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Day 1: Falling sugar crystals
Day 1: Falling sugar crystals
johst582


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Nikon NIKKOR AF-S DX VR 55-200 f4-5.6 G IF-ED
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Date: Mar 1, 2008
Aperture: f/32
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/30 s
Galleries: Macro, Food and Drink
Date Uploaded: Mar 1, 2008

Viewed: 7294
Comments: 22
Favorites: 0

Taken with a 50mm f/1.8 reversed in front of the 55-200 zoom. Off-camera direct flash from side.

To start with, this image was almost perfectly monochromatic (white sugar on black background with a single lightsource), but i desaturated to remove fringing from chromatic aberrations anyway (in ACR). Then, I brought some artificial colour back with the split tone function in ACR: blue shadows and very slightly yellowish highlights (but only o suppress the blue from the background).

Post-ACR editing in photoshop was just resize, smart sharpen, add border. Oh, I also removed one crystal in the top left to de-clutter the image (by just painting black over it :)

I actually didn't see this at first, but the photo really comes into action if you imagine that he sugar is falling from top right down left. I guess it's the light from top-left that fools the eye since that's the typical "sun-direction".

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AuthorThread
03/06/2008 03:35:27 AM
Brilliant amount of detail in this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/03/2008 08:56:57 AM
Excellent post processing, as it perfectly comliments the cool subject. My only critism would be the crystal that escaped the DOF is a tad bit distracting. Great image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/03/2008 06:57:42 AM
Good - the yellow highlights shouldn't be visible :) That's only how I set up ACR to to "counteract" the blue of the shadows-settings, so that the highlights still would look white. I can see this difference on my main monitor and on my work PC, but my laptop's screen is so far away from being properly calibrated that I cannot see a difference in hue between the highlights and the shadows.

Originally posted by Caroline69:

This is amazing! I just love how dynamic this shot is. Even before I read your comment, I could sense the movement of the crystals. I think the choice of deep blue for the shadows was a good one. The yellow highlights are too subtle for me to pick but I really don't care because I like it just the way it is.
03/03/2008 06:45:15 AM
This is amazing! I just love how dynamic this shot is. Even before I read your comment, I could sense the movement of the crystals. I think the choice of deep blue for the shadows was a good one. The yellow highlights are too subtle for me to pick but I really don't care because I like it just the way it is.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/02/2008 06:27:34 PM
This is amazing! Makes me hungry for rock candy!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/02/2008 04:29:02 AM
very nice detail here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/02/2008 04:26:16 AM
This is so cool. Before I even read your comments I thought that this was an action shot and the sugar WAS falling from the top right. The detail and sharpness is absolutely amazing.

Message edited by author 2008-03-02 15:45:57.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:15:30 PM
This is inspiring. I'm really going to have to try out this lens reversing technique.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:11:37 PM
very cool macro.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 08:22:28 PM
For a close up pf the crystal sugar this is excellent, and I must try something like this myself with my new macro lens that I love.....

I like the DOF as it balances the detail of the sugar crystals.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 07:31:40 PM
What a great idea for a macro shot. Love the white cyrstal sugar against the dark background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 04:45:53 PM
Great detail! I like the way the crystals seem to be effortlessly falling from one corner of the frame to the other, very nice :o) I daren't comment on your editing as I am useless and don't really know what half of your editing run down means! lol sorry!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 03:17:54 PM
It comes off as completely greyscale and perfectly focused for a macro of this proximity. The few oof crystals are not even a concern. Great first day!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 01:18:07 PM
I like it! Very interesting and makes me want to explore the complete photo. Processed well. Nice Work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 01:08:23 PM
WOW! Now that's a macro! This is one of the things I love most about macro photography... being able to see the details in everyday objects that I would normally not be able to. The processing is wonderful, and thanks for sharing that in your notes. Great start to the month! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 12:24:38 PM
Sweet! Sorry for the pun but it is fitting with this image. I see what you mean about the lone crystal and it is oddly shaped compared with the others as well. I really like the up close macro of the sugar.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:59:11 AM
Wonderful structures, I normally put these things in my coffee. I suppose that on this scale you can't do much about the composition, except for pointing so some other crystals. Nice editing, I like the blues in the background.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:40:04 AM
Wow, seeing stuff like this on day one intimidates me from displaying my meager work. However it's about learning new things, so I'll do it anyway. Now gotta go find some stuff to photograph.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:27:13 AM
its amazing how everyday things look so much different when magnified great job
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 10:22:39 AM
This is just ordinary sugar, but yes - the 50 mm in front of the 200 mm gives 4x magnification. Add to that the magnification from sensor to screen, and we're talking about something like 40x magnification, similar to a low power microscope :). So the big ones that are 4-5 cm long on the screen are around one millimeter in real life.

Good point - it sort of looks 3D with the sugar tumbling down through space from the top right. I didn't think about that!
03/01/2008 09:25:16 AM
It looks more like you took the image through a microscope to get crystals that size. And the way they just seem to be floating in air makes it a really effective image. Very good focus, except the one in the lower right that is a bit too close bothers me a bit, when I look at this as a three dimensional capture with as I said the crystals looking like they are floating it ends up working for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
03/01/2008 08:26:44 AM
I like the processing. It's a fascinating macro. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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