Does this shot work for you?

[...take the shot!]

WTF! Awesome.

 

[RobNZ]

As requested, here is how I did these ones.

Gear List:

Canon 500D with 50mm f/1.8

Intervalometer as a wired shutter release, very very handy, wont move the camera!!

Tripod's x 2, 1 for the camera, 1 for the wireless flash.

Wireless Flash Trigger, cheap and nasty chinese ones about $15 US

YN-465 external flash, again a really cheap strobe (about $70-80 US), but does work with eTTL when mounted on camera, I have no complaints.

80cm round 5 in 1 reflector, removed the covers to use the inner white part to diffuse the strobe. Placed vertically at the back of the tray. I used a 60cm light tent another time and I think that worked better as the strobe light had to travel through 2-3 layers which diffused the light much better IMO.

A large shallow white plastic tray.

A drinking straw.

A measuring tape, laid across the large white tray to set your focus point. I used a permanent marker to mark a dot on the bottom of the tray, so I can see where my focus point is, really important because my DOF for sharp focus is quite shallow, maybe 3-5mm at f/7.1.

A pair of drinking glasses, one with water coloured with food colouring of your choosing, the other with a drop or 2 of dishwashing liquid.

A towel, placed underneath the white tray to catch any water overflow and to keep the bench dry.

Set up:

Placed the towel on the table/bench, put white tray on the towel and place it so the camera can be in reach of the focal at its shortest focussing distance.

Mark the tray with a dot, about 1/4 to 1/3 in from the end of the tray from the camera's point of view.

Extend measuring tape across tray to help with setting the focus, right above your dot.

With the camera on your tripod, line the shot up so you are just seeing the closest edge of the tray bottom of frame and the focus point about 1/3 up the frame, this takes some trial and error to get the angle right. Prefocus camera and switch to manual focus to fine tune using live view at 10x and leave set on manual focus.

Set the camera to Manual, shutter speed 1/200th, F/7.1, ISO 200, mirror lockup ON. Do a couple of test shots to get your flash level correct, check for blown out areas and unwanted reflections.

Set up the reflector disc right behind the water tray with your off camera flash about 1 metre or so behind, flash height about 200mm above the water line, so it will fire across the water and not into it so much.

Once you have done all of the above youre ready to ROCK!!

Get your drinking straw and dip the end in the dishwashing liquid, you only want enough dishwashing liquid to make a thin layer on the bottom of the glass. Place the straw on about a 45deg angle on the water and the end half in the water and blow gently, with practice you will blow one clean bubble.

Use the straw to blow the bubble into position.

Use the same straw to dip into the coloured water about half an inch and place your finger over the other end to hold the liquid in the straw, move to a positon over the bubble and right over your focus point.

With mirror lock up on you have release the shutter twice, first time locks mirror up, 2nd time takes the shot. Live view may work better, but flash firing can be an issue with some camera's.

Now its just timing and and lots and lots of attempts, release the water by lifting your finger off the straw and closely followed by pressing the remote shutter release to take the shot.

Check with Liveview to see how your going and if your focus is good, check also for unwanted reflections, adjust to suit and keep shooting.

Sounds like a a lot of work and it is, but the results are well worth it.

Hopefully you can make sense of all that?

 

[AlbertoDeRoma]

Work like crazy for me. Cool stuff.

Alberto