Morning Shower

Morning Shower, originally uploaded by Tony DeSantis Photography.

I was putting out the trash this morning and I walked passed the planter in the front of my house. I noticed all of the water droplets from the sprinklers. So I went in and grabbed the camera for a few comps.  The colors and contrasts really caught my eye.  I have tried to shoot macro objects like this before but they really never seemed to come out like I wanted whether the focus or colors.  But after reading a few articles on the subject and watching a few post processing videos I decided to give it another shot.  Here is the way this one was shot and maybe my experiences can help you the next time you want to branch out.

First I chose a very low angle on this.  Laying my tripod flat on the ground and using the 90 degree angle on the tripod to lower the camera all the way to the ground.  I grabbed a towel from the house and got down on my knees to see through the view finder.

Camera Equipment Used:
>Camera Body and lens (No Macro Lens Used)
>25mm Extension Tube
>Tripod
>Remote Shutter Release

The Shot:
12 Shots: F/2.8, ISO 250, 1/100 second, 70-200L Lens @ 175mm
>Each shot taken using different focal points of subject until all focal points are covered of entire subject (This subject just happened to be 12 shots)

Post Processing:  Using MacBook for processing
>Opened all Raw photo's in CS-5 as tiffs
>First tiff was my main subject (Doesn't matter which shot you use)
>One at a time I -Selected All (Command A) / Copied (Command C) / went to main subject Pasted (Command V) / Closed file, REPEATED FOR ALL FILES.
>Now you should have X number of Layers all in your Main Subject Layers Menu
>Because you had different focal points your subject will not be perfectly aligned so you will need to align all of your layers.  To do this you highlight your background layer and shift/click on your last layer you copied into your Layers menu.  This should highlight all layers.  Go to Edit/Align All Layers and wait, and wait, and wait.
>After all layers are aligned you will need to blend all layers.  Keep all layers highlighted and go to Edit/Blend All-Layers/Choose Stack Images and wait and wait and wait.
This process will align all layers and stack all layers taking the sharpest and clearest parts of all pictures and move them into one image.
>Flatten Image and proceed to process

CS-5 Final Image Process:
>Adjustment Layer Levels-Global Contrast
>Color Efex Pro-Tonal Contrast 60% opacity
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Yellows for greens in entire image
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Yellows for deeper yellows in flower
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Brighten pedals on flowers
>Noise Ninja-Adjustment in Background only
>High Pass Sharpening/Sized/Framed for posting

http://en.flickeflu.com/photos/tony_d