The goal: photograph snowflakes using an ordinary, off-the-shelf, point-and-shoot camera. I also created a "holiday mosaic" using the snowflake pics. You can skip to the last step for a "Gallery of Snowflakes."
Capturing these works of nature's art can be tricky--you have to wait for the just the right day, the snowflakes simply will not cooperate, your fingers freeze and then they don't cooperate, the batteries also seem to freeze then just don't work, and then the pics come out all blurry. Rats! But, when you finally get the snowflakes photographed, they're truly beautiful.
This project has two parts, (1) outside, photographing in the cold, and (2) inside, doing the computer work. Thus, this project is great with the snow falling outside and a cup of hot cocoa inside to warm you up.
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To photograph snowflakes, you'll need the following:
Capturing these works of nature's art can be tricky--you have to wait for the just the right day, the snowflakes simply will not cooperate, your fingers freeze and then they don't cooperate, the batteries also seem to freeze then just don't work, and then the pics come out all blurry. Rats! But, when you finally get the snowflakes photographed, they're truly beautiful.
This project has two parts, (1) outside, photographing in the cold, and (2) inside, doing the computer work. Thus, this project is great with the snow falling outside and a cup of hot cocoa inside to warm you up.
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To photograph snowflakes, you'll need the following:
- A day when the snowflakes are falling by themselves, not clumped together. The less wind the better.\
- A dark background that's cold.
- A camera.
- A computer to upload and edit the pics.
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Signing UpStep 1: Snap the snowflake pictures
- Lay out your background in such a way that you think it'll catch the snowflakes. The background material needs to be cold else the snowflakes will melt almost instantly. I used a snow shovel because I liked the dark green and it was already outside (cold) and then a cardboard box because it was mostly black and smooth. The curve of the snow shovel seemed to help catch the flakes. The cardboard box was inside but got cold quickly enough.
- Meanwhile, get your camera set up. I used a 12 megapixel Kodak Easyshare C190. It's a basic camera I got from Walmart for $99. This is by no means a professional camera with no special lenses. This is the type of camera that "regular folks" have. Put it on the largest megapixel setting your camera has. Mine went up to 11.8MP, so that's where I set it.
- Set your camera for close-up shooting. A person with a better camera (one that can change lenses) would likely use a "macro" lens here for photographing close-up. My point-and-shoot can't do that, but it does have a setting for taking pictures of flowers close-up. If your camera has something of that order, choose that.
- Snap the pic by getting down close to the snowflake. You want to get as close as possible while still taking a photo that's in focus. This will likely take some trial-and-error. If at all possible, steady your hands on something. It's hard to get clear photos like this so take two or three pics of each flake, especially if it's a promising looking one. I found that about 2/3 of my pics, maybe more, were blurry and really not usable.
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In my city snowed only once in my life, was the July 9, 2007, and luckily I was there to see it. I never saw those little snow crystals individually.
Mind you, those snow flakes are also impressively well defined. You are lucky to get snow like that.