# High Speed Water Photography - 5 tips



## terri

*High Speed Water Photography*​ 

_submitted by:_ *Josh Jones* (TPF member skiboarder72)​ 

High speed water photography is one of the most difficult types of photography. Nailing the timing, focus, and lighting within a time frame that your eye cannot process can be very difficult. The results are simply amazing. Since your eye cannot freeze time, things such as water, explosions, and chemical reactions become instantly interesting when the moment is frozen in time.













Here are five tips for getting great results with high-speed subjects:

*1) Use a fast shutter speed* - This is pretty common sense but the faster the shutter speed the more likely that you will rid the picture of all motion blur. You may have to increase your ISO to allow the use of this shutter speed in darker situations. I recommend at least 1/250th of a second for water droplet pictures.

*2) Using a flash* - A flash is great because it can fire a beam of light that only lasts a tiny amount of time. The extra light from the flash will help allow the use of a higher shutter speed. Trying experimenting with an off camera flash, or a bounce flash for more natural lighting. High wattage lighting setups can be very helpful if you are working in a controlled environment. Basically the more light on your subject, the better.

*3) Use manual exposure mode* - This is about the only time that I use the fully manual mode on my camera. For shooting things such as water droplets, you need to control the shutter speed, depth of field, and flash output independently. By using a very stopped down aperture, such as f/22, you can get the depth of field needed for the entire water droplet to be in focus. You will need to set your shutter speed manually to something very fast, and you will need to control your lighting output to match your other parameters.

*4) Adjust your focus settings* - Getting the focus right in these shots is one of the most difficult things about them. A use of a small aperture helps by increasing the depth of field (and thus your margin of error). Many cameras cannot auto focus fast enough to catch a water droplet in mid air. Most just end up focusing on the background. If you have a magic camera that can auto focus so fast it can catch a single droplet midair, please send me an email. For everyone else, you may find that it is easier to switch to manual focus when you know how far away your subject will be. Once you have the focus set properly, then all you need to do is nail the timing.

*5) Take a lot of shots* - Unfortunately this is a type of photography that demands a lot of trial and error. Nailing the timing perfectly is very difficult. Many of my shots are either taken too late, or before the droplet enters the frame. Adjust your focus area, depth of field, and shutter speed to see what works best for your setup. 

The results will be worth it!


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## whitemore55

Good post and also useful. It will be very helpful who want to be a professional photographer.Thanks for sharing. I will really remember the tips.

If you get any this kind of tips or information please don't forget to share.


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## Olga_pv

Thank you for the tips, I am running away to try this


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## Bynx

There are also a few things to consider when creating the setup. For instance, the height of the dripping water to the bowl. The depth of water in the bowl. How fast the drops are apart. Having a slow drop rate will give clean columns as the example shown. If the drops are closer together then there is a chance of a collision between the rising column and the next drop creating a fantastic umbrella look. This umbrella look has been very elusive to me but I keep trying. This is a common shot I did this morning with a slow drop rate. Controlling a faster drip rate I find difficult. You almost want the water to come pouring out in a stream. As to focusing manual is the only way to go as mentioned. What I do is keep the water level below the height of a AA battery. Then I place the battery in the dish directly under the drip path. When the drip is right on the middle post of the battery I can then focus on that spot. Take away the battery and you are right in focus. Having a small fstop like f14 and the DOF will cover the height of the column if you happen to be shooting down on the column.


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## 90AWDSM

I also have been trying to get the Umbrella Drop and have no luck in capturing it.


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## Bynx

Here is a drip cycle from a faucet.


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## tevo

Nice thread, very informative! I will probably try this out sometime tomorrowww


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## CyberPhotography

Probably the most creative thread here ..can you tell please a few tip on lighting?my lighting is always bad when i try this


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## tevo

CyberPhotography said:


> Probably the most creative thread here ..can you tell please a few tip on lighting?my lighting is always bad when i try this



^^This! How would one go about lighting water... >__>


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## Olga_pv

As for me, I failed  

I couldn't catch the column and I wonder how to do it, from 90 shots I caught it only once, and it was out of focus... *Bynx* wrote about manual focus, so I should use it instead of AF... What about shutter speed? I used 1/1000, maybe slower better? With flash or without? I did with flash. 

