Regardless of what liquid I am using and how much thicker than tap water it may be, this works and allows me to gradually dial in the shot. The other major variable is the height of the solenoid. The higher it is, the greater energy in the drop and that will have an effect on the controls.
Assuming you have read and understood the instructions, the first objective is to get the 1st drop to hit the fluid in the catchtank, make a depression and use its stored energy to rise into a tendril. I want to finalise that tendril first, to the exclusion of all else, so I start with all knobs at the 10am position, as the supplied instructions, but then move the middle top knob clockwise to 5pm. That knob controls the delay between the 1st and 2nd drop, so by moving it around so far, at this stage you are effectively taking the second drop out of the equation.
Now start to move the bottom knob, which is the delay to fire the camera shutter. Note the position of the tendril, if at all. It starts with a drop above the water, splash, depression, start to rise, tendril and then a gradual reduction in the height of the tendril. Once you understand that sequence, you can see where you are in its cycle and make tiny adjustments with the camera shutter delay knob to get the tendril how you want it. Remember that the whole sequence above is still happening every time: what you are doing is determining where the shutter will fire during that sequence.
Next you need to adjust the knob that adjusts the delay between the 1st and 2nd drop. Bring it back to 12pm and make very small movements to the left until collisions occur. If collisions are already occurring, fine tune with small movements to the right. It will take around 5 drops for everything to stabilise, so be a little patient and don't make any adjustments until half a dozen drops have taken place. Now you can fine tune the timing of the second drop to obtain the style of collision that you want. In the beginning, any collision at all is a bonus, but as you become more accustomed to the kit, you will start to become more selective with what you want.
You will notice that we haven't touched knob 1, which affects the size of the 1st drop, or knob 2, which controls the size of the second drop. When you adjust these, it affects the energy in the 1st drop, or the 2nd drop, or both. That energy speeds up, or slows down the sequence of events and consequently, for every movement of the 1st knob, you will need to make a corresponding movement of the shutter delay - 4th knob. For every movement of the the 3rd knob, which controls the size of the 2nd drop, you will need to alter the second knob and possibly the 4th knob.
I wasted a lot of time and effort by making too big an adjustment of each knob. The best advice I can provide is when you are getting in the right ball park of what you want, make the tiniest of movements of the knob. By tiniest of movements, I really do mean barely perceptible.
Keep your set-up the same each time and if you make any changes, change only one element at a time. It is easy to get confused and waste a lot of time and effort to get you back on track. Changing one thing at a time makes more logical and much easier to backtrack.
Now that I am in from the cold and working in the kitchen, here is my set-up and a few observations:
Assuming you have read and understood the instructions, the first objective is to get the 1st drop to hit the fluid in the catchtank, make a depression and use its stored energy to rise into a tendril. I want to finalise that tendril first, to the exclusion of all else, so I start with all knobs at the 10am position, as the supplied instructions, but then move the middle top knob clockwise to 5pm. That knob controls the delay between the 1st and 2nd drop, so by moving it around so far, at this stage you are effectively taking the second drop out of the equation.
Now start to move the bottom knob, which is the delay to fire the camera shutter. Note the position of the tendril, if at all. It starts with a drop above the water, splash, depression, start to rise, tendril and then a gradual reduction in the height of the tendril. Once you understand that sequence, you can see where you are in its cycle and make tiny adjustments with the camera shutter delay knob to get the tendril how you want it. Remember that the whole sequence above is still happening every time: what you are doing is determining where the shutter will fire during that sequence.
Next you need to adjust the knob that adjusts the delay between the 1st and 2nd drop. Bring it back to 12pm and make very small movements to the left until collisions occur. If collisions are already occurring, fine tune with small movements to the right. It will take around 5 drops for everything to stabilise, so be a little patient and don't make any adjustments until half a dozen drops have taken place. Now you can fine tune the timing of the second drop to obtain the style of collision that you want. In the beginning, any collision at all is a bonus, but as you become more accustomed to the kit, you will start to become more selective with what you want.
You will notice that we haven't touched knob 1, which affects the size of the 1st drop, or knob 2, which controls the size of the second drop. When you adjust these, it affects the energy in the 1st drop, or the 2nd drop, or both. That energy speeds up, or slows down the sequence of events and consequently, for every movement of the 1st knob, you will need to make a corresponding movement of the shutter delay - 4th knob. For every movement of the the 3rd knob, which controls the size of the 2nd drop, you will need to alter the second knob and possibly the 4th knob.
I wasted a lot of time and effort by making too big an adjustment of each knob. The best advice I can provide is when you are getting in the right ball park of what you want, make the tiniest of movements of the knob. By tiniest of movements, I really do mean barely perceptible.
Keep your set-up the same each time and if you make any changes, change only one element at a time. It is easy to get confused and waste a lot of time and effort to get you back on track. Changing one thing at a time makes more logical and much easier to backtrack.
Now that I am in from the cold and working in the kitchen, here is my set-up and a few observations:
- Note the plastic tablecloth - some of those splashes travel a long way.
- Note my focussing aid - easy to slide in or out.
- Note the picture on the wall - one of my earlier successes that Mrs C Liked.
Comment