Water Drop Photography

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jethro's picture

Miranda got given a camera for her birthday and has been learning some things from me. After reading this post about photographing with your child we went and did a photo shoot with Laurel Pearce. Today I decided to do water drop splash photography after reading this instruction article.

2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 249-1600 I set my room up as in the photo below. The two light stands supported a dowel (though these could be anything) from which I hung a bottle with string. I pierced a small hole in it and then twisted the cap to allow water to flow in short drops. I placed a low bucket on the table (on a towel) and an ice-cream container upside down in the bucket. On top of that I placed a black dessert bowl filled with water. The red bucket under the table is supporting a flash aimed at the whiteboard balanced on the chair. For the white background shots i ran this flash at half power. For the coloured shots i draped material, towels, blankets and a green shopping bag over the whiteboard and used full power. For the lighter colours I moved the chair away from the camera as more light was being reflected. The second off camera flash is on the green box to the right of the bowls. I also tried this on the left for the last few shots I took. This flash was on a low power setting with the diffuser over the flash. The camera was attached to the lens mounted on the tripod. IT is a Canon EOS 50D and the lens i was using is a Canon 70-200 IS USM 2.8 L Lens. I had ISO 125, Shutter 1/250 and the aperture varied from 3.5 for a couple of shots through to 16 to 20. Most shots were on 16 or 20. The different colours reflected light differently and I need better exposure on those shots – hence the experimentation with the aperture settings. I was zoomed right in at 200mm and the camera was as close to the subject as possible for focus. I turned off AF focus and using the manual focus focused on a piece of wood placed over the bowl right under the drips. I experimented with the height of the camera on the tripod also to get more or less of the water surface.

2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 271-1600

For the last few coloured shots I put some milk in the bowl (changed to a white bowl with a blue inside surface) and some milk in the bottle. Not pure – just mixed it in with the water. I was particularly please with the reflection of the background coloured light on the  milk along with the blue from the bowl interior.

All the good shots are up at Flickr in the Studio Shoots – Stills Set.

A selection are below.

2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 036-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 085-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 107-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 112-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 120-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 129-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 130-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 215-1600  2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 262-1600 2009-08-12 Water Splash Photos 257-1600

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Anonymous's picture

wo but i mean wow the picture

wo but i mean wow the picture are so great and i just love art it is somthing that really catches your eay and makes you want to buy or draw and i think that snice that it inspires you

Anonymous's picture

great blog thanks for sharing

great blog thanks for sharing that info with me i will be using it really soon.