Dripping tap and fast shutter speed

[DwainDibley]

I've had a go at freezing the motion of water droplets out of a tap, as I love those kinds of shots! Used the camera on full manual, they are a bit dark but thought that added to the effect. Taken using my Canon EOS 300D and 50mm f1.8 lens.

Taken at a fairly fast shutter speed (1/640, ISO 100, f1.8), though not quite frozen the water!



Taken at a slightly faster shutter speed than the previous picture (1/800, ISO 100, f1.8) has very nearly frozen the water droplets!



Looking for more C&C on these, any comments on how I could improve! Perhaps I could have increased the ISO to 200 or 400 to get a faster shutter speed to really freeze the droplets?

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[Digital Matt]

Use a flash to freeze the movement of the water. You'll never achieve sharp results at f/1.8. You need some depth of field to get all of the water in focus. You'll also get a better exposure. These are dull and underexposed. Give yourself a plain background. If you can, hang a sheet or towel behind to give some contrast.

[DwainDibley]

Cheers for the feedback Matt! I did try to compose the shot so that those two out of focus jugs kind of framed the shot, not sure if it worked though!

I didn't use the flash as I didn't think you could use the flash effectively at higher shutter speeds (except for effect), I think the fastest shutter speed I can get with my 300D with the flash is something like 1/125. I only currently have the small pop-up flash currently sadly!

Will have another go probably tomorrow using the flash and will try at f4 or somewhere thereabouts and see what I come up with, though I may have to increase the ISO to get the fast shutter speeds. I'll see if I can drape something behind the shot too.

[Vaporous]

I would set your shutter speed as high as the camera will allow and set your flash to rear curtain. I think thats pretty much what I did when I attemped water shots.

[Digital Matt]

You don't need a fast shutter speed with a flash. The flash duration is so short that it will freeze the action.

[skieur]

I would use a flash too and as Matt said it freezes the action but I would also use velvet in the background since it does not reflect light. I went to a materials store and picked up a good sized piece of black velvet to use as a background.

skieur

[DSLR noob]

Yeah I found if I set my tabletop fan to the highest setting and used my XT's built-in flash, the blades would freeze with flash even at 1/15 (very slight ghosting) everything above 1/60 was tack sharp, and to get the same results without flash I turned on REALLY bright lights and got the shutter speed to 1/2000