first attempt at water

Inspired by alot of shots on the forums with water. Tried to do my own last night. This was the only one that came out half decent.

Kind of hard to free action when my barebulb flash only syncs up to 1/125
Resorted to a single OCF 580ex

To make matters a bit more complicated, I don't own a macro. This is a 50mm 1.4 stopped down and cropped lol

use a tripod... and underexpose the water by 3 stops.. the flash duration becomes your shutter speed... use manual focus by using a pencil right where the drops land... use a lower angle to get more depth....

What do you mean by this? Sorry I don't understand and it sounds like something that might help me

Good idea, I'll give this one a try.


I did use a tripod. I'm kind of handicap on any lower angles due to the glass I was using and needed enough distance to stay in focus (using 50mm 1.4)

your not going to use shutter speed to stop the water... the flash will stop the water drops... try setting your shutter @ 1/160 SEC.. ISO 100 f5.6..... if you take a picture without flash you want the image to be dark... be sure to keep your SS below the max sync... now add flash.. bounce off a piece of paper or something... use flash power to adjust your exposure.... and flash distance if you have to.. try to keep an F-stop that will keep everything in focus....

for lower angles use a cookie sheet or something shallow.. shoot almost paralell with the water...

I assume you want a shot like this

Check out this thread -> https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=460544

It may help answer some of your questions.