Make lenses from water drops

Capture a delicate still life with a creative focusing technique

1 Set up your scene

Place your Easter eggs – or any other set of colourful shapes – on a table, and position a sheet of glass above them, propped up by two tumblers. Put some water drops on the glass, and with your camera on a tripod, frame up with a macro lens.

2 Dial in your camera settings

Use Aperture Priority mode and select a medium f/number (like f/8, for example). Use Live View mode, switch to Manual Focus, and focus on the refraction in the water drops. Zoom in on the screen to ensure your focus point is pin-sharp.

3 Capture the refraction shot

Engage the self-timer and set a delay of 2 secs to make sure you don’t jog the camera when taking the shot. Take a test shot and check your exposure. If it’s too dark or too bright, dial in some positive or negative exposure compensation and reshoot.