Three cool examples of how special effects can make photography exciting, different and artistic.

Special effects in videos and movies are cool, but I personally like special effects in photography even more! Wherever you are, whatever you have, these three special effects can make your regular photos even better.

SPLASH

Macro water drops are one of my favorite things to photograph! Last semester, I dropped into the world of macro water drops (no pun intended) and recently, I tried at it again. When taking this macro water drop picture, I used macro tubes on my lens which increases the distance from the sensor to the subject. I actually changed the entire tones of the water to blue, then masked it out to reveal the original orange water drop.

SUGAR

With a super fast shutter speed I was able to catch the small sprinkles of sugar as they fell onto the strawberries. I love how in this picture there isn’t a heavy stream of sugar, yet a shuffle of sugar.

SPEEDLIGHT SATURATION

Using color gels with speedlights are fun and different! I love the first picture of Sam with the split lighting of the red and blue gels. The second picture I love the soft and subtle lighting on Janae’s face and the fur of her parka.

For more cool examples of special effects in photography, check out Megan Graham’s blog post on special effects.