Snowflake Photography

[Austin Vinar]

Hi @buddingphotographer! Would you mind giving me the scoop on how to photograph snowflakes? I know it’s not snowing yet but if I can prepare thing like my frame and such I will be more likely to photograph them when it is snowing. =) I don’t know much of anything about it so anything you tell me would be of help.

For equipment, I have my Canon Rebel, 18-55mm, Extension tube set(7mm, 14mm, and 28mm), and Youngnou YN560 III.

I don’t know what to do for background, camera setting, lighting, gear setup, frame, or procedure.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! Austin

P.S. Will I need a reverse lens adapter?

[Ezra Morley]

Good thinking to prepare ahead of time! There’s nothing so exasperating as watching the snowflakes come down, and knowing that you are missing just one small piece of equipment, so you can’t photograph them! 🙁

I don’t know if you’ve seen the photo of my snowflake setup that I posted in Nature Friend a while back: https://plus.google.com/+EzraMorley/posts/XfRfCGxTnoh

That should give you a good idea of what I use.

I don’t use any special lighting, at least not artificial lights. Just ambient light from the outdoors. I do use a small hand mirror sometimes to reflect the light around for different effects.

As you can see, the “photographic surface” is an old picture frame with the picture removed! You can find them pretty cheap at Goodwill or similar thrift stores. If you want to go one better, I imagine plexiglass would work too, and it doesn’t crack, like my glass did.

You’ve got a good start on the equipment you need, with extension tubes and a camera! Technically you could reverse your 18-55mm, but you wouldn’t have any aperture control, so that complicates things somewhat.

If I were you, I would keep my eye out for an old manual 28mm or 35mm lens. You want one that’s manual focus and manual aperture control (i.e. you control the aperture with an aperture ring. That’s important if the lens is not mounted “normally” on the camera. You need to be able to control the aperture yourself, without the camera’s assistance). Then I would buy a reversing ring and reverse that lens on top of extension tubes like this:

REBEL XS + extension tubes + reverse lens adapter + 28mm manual lens

Depending on how many extension tubes you put behind it, that should give you some pretty decent magnification for starting out. Once you’ve gotten some practice shooting snowflakes, you can try higher magnifications and get even closer. My first year of snowflake photography was using my Dad’s old Powershot S3 camera, and the results were tiny and grainy. So don’t be disappointed if the first year you try, you don’t get stock photo quality work. 🙂

There’s a lot more information on the forums already, here are a few links to get you started.

• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/let-it-snow/
• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/snowflakes/
• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/why-is-it-not-sharp/
• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/snowflakes-2/
• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/snow-again/
• https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/taking-pictures-in-the-snow/

If you need some inspiration, check out the Nature Friend Magazine Google+ page for snowflake photography.

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[Austin Vinar]

Thanks a lot @buddingphotographer, helps a lot. And the links contain a TON of informationon the subject.

[James Staddon]

Thank you @buddingphotographer!

[Ezra Morley]

You’re welcome!

[Austin Vinar]

@buddingphotographer, how do you focus with two lenses? And how many years have you done it?

• This reply was modified 54 years, 9 months ago by .

[Ezra Morley]

I have been shooting snowflakes since 2012. Thanks to @Kayla-Weaver for the initial inspiration! 🙂 I saw an article in Nature Friend about snowflake photography by Kayla, and that’s what started it all.

As for focusing two lenses, I focus by turning the focusing ring on the 28mm lens at the end of the stack. It’s not the glass elements moving that focuses it, so much as physically moving the lens up and down that actually changes the focus.

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