Water Drops

[lesbutler]

Hi all, The past two days I have been experimenting with water drop photogrphy, and these are the best of my first attempts. I think this about as good as I'm gonna get with a very basic manual (drop release/shutter activation) set-up, and without investing in an infra-red trigger sensor to activate the shutter automatically. All are water except second last which is milk.

Links to what I'd like to get are at bottom (they are terrific). Also a short sequence clip of a drop hitting the water and colliding with another drop as it progresses upwards (as in some of those link images).













Thanks for having a look, Les.

Fun with water
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1075688...7613369221788/

Short video
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1640944...7623659476704/

[APOY1998]

Re: Water Drops

Your work is first class, nice colours, stunningly sharp and well composed.

Just as a thought, I wonder what effext you would get with oil on the water as well, It might need a polariser but in thoery it could work well.

Graham.

[Stan]

Re: Water Drops

Some excellent shots Les. I particularly like the last one

Stan

[MX5]

Re: Water Drops

Yes have to agree some splendid shots ... I know how hard it is to get the 'ace crown' shot. Back in the 70's when I did science I used a very high speed cine camera to look at polymers dropping into solvents (part of a project concerned with NBC suits ... ).

So #2 is best (IMvHO) technically (near perfect crown), but as with Stan like the last one for its look.

[colin C]

Re: Water Drops

Well done.

I like #4 with #6 a close second.

For those members who haven't tried this before, how about a shot of your set-up.

Colin

[raymon]

Re: Water Drops

Great set of images to colose for me to pick a fav, as Colin suggested would be grateful for chance to see your set up, I would'nt have a clue how to go about that subject.

Ray

[lesbutler]

Re: Water Drops

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments!

Graham: The last shot was water on to a little vegetable oil. The possibilities are endless for different combinations of liquid, inc adding food dyes to water, milk, etc (diluted and just dropped into). I found veg oil was too dense to make much of a splash at this drop height (about 15in (higher drop I guess would be needed, which I didn't try, yet).

I'm going to try red food dye mixed with water onto milk next (maybe vica versa?). But, I really want a drop detection trigger to activate the shutter (success rate almost 100% then) to save me wasting so many shots, plus I can try double drops to (hopefully) get some collisions as seen in that link gallery.

Colin and Ray: The current setup is very basic, and dismantled when I'm done as It's in the kitchen. OK, here's what I do -

1. hang up a polythene bag with drop liquid, water, etc, about 15in above surface.

2. place receptacle (frying pan or pyrex dish) below with some water/milk in - amount, try different levels (none to near full). Experiment as you get different effects depending on depth of liquid. Also, try different drop heights.

3. Place camera on tripod, adjust height keeping angle pointing at drop area as shallow as poss. Set camera to manual, shutter set at flash sync speed, aperture to about f.8 to f.16 (experiment!).

4. Set flash (on tripod if poss) pointing towards drop area (or towards something which will reflect light onto drop zone). Set flash to manual and reduce power output to 1/16th - 1/32 (experiment). It's this output which freezes the motion, not the camera sync speed - I haven't got this right yet. Work in subdued light if poss to make use of flash output and freeze more of the motion. Two flash guns are better, one pointing at area, other to reflect light on to area - here you can use coloured paper/foil/whatever to add some colour/pattern to the image.

5. Prick the polythene bag to start the liquid dripping. I use a pencil with letters at one end to focus at point where drip is falling on surface.

6. When your ready, watch a couple of drips as they make contact with surface. You get a feeling for when this is about to happen, though you rarely succeed in getting a reasonable image (a drip detection trigger for the shutter release will help greatly here).

The success rate will be low with this method, but you could get lucky and get a nice shot 1 in 20.

But note- I got pretty good results from on-camera flash pointing at surface and focusing on drop area, camera set to aperture priority - flash sync speed @ f.11 - 16. Flash diffused.

I'm thinking of getting a trigger device to detect the passing of a drip, which will activate the shutter on contact with liquid surface. The success rate I read is virtually 100% nice picture, which leaves you lots of time to experiment with different liquids, drop heights, flash output, etc.......And succeed in getting drop collision results like in that gallery I mentioned above. A good trigger is the SPG2 at around £50 inc postage. Also need a Flash-to-PC Adapter as my 270 EX flash has no PC socket.

Right now I cannot hope to get better splash results. One more experiment (with the food dyes/water/milk) then that's it till/if I get that trigger and rig up a permanent stand in spare room?

Much info here.
The Comprehensive Water Drop Photography Guide
http://www.diyphotography.net/the-co...tography-guide

Couple of pics from today. Milk into water.





The first image here - the crown isn't in focus (second flashgun would help with more flash output to freeze more of the drop OR more subdued surroundings to make use of single flashgun output). If your starting out you'll get lots like this, but somehow some of them just look ok.

Thanks, hope this encourages some of you to give it a go. It really isn't difficult to get this sort of basic result - just lots of clicks. Heck, It's only my second day at it with my very basic setup. Les.

[lesbutler]

Re: Water Drops

Oh, as a tip for anyone having a go at this. I read somewhere that you will get better results initially if you try milk into milk - something to do with it's density and/or consistency being different to water - apparently movement is slower and therefore easier (sort of) to get a better success rate.

Also, have a look at this guys crown splashes. I really love his work.

Liquid Sculptures

[Trevoreast]

Re: Water Drops

Hi Les, look like you've got this down to a T - amazing !

Thanks for sharing your techniques :-)

Trev

[Hereford_EOS2]

Re: Water Drops

I have always been fascinated by photos of this nature.
It's something that I have never tried but I hope to one day.
Just superb.

Thank you for sharing.

[MX5]

Re: Water Drops

You could also try PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) which I gather builders and anglers use. It is not toxic and has a higher viscosity than water. You can colour it with food dyes.

Also different sized pin holes in the supply bag will give different sized drops. Also increasing the height will increase the speed on the drop.

If you want to try something different drop ball bearings into sand !

Anyway thanks to the OP for posting some stunning shots.

[raymon]

Re: Water Drops

Thanks Les for sharing your technique, thanks also for the link that certainly gives insperation.

Ray

[gary1968]

Re: Water Drops

Very nice, and like others, I cant pick a fav as they are all good. I would like to try this but have a lot to learn about setting a flash yet as I have only just bought my 1st Speedlight.

Gary

[tesarver]

Re: Water Drops

Those are some remarkable shots. The 4th one is my favorite, but they are al stunning.

Tom

[lesbutler]

Re: Water Drops

Thanks Trev, Stephen, MX5, Ray, Gary and Tom!

Cheers MX5 for the info. I have seen a video somewhere on the net of a ball bearing dropped into sand, quite similar to what happens with liquid drops.

Last image for now. Lots of attempts today, but nothing interesting. Here's a milk drop into milk, which by now has unfortunately absorbed some red food dye I added. Pity as the streaks of dye would have made a great picture.



Les.