And why everybody has very beautiful colored water? Is it Photoshop or the bowl or what? 

I really want to do it and i want it nice, but how?


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## Drake

Playing with water is always fun. Any tips on backgrounds in bowl droplets?


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## Compaq

Even I has managed some droplet shots!  Didn't have a flash, though, and my setup was pretty amateur ! 




dråpe_7 by Anders Myhre Brakestad, on Flickr




dråpe_1 by Anders Myhre Brakestad, on Flickr


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## Bynx

A flash is recommended for that bright short burst. I used the built in flash and it works fine. For a shutter speed I used 1/250 sec. In sync with the flash, and slow enough to catch the movement of the falling ball of water so you can see a bit of action. Thats the small white trail as the drop falls downwards. You can go with a faster shutter speed but then you will have to compensate for the light and go with a higher ISO causing noise. You CANNOT use autofocus because there is nothing for the camera to lock onto in time as the drops fall. Once you have manual focus set up the rest is easy. What I do to catch the action is watch carefully the drop as it starts to fall from the ziploc baggie. Shooting when its in the air so by the time your human reaction has come into play and the shutter is released, the flash goes off, hopefully in that fraction of a second the drop has fallen and you capture a portion of its cycle. It takes a while to get the rhythmn but its easy after that happens. You can almost pick what you want, a crown, a column, a column with drop, etc. You might even try it with a prop such as a spoon. A background can be anything. For the colorful look I taped up some hologramic christmas paper. And the simplest thing was just dripping milk onto a dark dish. Have to wipe the dish after each drop. Messy. By the way when dripping and your lens is close, be sure to clean it often.


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## Bynx

Compaq I can see by your first pic your shutter speed was slower than 1/250 due to the trail on the bottom of the 3 little balls of water flying up in the top right of your pic. All in all a nice capture. You just marginally missed the column of water. Better luck next time. For water color I used whatever I have around, printer ink or food dye. Covering the flash with colored plastic works too. The water reflects whatever is in front of it like hanging up xmas paper or colored material.


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## Olga_pv

Thank you again, I am going to have another try today 

P.S. Shot with Christmas paper is great :thumbup:


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## Compaq

I admit it, I added colour in photoshop 

And Bynx, not quite correct 

==============================
ISO-400
f/5.6
1/1000th of a second
==============================

I had a pretty quick continuous dripping of droplets, that's why I got that big air bubble with smaller bubbles inside. My brother and I changed turns on actually squeezing out water from the hanging plastic bag to get boost the speed of it. I positioned the bowl of water right next to a window to get plenty of natural light. I own no flash, so this was the best I could do.


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## Bynx

Compaq you got a nice tail trail from the ball of water as it moved up. My trail was a little shorter and I used 1/250 sec shutter speed so I figured yours was a little slower than that. Ah, what do I know. Ive been at it again and getting really frustrated. I have never ever achieved the umbrella shot. When I do that I will retire. You want to have your water dripping in exactly the same spot every time. Squeezing the bag wont do that. Just let it drip. I might go to a place like Edmund Scientific and get a flask with drippers. You can control the drip rate. Then control the height and it should all come together. Its a lot of fun considering you dont need much equipment, but I guess to do it right you have to get some better control. Which means equipment. Here is a shot I call Escape Velocity.


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## Compaq

haha, a good dream, Bynx!

I read on here somewhere that two droplets in close succession will create some weird results. I'm seeing in my head that the first drop makes that stalk (in lack of a better word) and when the second drop hits on top of that, it will splash out and create that mushroomy top roof. I'm not sure if this is correct. If it is, it'll be a b**** to time, I'd guess?


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## Olga_pv

Bynx said:


> Here is a shot I call Escape Velocity.



Nice, it looks like a flying drop


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## jake337

I would think shutterspeed should be determined by the amount of ambient you have and if it is causing motion blur or not.

