Jim Overfield
July 2025 - Dewdrops
Original
About the Image(s)
I decided to practice my macro photography on dewdrops found on the leaves of my wife’s Hosta plants. The early morning sunlight was very bright, so I underexposed this image by 1 & 1/3 stops to reduce blown-out highlights. A small aperture setting was used to gain as much depth-of-field of the leaf from edge to edge in the area of the three dewdrops. This small aperture also created the sunburst on one of the dewdrops.
Small adjustment in Topaz denoise which also resulted in a slightly sharpened the image. Minor adjustments in Lightrooms Basic module. Used lightrooms Texture and Clarity adjustments to blur/soften the background. Minor Color Grading adjustments. Applied a mask to the leaf to slightly increase exposure, highlights, and temperature. Slightly darken parts of the image with two linear gradient masks, one starting from the bottom of the image to the dew drop and then another from the upper right corner diagonally towards the center of the image just a short distance. Cropped the image using the golden spiral. I worked on this image over a few days and I’m sure if I look at this image again tomorrow, I’ll be tempted to make further adjustments. Comments, recommendations are always welcomed.
Full frame camera body on a tripod with shutter release cable. 180mm macro lens with a 1.4x multiplier set at 252mm, f/22, 1/25 sec, ISO 800.
12 comments posted
thank you so much for sharing your process. I never think of things like underexposing my image to reduce blown out highlights or using much of the stuff you did in post. I need to remember these things! Posted: 07/09/2025 20:15:48
Jim, your creativity in capturing this moment is truly inspiring. It's fascinating to read about all the care and intention you put into your camera settings and post-processing - there's such a quiet precision in the result. I'm still learning and exploring these editing tools myself, so seeing how you used techniques like the golden spiral crop and local masking gives me a lot to think about.
This image feels both natural and polished - a perfect blend of technical skill and artistic sensitivity. Beautifully done! Posted: 07/10/2025 11:48:51
You have one wish. I look fascinated at the sun star, which sparkles like a diamond and.....
Enough of the fantasy.
The composition takes me from the top right to the dewdrop at the bottom. I look up again through the golden spiral cut, let my gaze wander along the leaf and come back to the sun star. This becomes even more sparkling due to the reflections behind it. The different shades of green support the calm, everything is focused on the drop.
Only one tiny detail disturbs me a little, the bright spot above the sparkling dewdrop. Probably also a dewdrop.
All in all, your days of hard work have more than paid off.
An image for a competition. Posted: 07/16/2025 18:44:13
I appreciate your description of the edits you have done. It is amazing the improvements to Lightroom. I have not upgraded my Lightroom software so I am still using Version 6 (before they went to a subscription). Though I still use Lightroom to edit my photos, I am transitioning to other software for my editing and learning what others do helps me try new ideas with my photos. Masking is such a powerful tool to use. Thanks for sharing. Posted: 07/16/2025 23:05:01