First attempt at water drops...

[ferretkingdom]

Probably not for everyone, but *I* happen to think it's really neat. LOL.

I however have never tried this before. So, with my limited equipment I set out today on a mission. I think the results are not too bad, really!

First every water drop shot - Timing obviously a bit off there:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2703/4380222838_b99fcdf7da.jpg

Didn't take me long to get the timing better though:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4380224738_3ee000c45a.jpg

All the different colors are from different things in front of the flash or used to bounce the flash off of. I have 1 420 EX speedlite - mounted on-camera as i have no way to fire it off-camera
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4379476237_67541143fd.jpg

There are several more shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33348991@N08/

[tonydee]

Something I've never tried, but I'm pretty impressed with your results. Colours lift it enormously. Well done.

Cheers,
Tony

[ferretkingdom]

Thank you! It was much easier than I had imagined it would be. I thought I might run into trouble with my speedlight on camera, as all the set-ups i saw in my net-surfing used off-camera flashes. I unfortunately have no way to do that. :(

I had fun finding different things to bounce the flash off of, transparent things to shoot light through, etc. Only thing i really need to do - get some other container to drip my drops into! :) You can see the writing stamped on the bottom of this pryex dish in some of the pictures. LOL

[billozz]

great shots, would you take us through how you took them please

[Too Distracted]

Yeah, I'm just impressed here. I don't know I could get those shots without a lot of trial and error.

Nicely done!

[corkneyfonz]

These are good for a first timer with limited gear. There's a link to a published UK amateur that was originally posted in the macro section for those people wanting more info.

http://drippy2009.blogspot.com/

[ferretkingdom]

I will do my best, LOL. I have a horrible reputation of being one of those cooks who is guilty of never making the same thing twice, as i tend to make it all up as I go. Sort of the same with the photography... Eeeek! :D I am, however, very good at just making it up as I go - it works for me. I HATE to read directions!

I started watching videos about how to photograph water drops on YouTube. Here is one of many
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHHzl1swwY

I set a pyrex baking dish in my kitchen sink. I filled it partway with water, then set the sink faucet to drip.

Set up camera on tripod. Set my Speedlite w/ diffuser on camera, as i have no wireless or off-camera controls at this time. Tilted head of flash so it was pointed at a sheet of white paper behind my sink. Used my 55-250 lens (no macro lens yet either, sadly), and zoomed in all the way. Moved camera back to minimum focus distance at that zoom. Focused on spot where water was dripping

Manual mode. Set to 1/200 second, as that was all I could do to sync with flash. I started at 1/250, but it just automatically dropped to 1/200. Set flash at different levels of power on it's manual mode. Fussed with the aperture and found f8-f10 worked well.

Took pictures. Changed sheet of white paper to any other color I could find for different effects. I also changed back to white paper and set custom white balances using various colors other than white. I found anything that was a transparent color and shot the flash through it (the green picture is the flash through my daughters clear/green plastic juice box holder!). I used combinations of shooting through things, different colors of paper to bounce flash off of, and custom white balances to change the effects.

The possibilites are probably nearly endless. You can use static lights with white or colored bulbs. Use gels over your flash if you have them. Use various backgrounds/reflectors, etc. I can think of millions of variations, but sadly I am limited to what I have right now due to lack of a money tree in my yard. :) However, I AM creative enough to figure i can let flash through anything that's transparent, so hey, who needs gels? :D

Hope that my unusual ramblings make some sense!

[mattaura]

I am impressed with your results, very nice for a first effort. I've taken some successful drop photos in the past, and alas, some not so successful. As a matter of fact, I was just shooting them last night. It looks like you had a better go of it than I did though :)

Nice sharp photos at 1/200. Nothing was working for me last night with my flash as my exposure lol...I actually had better results outside in daylight.


If you want, there is actually a way you could get your flash off camera for this.
1. Take it off camera.
2. Setup everything
3. Turn down the lighting so its pretty dark
4. Set your camera to BULB
5. Open the shutter (ie: take pic)
6. Manually fire the flash (should have a button on it)
7. Close shutter.

This way your flash actually makes your exposure, so you can get increased shutter times much faster than 1/200.

With all that said, your exposures look pretty sharp, so what do I know :)

[ferretkingdom]

I am impressed with your results, very nice for a first effort. I've taken some successful drop photos in the past, and alas, some not so successful. As a matter of fact, I was just shooting them last night. It looks like you had a better go of it than I did though :)

I cant believe you managed to get such sharp photos at 1/200. Nothing was working for me last night with my flash as my exposure lol.