This shot was a 1 second exposure.


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## Olga_pv

111 by Olga_pv, on Flickr




112 by Olga_pv, on Flickr


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## MTVision

Olga_pv said:
			
		

> Here and here are my drops   (Flickr, cannot post it here, sorry)



On flickr go to share then grab the link. Make sure you get the bbcode. Copy and paste here. Then the picture will show up.


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## Olga_pv

*MTVision*
Thank you!!!


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## 90AWDSM

More of mine

IIRC

ISO-100
Aperture F6
Shutter 1/250 (Fastest Flash Sync)
Pop-Up Flash


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## Olga_pv

I did it again  Water drops are my favorite models now 




P1050185 by Olga_pv, on Flickr




P1050176 by Olga_pv, on Flickr


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## mrmills4

Olga_pv, I like the top green water drop. Pretty much perfect! Has anyone done this but been aware of what the droplets reflect? I guess what I'm asking has anyone set up a white curtain or a solid background around/behind the camera so the water droplets don't pick up a reflection of the room?? I think that might bring these to the next level Olga.


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## skieur

Slow down the drops by using glycerine or a baby oil mix! 

skieur


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## jwbryson1

Here is a useful video which might be helpful for this project.


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## mangtarn

i photograph water polo so these tips are of particular interest to me. good job! :thumbup:


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## Compaq

Ohh God, I've watched many videos by that guy. His tips are great, but his voice and dialect is just like a train putting on the emergency breaks..


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## ryanwaff

I havent done water drop photography in a while, but here are a few of my images from when i last did some 

















My setup included a baking tray filled with water, the water in both the tray and the dropper i added some green food colouring to, to add some interest.
For the background I placed coloured paper against the wall with a SB-600 flash set to slave. Camera used was a D-90, lens Nikkor 18 - 200mm VR. for a dropper i used an upturned coke bottle with a hole in the lid, balanced on a wooden spoon with a hole in the middle to allow for the water to drip through. To increase the rate of flow from the bottle, i made another hole at the top of the bottle and covered it with prestik. If you uncover the hole, the drip rate increases, cover it up and it slows down. Focusing, i used manual focus, placing my finger in the water where the drops were. Some one asked about lighting, one time i didnt have my flash and instead used two lamps aimed at my background for the reflections of the water, then i used another lamp aimed at the dripping water along with my cameras built in flash set to 1/2 power in commander mode. ( a hint with the flash. dont use TTL, because generally it reads your image as being to dark and as a result you will end up with blown highlights)

Hope this helps  if you have any more questions, i am more than willing to answer


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## studioCRAFT

love the tips.  thanks!


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## tissa

Natural light, no flash, no set up background - a bowl and a glass on a table


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## shrayash29

my first try!


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## FireDiva

Thank you all for your suggestions, this will help a great deal, terri and Bynx you've explained shooting water in a way that's understandable, the books I've read made it sound so confusing. BTW your shots are amazing.


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## Bynx

One thing I have discovered recently that the elusive umbrella shot cannot be done manually but is in fact done by a machine called a StopShot. It allows either one drop or two drops to fall, the time between the two drops can be set. You can control the height but the rest is automatic. When the drop(s) fall through an IR sensor which triggers the flash and camera to fire.


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## sm4him

I somehow have never seen this thread, but I'd seen the video jwbryson posted in a different thread some time ago, and used it to practice doing this. Since then, I've made a few adjustments to my technique (and in the process, turned my dining room table into a studio...good thing I live alone!).

But now I've got some great new ideas, based on some of the tips in this thread, especially some of the tips Bynx mentions, like the depth of the water and speed of the drip.  So now I'm itching to give it another go!


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## kundalini

Oh man!  I had a fairly long explaination of the process I went through to take water drop shots but TPF timed me out TWICE when I tried to submit the reply.  Since this is a dedicated thread for water drop shots, I'll come back and edit this post later, but for now I'll just show the setup shots and some results.  

Setup shot #1.....

























Setup shot #2.....






Some results.....




















..


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