Water Droplets

Having recently acquired a macro lens, I've gone straight in and done the almost compulsory water droplet shots and I'm reasonably happy with the results, but wondered if there's any way to improve on them.

My set-up was a rubber glove filled with water, taped to a bit of cardboard held above the plastic tub of water. The tub of water was on a blue plastic bag and there was a sheet of paper behind the tub from which the flash was bounced. I know it's not the best photo in the world, but this is a quick snapshot of the setup:

is that reflection on the water something in your room? if so id use a bigger blue plastic bag to get rid of it or crop it out. i find it distracting. other than that very cool shots i really like number 2. it looks like the drop is pushing the water.

Did you keep your speedlight in that same position the whole time? I recommend trying different angles/distance from the bounce target.. also posterboard is cheap and may help too.

As for focus jumping the ISO up a bit so you can shoot at a higher aperture may help a bit, but as best I can tell that isn't the issue here, the drops simply weren't in focus. Instead of trying to hold a pen tip and focus on that you may want to try laying an object across the tupperware and moving it so the water drops right onto the raised object and then focusing on that area.

Lastly expect to take a LOT of pictures and get only a handful of keepers. I think I shot 500 or so shots and had 20-30 decent shots, many of which looked too similar to others to even keep.

Here is the video I followed for my first attempt at water drop shots:
http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y

I regretfully didn't take a setup picture (your glove is classy compared to my plastic grocery bag setup) but here are shots.

personally i find the photos are lacking contrast due to reflections of other objects.

to achieve a "clean" look, try using a darker background, a piece of black paper, or if you wanna keep it blue, a darker shade of blue, then surround the water tank with black cardboard to minimize reflection. turning off lights and removing reflective objects (like the shinny metal of the stand and the tripod), or at least cover them with black paper or cloth. stay away from windows and generally any brightly lit objects (like the fridge) and light source, making the flashgun the only light source

on a side note, instead of using white A4 paper, you can use styrofoam board as reflector. they are light and you can easily get a piece as big as a dinning table and cut it yourself to suit your need, where you probably will have a less easy time finding and hanging an A1 size white paper. moreover, the board is stiff and thanks to its width it can usually stand on its own. no need to find paper clips/hanger/paperstan​d anymore.....

Thanks for the feedback, I think the reflections were from the bag, I'd tried it with different container for the water, and the bag got wet so I think that's what caused that. Now you mention it, it is pretty distracting.

I'll probably try to throw together some kind of enclosed set up for water drops, that way there will be fewer reflections, as you said. I'll see what I can do and post the results.

Thanks again folks.

The video that jookius mentions is worth watching for sure. I especially like the tip about modeled background color. After running across the same video the other night I made my first attempt.

That is one hell of a first attempt, very nice. I love the infinity look to the water, like it just goes on forever.

I don't like the background, it doesn't look clean. And I think the splash could be sharper.

Thanks for all the feedback, once I've built the sturdier set up I'll give it another go with a slightly more powerful flash setting, smaller aperture, coloured card/paper (not a plastic bag!) under the tub, possibly a slightly tighter crop and better focussing (using jookius's focussing method).

Results soon! Just hope there's a few bits of wood in the garage for my set up!

I would lower the camera. Your flash should be around 1/32 power shooting ~f/11. Place the card you are reflecting off up against the pan with the water. I would print some kind of design on it if you want more than a solid color. I noticed most of your shots were out of focus; use a pencil to focus on where the water will drop.

If you click on my flickr account in my sig i recently took a shot a water drops. I just used a 13x9 glass pan with nothing underneath it; my flash was reflected off a red and blue paper that I just simply made in photoshop

Checkout this video

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y

Ross Murray wrote in post #11590648
Thanks for all the feedback, once I've built the sturdier set up I'll give it another go with a slightly more powerful flash setting, smaller aperture, coloured card/paper (not a plastic bag!) under the tub, possibly a slightly tighter crop and better focussing (using jookius's focussing method).

Results soon! Just hope there's a few bits of wood in the garage for my set up!

keep in mind paper change colour when they get wet....... in case you overlooked

Got a setup shot? This looks like it would have been good but you weren't getting enough light.

You are getting there man, I like the colors!