically.
I really like Snowflake ❄️❄️❄️thank you for sharing ❤️❤️❤️2022
thank you for sharing you process! And design is a great word for a snowflake!
Fantastic subject for macro photography. Great video buddy thank you for sharing your craft pointers with us all 👌😉👍
Don, I am so grateful that I stumbled on your snowflake presentation. I have been following your work for quite some time. Phenomenal images you create. Thank you very much for showing us the process.!. 20-30 cm in the forecast for tomorrow, I'll be giving snowflakes a shot. 🙂
3:47 Is that Jordan in the fetal position posing for February?
It was a whole calendar of Jordan in the fetal position - one spectacular image for each month!
@@DonKomarechka Well that's just lovely!
"Soup to nuts" was a new one for me! 😂 Excellent video, thanks for putting this together. 😊
The British aren't the only ones with silly localized phrases! :D Glad you liked the video
Beautiful! Thank you, Don, for sharing.
That was quite exceptional! Thanks 🙏 so much doncom. 💜
Thanks for sharing the techniques! I'll definitely try to do it~
Simply WONDERFUL !!!
So happy I discovered your videos today! I’m from Ottawa, Ontario, lots of snow and great cold weather to try out your tricks. Thanks so much for sharing your secrets
😍Amazing
Great video Don. Short and to the point while being very descriptive and interesting. Thanks to your many videos I've been attempting this and it's fun and addictive (and I'm not a winter person). Your book Sky Crystals is fantastic and what I consider the Bible of Snowflake macro photography.
Don. Really excellent video, I have been self-learning (fumbling) my way through snow flake photography, I am going to take full advantage of your free and fee leading data you have produced! Thank you for the excellent information! Kevin - Colorado
Hi Don! Great tips... as you know you are my fav snowflake master always great to see you and your work! Happy New Year!
When rotating and taking several shots, I assume you’re taking them very slowly and moving very slightly to get the various depth of field images. It must take so many to go thru. I totally see how this would work and lots of practice to get it right. Great video.
very insightful - thanks for sharing
Super interesting and fun video! Love it! :D
Great vid, thanks for sharing some tips!
Superglue eh? I always wondered, (but never took the time to research) how they "preserved" snowflakes on sliders, thanks for the tip, super useful.
Funny how just about everywhere in Canada but Newfoundland, currently has snow on the ground...Labrador doesn't count, they have snow 10 months of the year, lol.
Good helpful video, I give it a thumbs up :)
Love your work and have your latest book. You make snowflake photography look simple like Beethoven makes music composition look simple! ;0) Glad you can do it so I don't have to (oh, and I live in Sydney AU)! :0)
Brilliant! 🍻
Very interesting method, that lead to great results,
your videos is really best on dpreview youtube channel... LIKE
Have to try that!
Very cool (pun intended :) Thanks for sharing.
Really fantastic that you're sharing your techniques! Couple of quick questions: With that Canon 65mm lens, what F-stop do you typically use for an average sized snowflake? (to minimize diffraction). 2nd: Is the benefit of extension tubes just to give you more shooting distance or are you using it more for the magnification factor? Suspect extension tubes are better than teleconverters so the extra optics don't reduce sharpness. I wondered about adding Canon's closeup filter to the front of the 65mm with a step ring (but suspect it doesn't help the shooting distance issue). Thanks!!
Beautiful work!
Thanks Don. Now I just need a macro lens and most importantly some snow ❄️ 🤗
So flash on? Also would a macro lens be good or no?
I want to buy Don's Book Sky Crystals but it says out of stock :( Will this be back in stock sometime?
Hoping for cold weather😁
What battery pack do you have connected to the Yongnuo YN-14EX?
Panasonic rules!
Might be a silly question but could this work with a 24mm lens? I assume there isn’t a way of getting the full snowflake in focus on one shot? Also would it still work if you upped the ISO if you didn’t have a ring light?
Well, one of the lenses I was using in this video was a 25mm lens (Laowa 25mm 2.5x - 5x F/2.8 macro), so there is no reason why a shorter focal length lenses cannot be used. You are correct that shorter focal lengths generally allow for greater depth of field, but the closer you get to your subject, the shallower that depth becomes - and there is no overcoming it by changing your focal length or shooting with a smaller aperture. The light source is coming from the ring flash to give you "glare" off the surface of the crystal in a way that would be nearly impossible with ambient light. That's not to say you need a ring flash to photograph a snowflake, but it's the perfect tool to generate the same results that I get.
Can you share the type of Ring Flash, please....sorry, I just couldn't get the brand name :)
What ring flash would you suggest for Nikon? I love the flash you use but its only for Canon. :(
And I was using it on Lumix bodies just fine, as you could also do on a Nikon body. :) The flash itself will work in manual mode on any camera with a standard hot shoe. You give up TTL metering when you use it with anything but Canon, but this isn't a big deal. I use my flashes in manual mode almost all the time anyhow. That said, if you want to get a Nikon-compatible flash, K&F Concept makes the KF-150 with Nikon iTTL.
