Playing around with milk drops

I have done a lot of experimenting with water drops and decided to see what milk looked like. All this was done by hand. One hand on an eyedropper mounted above a bowl and the other hand on the shutter button.

This one is orange milk into blue water

This is a really cool series, I would be very pleased with all of them.

Thank you! I have spent the past year just experimenting. All the images above are of multiple drops hitting each other at different phases of the splash. That causes the umbrella effect. The image on the bottom was snapped a micro second before that effect occurred.

Really good results, esp. #1 & 4.

Amazing work !!! I'll have to try this myself. What was your source of lighting?

Yea, I wouldn't mind seeing the setup as well. I have played with these before but with milk for colored water. you did great.

I'm wondering what heavy cream would look like?

Definitely like the first one best. Great composition and love the colors

I really like the first one. This is a great idea for another rainy day!
Did you try milk into milk or just milk into water?

WolfsPride wrote in post #15669555
Amazing work !!! I'll have to try this myself. What was your source of lighting?

My source of lighting on the first and last was my 580 EX II on camera aimed directly head on. I found I liked the direct flash results as it would tend to darken the bowl of liquid and bring out detail in the splash.

On the green and pink shots, I did off camera flash to camera left and bouncing off some white foam board.

When I play around with these I shoot full manual on camera and flash.

Kronie wrote in post #15669584
Yea, I wouldn't mind seeing the setup as well. I have played with these before but with milk for colored water. you did great.

Thanks! My setup changes and gets tweaked. I used Kenko extension tubes on the 55-250 kit lens. Depending on the working distance dictated which of the three extensions I used.

Basic setup was a frame out of PVC pipe, a platform with a single hole, and an eye dropper. Oh, and tripod. Once I got the test shots out of the way and the settings looking good, I had to just get the hand eye coordination down and timing. When you get to the point where you can take the picture as two drops collide, you get the really cool results.

I haven't tried these with better glass yet. Kind of worried about staining. I don't care if the kit lens gets colored spots on it. Mostly the UV filter took most of it.

JGunn wrote in post #15672235
I really like the first one. This is a great idea for another rainy day!
Did you try milk into milk or just milk into water?

Definitely great for a rainy day. Because every shot will give different results, it makes it kind of fun.

The top was orange milk into blue water.

The middle pictures (green and pink) were milk into milk.

The bottom was water into water.

Water into water is by far the "cleanest" and requires very little maintenance between shots. Milk into milk is not as clean and does require some cleanup between shots due to bubbles and color strains in the surface. Milk into water is the worst of the three. It requires some sort of maintenance between every shot. Lots of frothy bubbles between shots.

I found placing a cooking pan under a bowl and filling the bowl until it overflows into the pan worked best. Maintenance in between shots was simply using a fork to shove bubbles over the side followed by a little mixing to take care of color trails.

Oh, and adding glycerin to water helps with the viscosity of the water giving it a better chance of sticking together during the drop.

I have more on my Flickr account if you want to see more, including my first ever attempts.


http://www.flickr.com/​photos/jmtyson80

Would it be possible for you to take a photo of your setup?
I love drop photos.

Yours are A W S O M E