Light my way by Fabien Bravin

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Canon 7D and Sigma 180mm macro lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Shot in the evening light, the settings for this pic were: ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/200 sec, no flash

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used LR2 to develope the raw file and adjust the levels and tones and then CS5 to reduce noise, resize and convert to SRGB profile.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
It's a praying mantis larva (less than 2 cm long) born in May and shot in June

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I'm fond of macro photography and spend a lot of time in the meadows and in my garden with my camera looking for insects and any other tiny creatures that live in a micro world. :)

Just Vivid by Marc A. Sporys

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I use a Canon 50D with the 100mm ƒ/2,8 Macro lense, two Sigma 500 DG-S flashguns, an old Osram flash from my dad and of course a lot of pc-cord with some hot-shoes.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/14.0, Shutter set to Bulb, ISO Speed at 100 and manual focusing.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
At first, import into Lightroom and some local light adjustments. After the export in Photoshop I added a little sharpness and remove a few drops of color I didn‘t like.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
These are water-based colors diluted with water for better movement on a small speaker, which is coverd with a white balloon. The color sequence is from a rainbow.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I love colors and I saw something like that at Flickr and I wanted to give it a try and it was a wonderful session.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
I had a lot of fun to take this photo and it was a very big mess. My new painted room wall was after the shooting full of rainbow colors. In addition it was very interesting, to see how the shapes have changed while I've changed the frequency from around 50 Hz to 200 Hz.

o. by Marc Benslahdine

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, Canon 580EXII flash triggered remotely with a cable sync

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure: 1/250 s, aperture: f/8, focal length: 100mm, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject is a reflection of a drop of water.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I like the pictures that look out of a fantasy world. When I get bored and the weather is not favorable I do this kind of photography in my kitchen :o)

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
I wanted to take a picture in the dark to see if the lighting was not a problem and forgot to focus before shooting! It was just a test shot, the focus was on the reflection of the drop. I found it funny with the black hole behind.

Corn Lilies by Barrett Donovan

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Canon 5d Mark II with a 24-105L lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/8, ISO 200, 1/8 sec. with the lens at 65mm

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS4

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Corn lilies near Lake Tahoe, USA

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I saw a huge patch of corn lilies on a mountain bike ride last summer after they were past their prime and knew I had to go back. To help with the wind I brought a huge reflector to shield them from movement. Many shots of many corn lilies later I finally found the group I liked. Sore back aside I had a great time being outside wandering around the forest - not a bad way to spend a morning. This shot is a blend of two images for depth of field which I did using the new auto-blend functions of CS4, which work great.

Alien Pods by Tommy's Surfshack

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Nikon Coolpix P100.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I'm an amateur. I always use scene modes. I've never had the time to try to take photos in the manual mode. I'm pretty sure I used the Macro Mode.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop 3 to get a better quality color... but not too much.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A lotus pod close-up.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I plant these "First Lady Lotus" in a round water tub on my patio each spring. The blooms (12 a year) are around 7-8 inch in diameter. The pods are about 3 inches. I Like taking pics of the different phases of the lotus growth. The bud's to the end.

Leaf by Marcel Felbor

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 500D, Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS L, a tripod

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
100mm, f/9, ISO 200, 1/200 sec, flash from the side, LED-lamp from above

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS5

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Macro-Leaf

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I made this shot for the weekly theme "strictly textures" in one of the Flickr groups.

Hm...It's too heavy for me! by Quang Thanh

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Sony H50 with Raynox M250

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
24mm, F/7, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS2 + Turbo photo

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The ants and the queen larvae

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted to capture images of the ants' life.

Interstellar by Rob Tunstall

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Pentax K10D with a macro rail, macro lens and extension tubes

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Standard - low ISO, tiny apperture in order to get as much of the bubble in focus as possible

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Lightroom and selective use of the fractalis plugin for Photoshop

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A soap held in a metal hoop - a stepping ring

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The inner workings of a criminally insane mind

Honey Bee by Paul Licht

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
HP PhotoSmart C945 & Raynox DCR 250

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure - 1/125 sec, aperture - f/8.5, focal length - 28 mm, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
The Gimp

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Bee wildlife

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Bee photography is one of my favorit macro subject. I suppose I have several thousands of bee macros in my archieves.

