Fragile Planet

I had this idea to merge my two favourite areas of photography – macro photography and astro photography. How is that possible, you might ask? This image has the answer!

For those curious how an image like this is created:

– the image of the earth is not placed inside the droplet with Photoshop – you’re seeing natural refraction at work.

– The image is focus-stacked from 17 separate images, all hand-held. Focus stacking is required at these macro magnifications to achieve greater depth of field.

– The water droplet is resting on a flower petal (Gerbera Daisy, if you’re curious!)

– The top of the water droplet (where you see a streak of red) is reflecting the top of the petal that it is resting on.

– The scene was lit using a Pringles can as a light modifier.

– You can grab your own copy of the image used in this photograph from NASA’s Visible Earth website