# First Attempt at Water Drop Photography



## qleak (Nov 29, 2014)

Ok JustJazzie inspired me to try out some water drop photographs ( something I've never attempted). I hope she finds imitation flattering 

My usual macro setup is fun, but gives only a 1-1 ratio on a 8mm sensor which is way too small for water drops that I can make. So I decided to try the close focus on my sigma 18-50mm f1.8 and crop the f*** out of it. 

I tried a cut up 2 liter first, but the background was crap so I grabbed the first larger water container I had sitting about. My brushed steel 5qt pressure cooker. Here's a picture of my setup.








Here are the results:



20141129_0040 by n8.iverson, on Flickr




20141129_0037 by n8.iverson, on Flickr




20141129_0028 by n8.iverson, on Flickr




20141129_0019 by n8.iverson, on Flickr

Please feel free to comment and critique upon the photos and setup, just please don't critique on the state of my kitchen sink


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## TangoTracer (Nov 30, 2014)

Wow! Those look immensely better than I thought they would based on the initial photo.

I would like to start doing some if this water drop experimenting soon and the cropping method makes me less worried about buying a suitable lens first!


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## JustJazzie (Nov 30, 2014)

I hope so, since another TPF member inspired me to try it for the first time earlier this year. I wish I could remember who it was, but I cant. 

I use the same method as you, use a long lens and crop to pieces. I've been happy enough with the results!

Enough about me. These are great for a first attempt! Nicely focused. The steel gives it a nice "cold" color I think, they almost look like ice! My only nit pick for these would be to straighten them out a little.


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## qleak (Nov 30, 2014)

TangoTracer said:


> Wow! Those look immensely better than I thought they would based on the initial photo.
> 
> I would like to start doing some if this water drop experimenting soon and the cropping method makes me less worried about buying a suitable lens first!



Thanks! I was a little surprised they turned out as well as they did 

You will need a lens with something of a magnification ratio. My lens says it's 0.23 which is about 1:4.37. But I may have been able to get by with my 18-105mm kit lens that has 1:5. Here's an uncropped version to give you an idea how much I've been cropping in.


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## JustJazzie (Nov 30, 2014)

TangoTracer said:


> Wow! Those look immensely better than I thought they would based on the initial photo.
> 
> I would like to start doing some if this water drop experimenting soon and the cropping method makes me less worried about buying a suitable lens first!





qleak said:


> TangoTracer said:
> 
> 
> > Wow! Those look immensely better than I thought they would based on the initial photo.
> ...


I've been doing it the same way. Mostly with an 18-200 but recently with my new 28-105 1:2 macro. my SOC's look pretty much like qleak's frame wise. Its loads of fun Tango, try it sooner than later!


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## qleak (Nov 30, 2014)

JustJazzie said:


> I hope so, since another TPF member inspired me to try it for the first time earlier this year. I wish I could remember who it was, but I cant.
> 
> I use the same method as you, use a long lens and crop to pieces. I've been happy enough with the results!
> 
> Enough about me. These are great for a first attempt! Nicely focused. The steel gives it a nice "cold" color I think, they almost look like ice! My only nit pick for these would be to straighten them out a little.



Thanks for the remarks!  

I liked the effect of the flash(es) reflecting into the bowl. It's like a shooting gallery of reflected light.

I seem to not be very good at leveling up my photos (when taking pictures), I feel like this is something I shouldn't be adjusting that much in post. No excuse in this one, i shot from a tripod


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## JustJazzie (Nov 30, 2014)

qleak said:


> JustJazzie said:
> 
> 
> > I hope so, since another TPF member inspired me to try it for the first time earlier this year. I wish I could remember who it was, but I cant.
> ...


I think yesterdays set was the first set I have ever bothered to bring up my level on my camera before I shot. There is PLENTY of room to level in post so I just never saw it as a big deal. And you should be able to level one and batch edit the rest right? easy fix, and none will be the wiser once its leveled right?


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## qleak (Nov 30, 2014)

JustJazzie said:


> I think yesterdays set was the first set I have ever bothered to bring up my level on my camera before I shot. There is PLENTY of room to level in post so I just never saw it as a big deal. And you should be able to level one and batch edit the rest right? easy fix, and none will be the wiser once its leveled right?



Good point about the batch edits! I hadn't thought of that


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## qleak (Dec 6, 2014)

Here's another one I took around the same time as the other 4, but didn't like till I went with a darker higher contrast version.




