Water droplet

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Inserted photo in for you.

Photo Copyright chewy1993.
Screenshot 2014-01-31 21.32.24.jpg
 

hark

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I like it! :) Over a year ago I remember watching a Bryan Peterson video which showed something similar--putting colored material or something similar underneath or around a clear glass dish and capturing water droplets. Or maybe the colored material was on a different video using cooking oil while photographing the round oil droplets in water. In either case, both of these are ideas I've been thinking about trying one of these days.

Nice job! ;)
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
It's almost an "Almost Photo", because you know that milliseconds after this that droplet was free and hovering. That's the maddening part of shots like this, which is why it's so amazingly gratifying when you finally nail it. If nothing else this captures that anticipation of freedom for that little droplet, and the lighting is really fine for it. This is when you pine for a D4 and all those fps.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
I actually haven't tried water droplet photography but in my mind it indicates a droplet. This photo shows a 'blob' in my technical terms. A drop let is something that is suspended in air and a more horizontal plane may be of benefit.
 

grandpaw

Senior Member
Seems to me how I did it for anyone wanting to try this is like this.

Clear glass bowl with water in it.
Speedlight with blue gel or blue cellophane over flash head outside of a large glass bowl or small fish tank pointed toward the water to give the water a blue color.
Baggy suspended over bowl with pin hole in bottom to create drips about two inches apart.
Shot from top.
I need to add that you need a tripod and you need to prefocus in manual focus where the droplets are hitting the water.
Watch the timing of the droplets and shoot away.

In my picture that I have already posted, what you are seeing is one drop that has hit the water and the next drop on it's way down.
 
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hark

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Gavin Hoey instruction vid for taking water droplets
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y

That's a really good video, too! :) I hope people will take a look at it.

I couldn't find the waterdrop video I mentioned (perhaps it was made by a different photographer than Bryan Peterson, but it was done at a kitchen sink...I'll keep looking). Here is the oil/water video which is also unusual in case anyone is snowed in and wants to try something different.

 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
OK so are we offering how to do this or what is wrong with his photo? Many people state that they have done it better before but how have they achieved this and what they can do to achieve it...
 

chewy1993

Senior Member
I think I may have a few showing the actual drops however not to hand, I was just bored at work and sent this via my flickr account. The set up was a glass mixing blow over flowing near a sink, the tap providing the drops. The colours were provided with a child's table cloth, I'll watch the videos posted later and any advice would be appreciated.:)
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
I cheated on the shot to try it out last year. The water was dripping off of an umbrella into our pool, so I decided to try it and will do it again with a more planned shot. The possibilities are endless for doing this shot.

ks6_0186.jpg
 

Lee532

Senior Member
Welcome to Flickr!
This one hasn't been cropped but here's one with a droplet mid drop.
Chewy great shot and something I have been meaning to try for a while.
To post your Flickr pictures here click on the the square symbol with an arrow in it below your photo, then select Grab the BBCode, medium 800 and copy the code that appears. Then just paste this in to your post. This will show the photo rather than just a link. Hope that makes sense.
 
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hark

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Here is Bryan Peterson's video on photographing a water drop. It is different than Gavin's video and makes use of 2 flashes compared with Gavin's 1 flash (Gavin's is probably more useful for those who own only 1 flash).

 
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