water drops

[JohnMF]

ive seen a lot of these water drops splashing photos lately and decided to have a go myself. They all turned out awful!

anyone got any tips for taking them? what sort of set up do you need?

thnks

 

[woodsac]

I've only given it a go the one time John. And I think I only caught about 8 shots worth keeping out of about 350!!!! And even those 8 or so won't that good. That's pretty terrible, I think? So take what I'm about to say lightly.

What worked the best for me was to drop a couple drops watching closely where they hit, then place something in the water as close as I could to where they would hit. Then, I would pre-focus on that object, set the camera to manual focus, and cross my fingers.

Timing is everything! I used my cable release to trip the shutter.

 

[JohnMF]

thanks woodsac

what did you use to put the water on? Just a normal plate? when i try this the water just looks bland and hard to see. Did you add any colouring to the water also?

 

[Arch]

I've only given it a go the one time John. And I think I only caught about 8 shots worth keeping out of about 350!!!! And even those 8 or so won't that good. That's pretty terrible, I think? So take what I'm about to say lightly.

What worked the best for me was to drop a couple drops watching closely where they hit, then place something in the water as close as I could to where they would hit. Then, I would pre-focus on that object, set the camera to manual focus, and cross my fingers.

Timing is everything! I used my cable release to trip the shutter.

Yes i did the same thing the other day.....although haven't got round to editing the pics yet. The hardest part for me was finding the focus spot......too close to the water surface and any drops bouncing up will be out of focus.....and vice versa.....focus too high and the water line will go out. The best way to overcome this i found was to place an object like a pencil sharpener or something slightly bigger in the water....then like woody said autofocus to the end....then switch to manual. Also get as much light as possible in the bowl....some of the better ones i got were with daylight, lamps and onboard flash.

I used a white bowl with food colouring....even tried ribeana at first!

But you will only get a few good ones after maxing out your mem card....its hard!:lmao:

 

[PachelbelsCanon350D]

I had a really good ratio of my droplets turn out, I think...I shot only 20 of them and 4 turned out kind of neat. I'm about to shoot some more with my new lens. But what I did was set up a folding table on my kitchen table, and then the shallow dish of water below. I dangled a barette on a string down from the folding table to the water, and then taped the other end of the string to the table to mark my drop point. I did this all on a large white sheet of paper covering my kitchen table -- anything to add more light. I also placed a sheet of white translucent vellum behind the water dish and aimed a dimmer light through it at the lens for a glow. (But in retrospect I think I will use a thick white backdrop next time. It would be brighter.) I aimed two really bright shop lights at the setup, one from my left elbow and one from my right. I used a tripod and a remote shutter release. I manual-focused on the barette to lock that focal distance in place, then pulled the barette away. I dropped water from an eye dropper from my marked drop point and just got myself into the rhythm of when to squeeze the dropper versus when to squeeze the shutter release. It went really well. I can't wait to try again with my much faster, sharper lens and some different colored liquids.