yup, i did it: water drops

[Moooney]

for some reason, boredom and the cliche go hand-in-hand for me. this is my first attempt at water drop shots. did this in the kitchen sink, letting the faucet drip. i bounced my 430ex ii off a my bloody valentine record to get the colour. any thoughts or suggestions on these?? i know they often all look the same. thanks for looking! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_0440.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_0415-1.jpg

[Moooney]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_0412.jpg

[Drowned]

I like them... the only thing I can't seem to like is that the center of attention is always too high on the 3 photos. I know you were trying to get the reflection, but my brain need a bit more space above the real drop for them to be perfect... just my opinion...

[altered_pixel]

I like them! Very nice work, especially with the colored reflection.

[Must_Love_Donuts]

I agree with the poster above, very nice but the you need to recenter the image a bit so there is more space between the drop and top

[Moooney]

thanks for the comments! the reason there is not more space above the drop is that that that was the top of the sink.. it really was a really basic, limited set-up. :p

[RonnieA]

i agree with others about the comp's; not really compelling but understand your top-of-the-sink limitations.

i'll add that the drops are soft. looking at the EXIF, depth of field could be an issue on a couple, but i think it may have to do more with motion blur than aperture. from what i understand, shorter flash durations (lower flash power) are actually better for high-speed photography. i am just throwing numbers out of my rear here because i don't know what they are, but for explanation's sake, full power (1/1) may have a flash duration of 1/800 sec while low power ( 1/128 ) may have a flash duration of 1/35,000 sec. since it's the flash that is stopping the action, slower is mo' better.

[Moooney]

flash was set to manual at 1/16th and 1/8th power, or so...

[RonnieA]

flash was set to manual at 1/16th and 1/8th power, or so...

try stopping down the aperture and setting the flash to 1/128.

[Moooney]

try stopping down the aperture and setting the flash to 1/128.

i wouldn't doubt that it was simply focus issues. i gave up on the tripod, since mfd on my 85 was too long, and i couldnt get close enough with the 17-40 with the tripo. so i was actually just using autofocus handheld :confused: i have no doubt that i could do a better job with a better set-up, but these results are definitely better than i expected.

[Dustydeb]

No 1 I find stunning

[Moooney]

thanks, no.1 is my favourite too. its just a little different, as you can see the reflection of the faucet, and the sink drain as well. and if i wasn't the person to take the shot and was just viewing it, i bet it would have reminded me of the cover of my bloody valentines "loveless" record which is what i used to reflect the colour. :) here's a slightly different version:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Mooney/IMG_0440-2.jpg

http://www.mercursenteret.no/uploads/bilder/blogg/MyBloodyValentine-Loveless.jpg

[theduck365]

Very cool.

[Dustydeb]

Lol hadn't even seen those details, too busy being drawn in by the droplets and ripples. Especially the ripples.....such an amazing colour......What would happen if you made it luminous.......just a thought...is that even possible??

[aisha13]

maybe it's cliche but i like yours.
i like the difference in the color, the fact that in the last picture the drop had yet to hit the water yet you could still see the ripples from the previous drop. when i look at these pictures i think "it must have taken time to capture that specific drop"...maybe it did, maybe it didn't--but as a viewer that's what i was thinking.

good job :)

[Moooney]

maybe it's cliche but i like yours.
i like the difference in the color, the fact that in the last picture the drop had yet to hit the water yet you could still see the ripples from the previous drop. when i look at these pictures i think "it must have taken time to capture that specific drop"...maybe it did, maybe it didn't--but as a viewer that's what i was thinking.

good job :)

thanks! actually, these had to be heavily cropped, so didn't expect to get any keepers, i was just messing around with the flash to see if i could end up getting the color effect that i had planned - i only took about thirty or forty frames, and wasn't even really checking the drops closely. perhaps i just got lucky with the timing to have a few keepers. for the flash, since i couldnt get it off camera, i taped a white card to the underside of the head which pointed straight forward to bounce off the record, so the flash wouldn't spill downward first.

[Moooney]

Lol hadn't even seen those details, too busy being drawn in by the droplets and ripples. Especially the ripples.....such an amazing colour......What would happen if you made it luminous.......just a thought...is that even possible??

what do you mean by luminous? something i could do in processing? or do you mean like trying to get a light source in (or under) the water?

[Moooney]

i landscape crop which for reasons i can't really explain feel is kind of interesting. anyone agree?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/4423273607_fae71d3273_b.jpg