Untitled by Daniele Napolitano

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Canon EOS 7D with a Canon EF f1.8 85mm lens. I also used two strobes, one on the left, for the rim light, behind the model and another one up above on the right, pointing down, as the key light.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I shot in manual mode at 1/200 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200. I used a wired remote to take the picture.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Adobe Lightroom 3 for framing and balancing the tones and Adobe Photoshop CS5 to clean the skin a little bit.

Q4. Who is the model?
The model is myself, it's a self-portrait :)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I discovered I really like the shadows produced by very angled lights since they tend to emphasize the face features and create a dramatic feeling. So I went with it!

Patterns in nature by amazon2008

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 40D, Canon 100mm 2.8L macro lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure - 1/250, aperture - f/4.0, focal Length - 100 mm, ISO 100, +2/3 EV

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Used DPP from Canon itself

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Dahlia flower

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I am always searching for patterns in nature and when I came across dahlia's it just came to me. Sometimes you have to look at the subject and see what possibilities it brings for you.

Gravity is overrated by Rob Webb

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 50D + Canon 100mm USM Macro + 1 x YN-560 Flash + 1 x YN-460II Flash + YN RF602 flash triggers(1x TX, 2 x RX) + Hahnel shutter release

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
1/250 @ f/9 & ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5


Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A wine glass with drops appearing to defy gravity and flow upwards

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was washing the glass under the tap and I liked the way the water sheeted off the sides and dripped down off of the rim. I wondered how I could use this for a shot, inverting the original image for the "defy gravity" part was just a natural evolution of the concept for me.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
The hardest part of the shot was finding a way of safely suspending a wine glass over a bowl so that I could pour the water over the base, in the end I settled for a couple of Tupperware cereal storage containers and some kitchen tongs!

Chrysanthemum dewdrop refraction by Brian Valentine

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
5Dmk2 camera, MPE-65 lens, 430Ex flash bracket mounted and diffused, a dew covered lawn, a chrysanthemum flower and a rubber mat to kneel on.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Lens around 3:1 magnification, F/7.1 camera in manual 1/200th, Flash in ETTL, FEC +0.3

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
RAW images processed with DPP, I took a series of shots with different focus points and then combined them in PhotoShop using the healing brush to focus stack the image to get greater depth of field.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Natural early morning dewdrops on a grass blade on the lawn with a chrysanthemum flower placed behind them.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I've been doing dewdrop shots for a while often trying to find ones with something interesting behind them to refract in the dewdrop. Eventually decided it was a lot easier to purposely place a flower behind the the dewdrops giving me control of the refracted image and also the background colours.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
A few years ago I had some similar photographs published in one of the daily papers. The paper just gave my name and the town I lived in. The next day I was in the front garden taking some photographs when a lady who lived in the block of flats across the road came over with a copy of the paper and asked if the photographs were mine. I said yes and she said: "I wondered what you were doing kneeling in the middle of the front lawn early in the morning on a mat." :)

Drops meet color by Tobias Bräuning

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
- Canon 40D
- 2 Flashes
- Arduino microcontroller
- 3 solenoid valves
- Some selfmade circuits
- PC with a selfmade GUI to control all parameters on the microcontroller for generating the drops, timing of shutter release and triggering the flashes
- A lot of cables :-)
- Some ink for the colors

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
The camera was set to manual mode, shutter 0.6 sec, F/16, ISO200. Camera, flashes and valves are controlled by microcontroller.


Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Canon Digital Photo Professional for the RAW conversion, then I did some clean-up + contrast settings in Photoshop Elements 8.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
What we can see in this photo is the result of a collision of 3 waterdrops. The first one falls down into the water, then splashes up again. When it's rising up, the second drop falls down and collides with the upcoming first one. Some milliseconds later, the third drop comes down and collides with the result of the first drop collision... So finally this results in very exciting, various forms.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I saw some images of such drop collisions with 3 drops, but my valve was too slow to make it possible with only one valve. So I decided to try it with 3 valves (let me say - it is not easy to get 3 drops to one flight path!), and with the 3-valve-solution it got also possible to use different colored drops, something I've never seen before in this combination. So I had the motivation to make it work. :-)

Half Off by Arek Papelian

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 100mm f2.8 L IS, Canon 430 ex2 Flash fired with Cactus V4 Flash Triggers. The flash was at about a 45 degree angle from the subject. Oh, and I used a snoot. The flash was about 3 feet away from the subject on a tripod and the camera was about half that distance away from the subject. I used a Hahnel Giga T Pro remote for shutter release.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure 1/200 sec, Aperture f/13.0, Focal Length 100 mm, ISO Speed 50

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
I lit the matches with a lighter, and waited for it to reach the middle, just as it did, I fired the camera. This was the first and only try, so I was very pleased because I didn't have any more matches. I also used a magic marker to color the matches red, because I didn't like them white! =)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I came up with the idea from boredom! I didn't have other match shots before and wanted to try something different. I didn't use all of the tools at once, so i wanted to do something that require almost everything.

All-in by Mickael NGO

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Canon EOS 7D with a 17-40 lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
My settings were ISO 400, 1/60 sec, f/4 and natural light

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop for the post processing

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
It's about one of the strongest hand in Poker (also called King Kong)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I made the shot during a Poker game with some friends of mine. I fortunately had my camera with me. :)

Awake eye by Javier Paredes Asuar

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 60 mm f/2.8 G ED AF-S, Flash SB 800.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/ 7.1, Speed: 1/80 sg, Exposition: -0,7, Contrast: Low, Sharpness: High, Saturation: Normal, WB: Automatic, ISO: 200. Shot in JPG, Flash: Automatic, ''Rebound the ceiling''.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
PhotoShop CS. I always work with PS only.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject of the photo is the eye of my friend as close as possible.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
That day I was working with insects but I did not get any satisfactory pictures. Usually, when I have my Nikon with the Micro Nikkor I pay attention to the details. I was sitting on a sofa near my friend and I thought why not to take an eye shot of her. 2 clicks were enough to take one of the shots of my life. It is impressive how beautiful the eyes are when we catch them so close.

Untitled by Robert Lunetta

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon D200 with a 50mm 1:1.8 D lens reversed on extension tubes. Flash was from the built in flash with a homemade softbox diffuser.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
ISO 200, shutter speed 1/160 sec.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop 6.0. For the most part this image was straight form the camera, there was just minor tweaks to contrast and color balance, and I had to clone out some dust specks which is an unfortunate evil of using a reversed lens.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A dragonfly

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I had been photographing these guys on their perches but there is usually very little backdrop to bounce the flash back, so the background would inevitably be dark. I created a simple background in photoshop to give the flash something to reflect off of. In order to take this shot I had to hold the background at arms length and shoot with one hand. Anyone who does this type of work, especially with reverse lens because everything is manual, knows how difficult this can be.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
My advice would be to take tons of shots, out of approximately 50 shots maybe 5 to 10 will be useable, and experiment with different backgrounds as well. If you don't know how to make one, pull a leaf of a tree or find something on the ground. I have even used a discarded beer box for a background.

Untitled by Alexandru Balan

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Olympus SP-570uz

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
ISO 100, 1/125, f/4.0, 9.8mm focal length

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop for contrast

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject is two morning glory flowers

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted the light to glow through petals,to have their own source of light from the center and to illuminate the darkness around.

Drops of Jupiter by Ibrahim Al Sayed

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 100mm Macro f/2.8 Lens + 2 soft boxes + white painted water tank + custom made water dropper.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200), Aperture: f/16.0, ISO 200

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
RAW5 and Photoshop CS4

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Waterdrops are one my favorite subjects especially when they are in motion, I believe it gives any photo some sort of life in it. I chose the title based on a song I really like "Drops of Jupiter" By "Train".

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Well, there are a lot of photographs that include water drops and splashes, so i can't really say it's an original idea, but as I said I love those kinds of shots.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
Photos of splashes are always funny, lol, and i think the funniest part yet tiring is the amount of mess caused during the process of getting the best shot. When the session is finished, looking at the studio setup is more than enough to crack the hell out of anyone.