Be warned of one quirk though: the flash hardware was originally designed for Canon and they flashed the firmware to create a Nikon variant. This means that if you want to plug in an external battery pack, double-check the connector. On the Nikon-based KF-150 I have, it has a Canon external battery connector.
I wish it'd snow here. And I live in the middle of the alps.
What is snow in 2021? I'm bookmarking this for actual winter weather.
So, how do you tell when you've got the proper angle? Just check the back of the camera?
With an EVF that displays the image immediately after taking it, it's far easier to know when you've got the right angle with a mirrorless camera than with a tradition DSLR. In a DSLR scenario, you'll want to use a flash that has TTL metering, which allows you to see the TTL preflash in the optical viewfinder to give you an idea if you have the proper angle or not. You would then effectively "focus by strobe", using the preflash as the indicator of where you line of focus is.
I have tried your techniques, but have been hindered more by weather than anything else. But, Mom gave me the book "Snowflake Bentley" this year, have you seen it before?
There's the key - you need the weather to cooperate! And yes, Wilson Bentley created similar looking images. He used entirely different techniques however: he would photograph them on a glass plate with light coming in from behind. This would yield a white snowflake on a white background, but you're probably familiar with his images on black. To achieve this, he would cut out the snowflake (often from a duplicate negative) with a razor blade.
Great Video... what Kind of stacking Programm do you use for this kind of Makro photography ?
Photoshop is preferred because the frames sometimes need more alignment and correction that Zerene Stacker or Helicon focus can properly handle, and there are a lot of manual corrections that can be applied with layer masks. There is a link in the description to a video that illustrates exactly how I use Photoshop to put the images together.
I've used Picolay for much of my stacking. It can make for better results than Photoshop. In fact, one of the options is to use five different stacking operations at a time! Don was correct about not needing a decent setup. Having a decent setup can make the stacking process easier, but also less images are required. Instead of needing to adjust the camera angle, try to have the snowflake parallel to the lens at night using a light source, adjusting the source to get the correct angle! My new Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/160246804@N08/
Nice snowflake images! However, your images lack the reflected light off the surface of the crystal that I usually seek within my own snowflake images. The only way this would be theoretically possible with the snowflake parallel to the lens would be to use an appropriately-sized pellicle beamsplitter as a semi-transparent mirror that doesn't interfere with the optical path of light into the camera. This would allow you to have the light on a 90-degree angle from the subject but with the mirror it would appear to be coming from the same direction as the lens.
@@DonKomarechka Most or all of those photos were taken in daylight. It should be possible by shining a flashlight, but I might've posted too soon. What I initially thought of as ninety degrees is more like fourty degrees.
Easy. Just take a screenshot at RUclips comments nowadays - especially one talking about specific gear.
Place that i live , snowing about ones in a decade...so...
You can try with ice from refrigerator.
I wish he could have explained us how to shoot snowflakes without a MPE 65 and a dozen of extension rings..
Watch the whole video.
Why not use a deeper depth of field?
The closer you get to your subject, the shallower your depth of field becomes. Attempting to overcome this with a smaller aperture would only result in a marginal increase in depth while simultaneously causing more diffraction that will ruin the image quality - not a fair trade-off. The only way to extend your depth of field at these extreme magnifications is to use focus stacking techniques.
@@DonKomarechka Thanks for that!
Always good to ask a question.
Why are the likes and comments enabled?
You can photograph lots of snowflakes in one picture with a 35mm. They are walking around in the streets quite often
The part at the end of this that talks about saving a snowflake using superglue is lacking in a few details. You will never get it to work just by this video alone. ruclips.net/video/cRgOmSKhvSI/видео.html is a good one, but there are others. Once you apply the superglue you need to immediately freeze it for about a week until the glue dries.
I predict less than 1/1000 of the people who watch this will actually attempt this. but it was interesting.
I did it too. This is what I used Woodglut designs for
Another way to photo snowflakes is to go to the Trump rallies and just photograph them.
And here i thought it was going to be a video on how to photograph the rioters at the Capitol safely. Guess it was up a few days before
We have Snowflakes in abundance in the UK.
Just go to the BBC and ask to speak to..... well, anyone really.
No photographs though. They’re easily offended
Sounds like you are the real snowflake.
@@sean_mc sounds like you work for the bbc
How to Photograph Snowflakes? Have your camera ready when they scream in your face!
Easy I just go to a local college and start taking photographs of the students
Lol I thought you meant “teenagers “
Easy. Just take your camera to any university campus.
You don't need a 5x Macro lens. I used my Canon 35mm Macro 1:1 and get great shots of snowflakes!~