There is actually a way you could get your flash off camera for this.
1. Take it off camera.
2. Setup everything
3. Turn down the lighting so its pretty dark
4. Set your camera to BULB
5. Open the shutter (ie: take pic)
6. Manually fire the flash (should have a button on it)
7. Close shutter.

This way your flash actually makes your exposure, so you can get increased shutter times much faster than 1/200.

With all that said, your exposures look pretty sharp, so what do I know :)

Considering how well it worked with my flash on my camera, I think I would be inclined to just leave it there for the time being! LOL. Is there ANY way to sync the flashes faster than 1/200? Someday i would like to have a set of pocket wizards or something and some more Speedlites, but the sync speed is still only 1/200, right?

If i took the pictures in the evening I could do this, however right over my sink i have a large window - no way to turn down the lights at 11 am when I took these pictures. :)

I actually do think my old Vivitar flash you can set up as a slave that is triggered by another flash, so perhaps I can try that. We shall see. :)

[mattaura]

Considering how well it worked with my flash on my camera, I think I would be inclined to just leave it there for the time being! LOL. Is there ANY way to sync the flashes faster than 1/200? Someday i would like to have a set of pocket wizards or something and some more Speedlites, but the sync speed is still only 1/200, right?

If i took the pictures in the evening I could do this, however right over my sink i have a large window - no way to turn down the lights at 11 am when I took these pictures. :)

I actually do think my old Vivitar flash you can set up as a slave that is triggered by another flash, so perhaps I can try that. We shall see. :)


I would leave it there as well for the time being. The thing about water drop photography, from my experience is, it can be hit or miss a lot of times. If it works...shoot away! :)

You are correct about the sync speed. It is going to be 1/200 or 1/250 or so. Any faster and you will get a black bar across your image. Thats the shutter showing up in your image.

[ferretkingdom]

You are correct about the sync speed. It is going to be 1/200 or 1/250 or so. Any faster and you will get a black bar across your image. Thats the shutter showing up in your image.

That is what I thought. So, the only way around this is..........What? Static/constant lighting? Are studio strobe set-ups also only 1/200th sec? Lighting still confuses me. I have A LOT to learn about that and will readily admit it! :)

[mattaura]

That is what I thought. So, the only way around this is..........What? Static/constant lighting? Are studio strobe set-ups also only 1/200th sec? Lighting still confuses me. I have A LOT to learn about that and will readily admit it! :)

Oh I have a lot to learn about it as well no doubt. Technically, if you have abunch of powerful lights flooding your water, you could up your shutter speed and not even use a flash...but you'd need a lot of light...might have to open your apreature more, bump iso etc depending on how much light you had.

I have an ancient flash...I think it was found on the mayflower or something it is so old....so that doesn't help my learning curve. It is a beast though...I once accidentally set it in a bowl of water while doing water drop photography. Didn't work for a while so I took it apart and dried it out. Next day it worked LOL

[ferretkingdom]

Oh I have a lot to learn about it as well no doubt. Technically, if you have abunch of powerful lights flooding your water, you could up your shutter speed and not even use a flash...but you'd need a lot of light...might have to open your apreature more, bump iso etc depending on how much light you had.

I have an ancient flash...I think it was found on the mayflower or something it is so old....so that doesn't help my learning curve. It is a beast though...I once accidentally set it in a bowl of water while doing water drop photography. Didn't work for a while so I took it apart and dried it out. Next day it worked LOL

I have the 430 ex i got from someone here on the forum, and an old Vivitar flash that i had like 15 years ago with my film Rebel. Can't even use it on the Digital one without fear of overloading it. I'd nead a voltage regulator thingy, I've ready too many places that say the flash is too high for the camera. Don't wanna risk it! :)

[mattaura]

I have the 430 ex i got from someone here on the forum, and an old Vivitar flash that i had like 15 years ago with my film Rebel. Can't even use it on the Digital one without fear of overloading it. I'd nead a voltage regulator thingy, I've ready too many places that say the flash is too high for the camera. Don't wanna risk it! :)

Yeah I didn't get the memo on that. So when somebody gave me that flash I slapped on on my Xti faster than you could say bad idea. Luckily no harm done. :)

[ferretkingdom]

I know what you mean. I didn't realize there could be such issues at first. I tried it once on the T1i and i couldn't get the flash output to adjust, so everything was just overexposed no matter what I did. Never bothered to try again, thank goodness! When i read that I was SO glad i hadn't ruined my camera!