Reflective Water Drop Photography

[Timoris]

Ok, wow, this was educative.

Alright, SO, I free-lens'ed reversed my f/1.8 50mm prime and learned several things:
1- This totally works
2- The further the object is from the drop, the harder it is to focus in on it. It's like trying to balance a dime on its edge. You are much better off playing with the height of the subject than its distance.
3- The flatter the object, the better the focus, this should be a no-brainner. (Actually not entirely true, the more parallel to the image sensor, the better the over-all focus)
4- Shoot in Tv, adjust shutter speed for light. Do not go below 1/100, nay, 1/150, especially while free-lensing (even if your camera body is upon a tripod)
5- You are MUCH better off with a high aperture lens than one which can zoom in. Reason being, light is your friend and trying focusing with both zoom and focus counter rotating to each other. You need three hands, or a Reversing ring (Which should take several weeks to arrive - free shipping from Hong Kong and eBay.)

One thing I am still having trouble with is the clarity within the Drop itself. I do not have 1,000$ to spend on a micro lens, the extension tubes have yet to arrive (and my local ------is out of stock for Canon reversing rings). Untill these last two arrive, do you have any tips for this?

I.E.: I see a lot of depth within the Drop itself, how can I do / do you do that?

Onto the results! Although I restrain from naming my pictures, these just screamed "Time is Running Out". I love how ghostly they feel. First, as I would like to present it, then cropped to show more detail:


Initially, I had started by testing this technique with a Pineapple (Because, you know... Pineapple), thus point 3 and 4:
Kept as a drop down for easier viewing. - Nay, no spoiler tag, kept as a link,

 

[Raccoon]

I was playing around with this last week and got some interesting results. I wasn't really aiming for getting that "small world inside a water drop" shot, I kind of just happened.

I used a vintage Pentax 55mm (M42 mount) with 50mm (or so) extension tubes on a Canon 1000D. Macro on a budget! Here is a 100% crop of one of the shots:

The lens is not quite sharp at f/1.8, so this is shot at f/4 (1/500 sec, handheld). I placed a tulip behind the straw and it shows up clearly inside the water drop. I took a few more shots also, you can read more about it here if you are interested (I hope a little shameless self-promotion is alright):

Erik Moberg's personal homepage - Now with irregular updates! - Fake Raindrops Macro Photography

 

[KmH]

I have been trying to obtain Water Drop Reflection results such as these:
water drop reflection - Google Search

Probable copyright infringement, and no doubt a forum rules/regs violation: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/faq.php

 

[Ryan L]

Timoris - I think what KMH is trying to say is to post a link to someone elses work, don't post something that doesnt belong to you. Just a newbie mistake.

 

[dmtx]

I have been trying to obtain Water Drop Reflection results such as these:
.

I wonder if that image is real or post-processed. Most suspicious of the reflection in the large drop.

Also do not use only water, but water + some other binding material. Also try oil or plain soap.

Also, the material to which the water is applied makes a big difference. I have a garden plant that is stunning when wet. None of my other plants hold the water in the same way. Why, I have no idea.

 

[Timoris]

Thank you very much Raccoon! Your Guide is helpful and I will try this out as soon as I can.

As for the Linking, I thought the Google Image search reference would have covered it, sorry.

 

[Timoris]

I have extension tubes, I have been trying different variations with my 50mm prime, I am following exactly what is being told, but I just can't seem to get proper focus inside the droplet due to curvature. There is a lot of Arberation and distortion, I can not get the nice, smooth, uniform focus as seen from others.

Do optical physics behave differently in Canada? Because I have no idea what I am doing wrong.

 

[Timoris]

HA! Finally.

It was my aperture. Needed it closed tight. Seemed obvious enough once I thought about it. Did not think it would apply to a refractive curved surface.
Now to actually get a nice shot



EOS T2i
f/16
2 sec
ISO 800
Reversed 50mm Prime Lens
With Extension tube

 

[mrpink]

You have the image, but have lost the "water drop effect". In the other photos, you can tell right away that it is a water drop.








p!nK

 

[Timoris]

What about this one? (Different Picture)



EOS T2i
f/16
2 sec
ISO 800
Reversed 50mm Prime Lens on a 50mm Extension tube