# Water drop photography



## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

Hey! What do you think of water drop photography? This guy has a cool video of how to photograph it. YouTube - &#x202a;How to photograph a splash of water - Week 52&#x202c;&rlm;
Anyway I tried it and here are some pictures of what turned out. Give any advice or anything. Thanks!


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## 480sparky (Jun 27, 2011)

In the first one, I can see a bit of red from the background in the water droplet itself, and the top left has a red tint to it.

The second one has a greenish tint to it.... I can't tell why.

The last one, the dish is far too distracting.


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## jake337 (Jun 27, 2011)

What settings were you using?  Where you using flash off camera?  Try setting your flash to its least powerfull setting(a starting point) and get it as close as possible to the drop.  Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

480sparky said:


> In the first one, I can see a bit of red from the background in the water droplet itself, and the top left has a red tint to it.
> 
> The second one has a greenish tint to it.... I can't tell why.
> 
> The last one, the dish is far too distracting.



Firstly, I dont know why the red is n there. I had a clean white background.

Secondly, I had a green sheet of paper to see if I could get a cool effect. 

Thirdly. I did not have a large container so thats why. But in the first two I did.


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

jake337 said:


> What settings were you using?  Where you using flash off camera?  Try setting your flash to its least powerfull setting(a starting point) and get it as close as possible to the drop.  Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.



I dont have an external flash. I just used the camera flash. I really dont like having the camera too close because the lens gets cover in water drops. Also the room was bright from the sun.


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## willis_927 (Jun 27, 2011)

They all seem to be a little soft.. looks like you might have missed focus a bit. Also try shooting from a bit lower so you arent shooting down at the drops.


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

willis_927 said:


> They all seem to be a little soft.. looks like you might have missed focus a bit. Also try shooting from a bit lower so you arent shooting down at the drops.



Ok thanks I will try! But I just dont like getting so much water on my lens.


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## willis_927 (Jun 27, 2011)

How much water are you dropping? I've never had any issues with getting the lens wet when shooting water drops. Maybe you are too close, you might be within your minimum focusing distance which also might be why your images are not in focus.


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## jake337 (Jun 27, 2011)

GerritSmith said:


> jake337 said:
> 
> 
> > What settings were you using? Where you using flash off camera? Try setting your flash to its least powerfull setting(a starting point) and get it as close as possible to the drop. Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.
> ...



Sun is continuous lighting, not good for water drops. Flashes fire from very short durations(highest power) to extremely short durations(lowest power) You can definitely use your on-camera flash.  Just try it in a very dark room.  Leave the lights on for focusing, then shut them off.  

Don't worry about water drops, you can clean them. Check out the article below about dirty front elements..
Dirty lens article


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

I take a needle and poke a hole in a bag and it makes a steady stream of drops


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## jake337 (Jun 27, 2011)

GerritSmith said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > In the first one, I can see a bit of red from the background in the water droplet itself, and the top left has a red tint to it.
> ...



You should add the information about what you are tring to achieve in the original post.  That way, he wouldn't be asking whats up with those things, but giving advice of how to make the effects your trying to achieve.


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

What do you mean?


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## jake337 (Jun 27, 2011)

GerritSmith said:


> What do you mean?



I'm not sure which post your asking me about here, but I'll guess.

In your original post could have looked like this:

These are my first attempts at water drops! #1 has a reddish tint, and I'm not sure where it came from. I had an all white backdrop. Any ideas?

#2 I attempted using green paper to get a cool effect. It didn't show too much green. Any suggestions on how to make this effect look better.


It's good to C&C your own pictures to shreds! It will only make you better.


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## kundalini (Jun 27, 2011)

jake337 said:


> ..... Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.


Sorry Jake, but you're only batting .333 with this reply.  
1 - Very true, pre-focus on you focal point and then make sure AF is turned off.
2 - Not only is a pitch black shooting room potentionally hazardous to your health and gear, but it is also unnecessary when using flash because it (flash) will/can kill any ambient light in most normally lit rooms.
3 - The idea behind water drop shots is to freeze the action.  A long shutter speed would be counterproductive, unless you're dragging the shutter.

GerritSmith, you can get background colors to show quite easily.  I like tie-dyed t-shirts personally, but any sort of colorful material can be used such as Xmas wrapping paper, colorful scarves, or beach towels.  I would suggest getting out of the sink if that is where you're setup is.  You'll want more space to work with.  Setup on a table top with your bowl of water elevated.  Use appropriate measures to prevent any water damage to furniture and "stuff" nearby.  Slide your background under and/or behind the bowl.  The more distance the better the look IMO because it will be easier for your lens to throw it out of focus.  If you don't have a means of creating a suspension mount, get a friend to steadily hold the water supply over your pre-focused spot.  Fire away.  Obviously off camera flash would be preferred, but a couple of strategically placed mirrors could bounce your built-in flash to light the water drops.  Straight on flash will freeze the drops, but won't be as visually appealing as OCF.  To give you an idea of how some color in the background can enhance your shots, here is a *tie-dyed t-shirt *and here is a couple of womens scarves *one *& *two*.  I used a 105mm macro lens and three speedlights for these.  BTW, a few drops of water is unlikely to cause any harm to your lens.  Just gently wipe off the water between shots.


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## jake337 (Jun 27, 2011)

kundalini said:


> jake337 said:
> 
> 
> > ..... Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.
> ...


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## GerritSmith (Jun 27, 2011)

kundalini said:


> jake337 said:
> 
> 
> > ..... Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.
> ...




Thanks for the advice! I have my water bowl on a table. my camera on a tripod. My bag of water is around 3 feet above my bowl. I cant find a good speedlite for less than $200. I take a pen and AF on it. Then take the pen away and put my camera on Manual Focus.  I did just start using a dslr so I dont know much about all the settings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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