I have taken this before but not for some time. I shot it 2 years ago with the Fuji S602Z and 17x worth of close up filters, or maybe just the 10x. I forget.
I took a piece of nylon netting that I got off a flower. It is cylindrical and fits over long petaled flowers to help protect them. I cut the netting so that it was flat and stretched it. The netting was attached with office clips on each side to two 12" by 16" box tops. The front of the box tops have been covered with white paper and they are fairly white on the sides. The lids were placed vertically in front of the flower with the tops facing toward the flower and weight placed on the bottom inside of each to keep them in place. I put a sheet of purple textured paper in the background and placed the flower in a bottle in front of it having cut the stem to get it short enough so the flowers is directly behind the netting.
The most time consuming part of this process is the getting the water into the holes of the netting and getting it to stay there. It requires a somewhat steadier hand than mine is at times. Using and eyedropper, I tried to get as many drops in as I could and it took some doing. The curve of the drops need to be towards the camera for the least distorted reflections. I like the consistency of the drops that I got and also the pattern, though the composition may not be the best.
The set up was lit with two 100w halogen bulbs in clamp lamps pointing up to a piece of white foam board above the shooting area. A third desk lamp with a 60w Reveal bulb was pointed down to the subject. The camera was tripod mounted and I used the macro setting with a 10x closeup filter.
Post: Layer adjustements for levels (auto, 50% opacity), brightness/contrast (75% opacity) and hue/saturation (75% opacity). USM. Cropped (only for 1.25 ratio). Resize. USM.
Hey...guess what! Kodak POTD on 09/19/05! Hooray....got one this week too! 08/25/05 Surreal Reflections II, A DA : .
Kodak Picture of the Day
From: Editor, KODAK Picture of the Day(pictureoftheday@cyber.kodak.com)
Sent:Thu 10/02/08 11:23 AM
To: rcmannjr@msn.com
Greetings, Robert!
Recently I have been contacted by the publishing company Lark Books (a division of Barnes & Noble) regarding your Picture of the Day "Net Shot Gerbera X" that appeared on September 19, 2005.
The company is producing a how-to book about taking winning pictures. They loved your picture and are interested in using it in the book.
If you are interested, I need your permission to pass along your name and e-mail address to the company. They will then contact you to further explain the book,the image file requirements, and the remuneration whichI believe is a $xxxx honorarium and a free book if your picture is selected for publication.
Please reply and let me know if you are interested and if I can share your name and e-mail address with Lark.
Best regards,
Marianna O'BrienEditor,
Kodak Picture of the Day
**************************************
Update 05-17-2009. Well I submitted this image and 8 others to Lark Books. Hadn't heard anything since January. But the book has been publised, apparently, and Net Shot Gerbera X, or at least a good portion of it, is on the cover. Hurray! You can take a look at it here.
Statistics
Place: 4 out of 374 Avg (all users): 7.1687 Avg (commenters): 8.5882 Avg (participants): 7.1212 Avg (non-participants): 7.2619 Views since voting: 8282 Views during voting: 464 Votes: 249 Comments: 86 Favorites: 35 (view)
why is there so many of these? i know it is beautiful but when its so repetitive its kind of weird.
a) I have no imagination anymore
b) They were shot with different cameras and it amuses me to see the difference in detail of the refractions from camera to camera.
c) The set up is the same....the drop formations change and the backgrounds have changed.
d) Thanks for asking.
I was on vacation when the results for Macro V came in and for one reason or another never looked at the top 10 results. This is a very interesting photo. Fun to look at. The main reason I'm commenting is on the way you posted the steps/process you took to create this image. It seems that the "secrets" are kept close to the vest too often - makes it harder to learn. Thanks for sharing.
great shot! i'll experiment doing that technique sometime.
i was just wondering if we could submit entries not taken during the challenge period. or did i just misunderstand you... the photo was taken 2 years ago?
You've learned to get more out of the s7000 than I ever could have dreamed of when I owned it. Great shot.. congrats at the first 7+ for you and the camera :)
Thanks Robert, Steve, Joey and Daniel! I appreciate it and all the great comments and votes. Didn't ribbon but I got over a 7 for the first time. Guess I'll have to reset my goals or get another camera or something. What a week! I hope to have the pleasure again soon, but not next week...whew I am stinking in circles and family! LOL! RoB
I like how you (must have) controlled the water drops in a checkerboard placement. It really emphasizes the pattern. Too bad you couldn't carry it out to the edges.
What a neat idea this is, very creative...love the pattern created by the netting...that bit of blue around all the little sunflowers is what makes this image so pleasing I think...A little cool contrasted with the hot///very nice.
I believe that this is the most original and at the same time well executed photo of this challenge.
I'm not sure if that was possible, but I'd tried to get the flower in the background dead-centered. Or at least, cropped out the top-left empty corner.
This shoud ribbon, IMO.
Interesting rhythm and pattern created in this shot, lovely complimentary yellows and purples and although I feel this image could be slightly sharper around the drops I think it's terrific. Original take on the classic flower shot, 9 from me and best of luck.
As soon as I saw the Macro challenge appear I knew there would be so many flowers and bugs, and with the absence of shock, it came true. Good though they may be, there's no creativity. A flower is beautiful- so converting it to a photo really isn't that thrilling. Your picture, however, is so creative and I love it! Amazing use of the mind and wonderful capture in Macro!
Very nicely created - little lenses of water in a nylon net. Not convinced I want to see the world full of photos like this - but it's the first time I've seen the technique so it's worth an extra point or so for novelty.
This is really neat! A very unique and interesting shot. Beautiful color and lighting. The concept is amazing and I see nothing lacking in the execution. 10 from me.
Oh, how I love this! What a brilliant take on the "water drop" shot. Absolutely perfect. I look forward to hearing all about how you set it it up. (I find that the design of drops not being centered a little distracting. You might want to either shoot it again with a column of 3 on the left to give it a nicer sense of balance.) 10.
I really like this one! Very original.
The composition of the drops is also visually arresting. I especially like how some of the drops distort the image of the background flower! well done!
Interesting take on the water droplet technique. Different, but I'm not sure I really like it. I'm curious to know if you tried this with ALL the spots filled with water. Probably too busy, huh. Good to see some originality.
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