Need LaFoto droplet help :o)

[mitsugirly]

There are so many other water droplet post and I didn't want to take away from them or hijack their threads with my questions...so I thought I'd start my own.

I looked at your setup and tried to do the same...but it wouldn't come out. Are you completely shooting the water droplet sideways? When I tried it, I wasn't getting ANY of the background in mine to be able to get the color in it. I ended up having to put the entire hot pink excercise mat (lol) all the way underneath the bowl of water for it to show up.

Also, I did the same settings that you suggested in your write up and when I put them on those settings, it seem to do worse than if I just turned the camera on auto?? Are you really that far away from the drops and higher than the drops when you shoot them? Mine just did not turn out the way I had hoped.

 

[Samanax]

Set your camera up for second-curtain sync. In the first shot you're getting that odd ghost blurring because it's on first-curtain sync right now.

 

[mitsugirly]

Set your camera up for second-curtain sync. In the first shot you're getting that odd ghost blurring because it's on first-curtain sync right now.

Say what? English please...I have no clue what you are talking about.

 

[TheSon]

2nd curtain sync is where the flash ignites at the end of the open shutter, not the beginning.

You can set your camera with this option (look in owners manual).

 

[DexGtr]

i tried it last night setting were 1/160 f7.1 ISO 100 with the pop up flash. used manual focus and focus on the point where i anticipate the droplet to be...

 

[mitsugirly]

2nd curtain sync is where the flash ignites at the end of the open shutter, not the beginning.

You can set your camera with this option (look in owners manual).

I assume this is the same as rear sync. I will have to try this.

i tried it last night setting were 1/160 f7.1 ISO 100 with the pop up flash. used manual focus and focus on the point where i anticipate the droplet to be... How close are you actually to the water bowl?

When I was doing some of mine, I did some at 1/160 as well. I had it at f13 (which was suggested by LaFoto in another thread). How do you focus on where you think the droplet will be? Won't it focus on whatever object is past that? I know it's in manual, but I don't see how you can focus on something that's not there and know it's in focus.

I was also using live view to watch the drips. I didn't think that having my head up to the camera on the tripod trying to see it would work too well. I'm sure I probably still jerked the camera some just by having to touch it. I need a remote. Since live view would give me a black screen the farther I went on the speed, I would have to put it on auto to make sure I even had it put on the spot it was going to drip, then put it on manual. Ugh...

I think I'm going to try it again.

Anyone know about the question on where the "backdrop" goes and why I had to actually put it UNDER the bowl in order to get a reflection? Are you guys shooting this completely sideways? or over it?

 

[DexGtr]

How do you focus on where you think the droplet will be?

put a pencil or a finger to the place where your droplet would be....manual focus on that....then fire away!

 

[mitsugirly]

put a pencil or a finger to the place where your droplet would be....manual focus on that....then fire away!

Sweet idea. I thought about just letting the water run and focus, then turn it back to a drip.

Still wondering my background color question. I'm really confused about that. Maybe I need to make the bowl higher? I already had it sitting on a huge pan and the bowl was really big. I'm afraid any bigger I'll be too high to get the faucet over the bowl to drip.

 

[Phranquey]

put a pencil or a finger to the place where your droplet would be....manual focus on that....then fire away!

Another thing to do is tie an object (paper clip, washer, etc) to the end of a string, and tie the other end to the faucet where the water drips from, making a homemade plumb. Have the object about a 1/2" above the water, focus on that, remove, and shoot.

 

[alarionov]

Ha ha we must have been thinking alike, I totally did the same thing today but I really like the purple in yours.

 

[mitsugirly]

Ha ha we must have been thinking alike, I totally did the same thing today but I really like the purple in yours.

See, it looks like you put your colored object UNDER the bowl. Did you? I still don't get how people are putting it on the side and bringing out those colors.

 

[LaFoto]

Oh. Only seeing now that I am being asked a question.
Well, my bowl was transparent, for one, then set up high (on my colander upside down, to be precise) in the sink, so it would stick out a little and not be "down there in the sink". Then I took an old piece of cardboard and wrapped it in wrapping papers (for presents) and placed it behind.

I know that I set up the tripod so the camera was only slightly above the level of the surface (and the bowl was filled to constantly overflowing, which didn't matter, as it was placed in the kitchen sink, anyway), and since the bowl poked out of the sink just a little, it seems like the background showed as reflection on the water and as upside down image inside the droplets.

And I did the manual focusing in adjusting the tap/faucet (for the American readers) so it would drip at a nice pace all the time, so I would see the droplets falling and landing, and thus knew about where they fell and landed.

And the f13 was because my Sigma 70-300mm lens was in it's "macro" setting (between 200 and 300mm), which decreases DOF to extremes (very narrow), so a wider open lens would have thrown too much of the picture into blurriness. I didn't want that to happen. And flash was direct.

By the way, all this newly spread "droplet disease" makes me curious to find out if I could repeat last year's pics???

 

[mitsugirly]

That's pretty much exactly what I did. My sinks are very deep so I used a huge pot upside down in the sink and had a clear glass huge bowl on top of that so it was sticking out of the sink. Every time I put something on the counter behind as a color...it wasn't picking up any of it. Maybe my angle was just too high or something. I'll have to try it again this weekend.

Please by all means post last years pictures. These droplet pictures intrigue me.

 

[alarionov]

See, it looks like you put your colored object UNDER the bowl. Did you? I still don't get how people are putting it on the side and bringing out those colors.

I actually did not use a colored background I used food dye to color the water a bit.

 

[mitsugirly]

I had thought about that but didn't see anyone that was doing it that way so I figured there must be a reason why. I like it and will have to try that too.