Category

Macro

Location

Colchester, Essex

Gear

OM-D E-M1 MK II, M.Zuiko 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO, Godox V1, Custom made deflector/diffuser, F6.3, 1/50th sec, ISO 200, 60 shot focus stacked image

Description

During the off season for invertebrate macro photography, I found some leaves that I thought might be interesting to look at close-up and give me a good excuse to get the macro lens out again. I backlit the leaf in order to bring out all the vein details. It almost gives it an x-ray looking view, where the light appears to bring out the internal structures of the leaf that aren’t visible otherwise. One of the downsides to back lighting the leaf is that by gaining this extra detail you lose its surface texture which can flatten the image. In order to combat this I also used an on camera flash, with a diffuser, set to a low power, in order to fill in some of the surface detail. There was an element of trial and error in order to bring in enough light to do that but not too much as to counteract the back lighting. As flat as leaves are, I still needed to focus stack the image because at the magnifications I was using, even the veins projecting from the surface of the leaf provided more depth than I could capture with one photo, even at a high f-stop. The best part about the whole process was moving the leaf around, experimenting with framing and then choosing the compositions to capture. I really enjoyed treating these images as fine art pieces, looking at the structures within each leaf and utilising straight edges, symmetry and balance with each composition. This walnut leaf was at the perfect stage of decomposing to utilise some of these compositional considerations. Some areas of the leaf were completely brown, whilst other areas were still looking green and healthy. By diagonally framing the stark transition between the two, you can almost see it breaking down in front of you.

Photographer

Andrew Neal

Social Media

Instagram: @andynealphoto

Website: www.andrewneal.gallery

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