My first splash pictures

[Rekd]

This turned out to be a pita. Lots of noise in these shots
because I had to crank up the ISO to get the shutter speed
faster. Will be practicing this more later. Got out a 500 watt
light to enable the ISO to go high enough. Prolly too high for
this lens.







Some things I'll try next time will be a different container that's
wider and not transparent, a narrower field of view and a lower
ISO to reduce the noise. These were shot at around 6400. Considering
the extremely high ISO I think they turned out pretty well.



These were taken with the kit lens. CC welcome, but go easy
cuz I'm such a n00bie. How slow of a shutter speed can
you use and still capture this type of shot.

There's a few more on my Flickr page.

[Ads]

[BoblyBill]

I think the way "pros" take this shot is with multiple flash guns. You could probably experiement by going to your local camera shop and rent a 580ex II and see what you can get with that. That is one powerful flash, but not sure it'll be enough. You'll need a lot more light to really freeze the action I believe so that you can turn your ISO down a bit.

[Gaerek]

I will second what BoblyBill said. You could freeze the motion of the drop at 1/4 sec exposure if you were using a flash. That's the typical way these are done. It will look a lot cleaner, and you can use a low ISO.

[KmH]

A Nikon speedlight at 1/32 power has a duration of about 1/10,000 of a second.

I have no idea what gear you're shooting but strobed light is the way to make images like these, not continuous lights.

[Rekd]

I will second what BoblyBill said. You could freeze the motion of the drop at 1/4 sec exposure if you were using a flash. That's the typical way these are done. It will look a lot cleaner, and you can use a low ISO.

I was afraid of that. The reason I used continuous light was because I was having trouble timing a single shot so I was using rapid shooting mode.

Would a dedicated hot shoe flash that can do focal plane high speed sync be sufficient? I think I can round one up to try. Gotta figure out a way to time it though... any suggestions? Eyedropper maybe? Syringe?

I also think a fuller bowl and lower angle (more parallel with the water line) will help bring out the drops better. And maybe instead of a non-transparent bowl, using colored paper in the background would help also.

Soooo much to learn.

I have no idea what gear you're shooting but strobed light is the way to make images like these, not continuous lights.

My Stuff:
Canon EOS 7D <-----
Sony Cybershot DSC H5 (<---Excellent little camera)
Canon EOS 750 35mm
Canon EOS 500 35mm
--Canon 28-135 Kit <-----
--Canon EF 20-35 3.5-4.5
--Canon EF 70-210 4.0 Macro

[ignite-me]

I'm new to this field.. i can't even do this yet gonna take more time learning

so much to learn and so much fun

[Gaerek]

I will second what BoblyBill said. You could freeze the motion of the drop at 1/4 sec exposure if you were using a flash. That's the typical way these are done. It will look a lot cleaner, and you can use a low ISO.

I was afraid of that. The reason I used continuous light was because I was having trouble timing a single shot so I was using rapid shooting mode.

Would a dedicated hot shoe flash that can do focal plane high speed sync be sufficient? I think I can round one up to try. Gotta figure out a way to time it though... any suggestions? Eyedropper maybe? Syringe?

I also think a fuller bowl and lower angle (more parallel with the water line) will help bring out the drops better. And maybe instead of a non-transparent bowl, using colored paper in the background would help also.

Soooo much to learn.

You don't want to use high speed sync. It won't work right. Normally, the shutter exposes the image for you. In a shot like this, you want the flash to expose for you. So even though you might be using a shutter speed that would normally induce motion blur, the flash (which will essentially expose at something like 1/10,000 sec) will actually expose the drop for you. I've never done this, but I've seen it enough times to know how the process works. You'll have to play with your settings, but you'll get it.