DSC_8629 by n8.iverson, on Flickr

As always C&C welcome


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## Stradawhovious (Dec 12, 2014)

I would try to ge the water a little further away from the the "splash zone".  allowing the drops to get closer to terminal velocity will make for much more "violent" splashes and some very interesting results.  I used to use a microphone stand with a ziplock full of water taped to it.  It got the water about 5 feet away from my vessel, and made for some pretty awesome splashes.

You could also try cranking up your light source a bit more.  Nice first attempts though!


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## qleak (Dec 12, 2014)

Stradawhovious said:


> I would try to ge the water a little further away from the the "splash zone".  allowing the drops to get closer to terminal velocity will make for much more "violent" splashes and some very interesting results.  I used to use a microphone stand with a ziplock full of water taped to it.  It got the water about 5 feet away from my vessel, and made for some pretty awesome splashes.
> 
> You could also try cranking up your light source a bit more.  Nice first attempts though!




Thanks for the suggestions! I have some mic stands so I'll give it a go.

Since I'm using an SB700 I figured lower power 1/32 1/64th would freeze the action better. These were somewhat darkened in post as well, maybe I took it too far.


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## Joefbs (Dec 12, 2014)

I attempted a bunch of these based on Jazzie's set ups. Yours came out nice.


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## Stradawhovious (Dec 12, 2014)

qleak said:


> Since I'm using an SB700 I figured lower power 1/32 1/64th would freeze the action better. These were somewhat darkened in post as well, maybe I took it too far.


 
A lower power certainly will freeze action better in some cases, but to be honest it's the difference between 1/40,000 second at it's lowest setting and 1/1,000 at full power on the SB700.  Even at 1/1,000 you shouldn't* have any motion blur with water droplets.

Shouldn't.

I could be wrong.

I often am.

Keep your ambient light to a minimum and your lens in it's sweet spot.  For me it's just enough light to see what I'm doing, and my lens of choice between f/5.6 and f/8 (unless I'm going for a different DOF.  If I were to take a snap at 1/125 and no flash, the frame will be black.  I then adjust the power and distance of the flash to get an acceptable exposure.

Obviously YMMV.

Edit... the only time I've had to worry about my flash power as it relates to burst duration is trying to catch really really fast action, like shooting eggs with a .22 rifle.  Which I thoroughly enjoy.


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## Judobreaker (Dec 15, 2014)

Actually I think this is one of those cases where you may be wrong... 

The average water drop has a terminal velocity of about 5-10 m/s (depending on the size).
So lets take the optimal number and say our drop is falling 5 m/s. That's 5000 mm/s.
Sooo... In a flash burst of 1/1,000th of a second that drop will travel 5mm, which is actually quite a lot... 
In 1/40,000th of a second however the drop travels 0.125mm which won't be too much of a blur.

I'm thinking you shouldn't make the power too high.


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## Stradawhovious (Dec 15, 2014)

Judobreaker said:


> Actually I think this is one of those cases where you may be wrong...
> The average water drop has a terminal velocity of about 5-10 m/s (depending on the size).
> So lets take the optimal number and say our drop is falling 5 m/s. That's 5000 mm/s.
> Sooo... In a flash burst of 1/1,000th of a second that drop will travel 5mm, which is actually quite a lot...
> ...


A few points of interest in your math... First off, in these setups water rarely has the time to hit terminal velocity. Water droplets will reach terminal velocity in about 6 feet (give or take), and most of these setups release the droplets within a couple feet of the impact zone. Also, it's (generally) not the drop falling that people want to take photos of, it's the aftermath of its impact with water which drastically reduces the droplet's speed.
But math is fun, so thanks for the numbers!


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## qleak (Dec 15, 2014)

The more concerning relation between flash duration and water drop motion blur is the distinction between t.5 and t.1 duration of the flash. 

The stated manufacturer specifications are for a t.5 time which means the flash has reached 50% amplitude by this time. The t.1 time for an sb700 at full power is approximately 1/300 second which is not quite fast enough IMHO. At 1/2 power it's approximately 1/1000 which is certainly fast enough for most situations. At 1/32 and 1/64 the durations are <= 1/8000 second so are at least as fast as any shutter speed.

Here's where I got the measured t.1 times.


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## Judobreaker (Dec 16, 2014)

Stradawhovious said:


> Judobreaker said:
> 
> 
> > Actually I think this is one of those cases where you may be wrong...
> ...



Numbers are cool. 
But yeah, you have a good point.
Even if you divide the speed by 5 though it'll still be 1mm of movement in 1/1,000th of a second so it's still something to keep in mind.


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## mingxuan (Dec 17, 2014)

very excellent job! I like it


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