File:Snow crystals glittering in strong direct sunlight 07 - 08 - cropped.jpg

English: Newly fallen snow crystals glittering in strong direct sunlight on a window sill in Gåseberg, Lysekil Municipality, Sweden. The clear, transparent ice crystals act like little prisms and refracts the sunlight into small rainbows.

On the day with the heaviest snowfall this winter (2017/2018), high humidity and −8 °C (18 °F), making for formation of big spectacular crystals. The weather was changing constantly with patches of blue sky alternating with clouds and snowfall. This made it possible to photograph good quality crystals in strong light. Camera zoomed in on the most “glittery” flakes, the strong reflected glints in the snow you can see with the naked eye. Due to wind and flakes falling on the window sill, focus stacking was not really an option and only a few of the shots were eventually stacked. This image is stacked from two photos.

Three external Hoya macro lenses were used, x1, x2, x4, all simultaneously for maximum effect. Camera had to be hand-held to track down the glints which was ok, given the amount of light on the crystal and the resulting time of exposure.