10 things you can shoot, edit or create this month, from otters and quaint villages to botanical art

1 | MACRO

The drowned world

Wendy Evans gets creative by submerging flowers in water for an ethereal still-life effect

1/60 sec f/8 ISO 200

Staying inside and taking macro shots of flowers is a great way of keeping warm and exercising your creativity, especially during the endless dark and cold season. So why not take your flower shots to the next level, by submerging them in water and adding milk and food colourants to create an ethereal result?

For this project, you’ll need a fish tank or other suitably large water container. It’s better to have a flat glass surface, as a curved one will create distortion and possibly bring in unwanted reflections. You can buy a 25-litre children’s tank for around £25/$20 if you shop around. Of course, if you want to be more ambitious then go ahead, but consider 25 litres as the smallest size that’s practical here.

The rest of the setup should include a lighting source, as room lights will cause highlights, shadows and reflections where you don’t want them. You’ll also need a macro lens and a tripod for the camera, some milk (full fat is best but semi-skimmed is OK) and some cheap food colourants that you can add to the water for even greater effects. Items such as a long-barrelled pipette to accurately squirt the substances are handy, but not essential.

TIP CARD

Use your tips cards

This project features in this month’s bonus tips cards. For a handy guide to capturing photos like this, take your tips cards with you.

Wendy Evans

1 Fill your tank

The first thing to do is work out where you’re going to shoot. Ideally, the tank should be located near your water supply – when it is full of water, it will be heavy to move around. Fill the tank up with warm water – hot or cold water will create condensation on the outside of the glass.

2 Flower up

Place a blank background behind the tank. Cut the flowers (real or plastic) to size so there is a gap between the top of them and the water surface and weigh them down so they don’t float. Carefully lower them into the tank. Use a knitting needle to remove any air bubbles.

3 Add the milk

Set the camera up with the composition you want. Use a fairly wide aperture, such as f/4, and manual focus. Focus on the largest flower or a group of them nearest the front of the glass. Pour in some milk to make the water misty. Add the milk and colourants and shoot as they swirl around.

Tips on shooting

The more milk and colourants you put in the water, the more ethereal your photo will look, so keep shooting. Position the light above the water – if it’s on the same side as the camera, you will get reflections in the glass. Avoid using a potted plant (like I did the first time) as the soil floats on the surface and bits circulate around. Something like f/4-f/5.6 offers a good combination of flower detail and out-of-focus areas with a 105mm macro lens. The shallow depth of field should ensure the background is out of focus. For something even more creative, use a low ISO and a neutral density filter to drop the shutter speed to one or two seconds.

Choose your lens

I shot with a Sigma 105mm F2.8 macro lens, which was ideal for restricting the field of view, along with a Rotolight Neo 2 at full power. I used Aperture Priority mode with Zone metering, which was perfect for this lighting setup. Ensure there’s no sunlight coming through your windows and hitting the tank.

2 | OUTDOOR

Faces in the snow

Wendy Evans wraps up warm to dispense advice on capturing portraits when the snow starts to fall

With the first snowfall of the year, you might be tempted to fashion a toboggan out of a large baking tray and head for the nearest incline, but a better use of your time could be taking advantage of the wintery weather to shoot some interesting and stylish portraits. Use a wide-angle lens for shots of people enjoying the conditions, or a portrait or telephoto lens for close-ups with the snow as a backdrop. A flashgun can be handy as the light will be from above and heavily filtered, but it isn’t essential.