# Some water drops



## Smokinloads (Oct 24, 2012)

Would appreciate some C & C please (particularly 3 - does the colour work, is it a bit 'washed out' in the reflection area?)

1.




2.




3.




Thanks


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## tirediron (Oct 24, 2012)

Can't say I'm overly fond of the colour in #3, but #1 has to have the best form of any water-drop I've seen in a LONG time!

Could you share some of your technique?


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## swiftparkour94 (Oct 24, 2012)

I love 1 and 2! Technique?


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## pictureperfekt (Oct 24, 2012)

great reflections on 1 & 2.


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## Smokinloads (Oct 24, 2012)

Sure, happy to share.
There is a little electronic wizzardry required if you don't want to be throwing away 999 of every 1000 shots.
Even with it, I took around 3-400 in this set, of which I have hung on to 69 as potential 'keepers', with no.1 above being the best so far. (I'm about a 3rd of the way through editing)
So, starting from the top, I made myself a dropper resevoir out of an old coke bottle, some pvc tubing and some barb connectors. I turned it into a Marriott syphon - this is important, as it regulates the head of water in your dropper resevoir (if you don't regulate the head, as you continue through your shoot, the pressure changes and therefore the size of eachdrop reduces over time - this affects your timing).
The resevoir feeds into a solenoid valve - this is a small electronically controlled valve that is normally closed, but can be opened for very precise lengths of time.
I made myself a little electronic circuit to control the valve and attached it to an Arduino programmable microcontroller board, which I programmed to do the... controlling 
This combination enables me to release two drops of water very precisely timed.
Water dropping into a pool has some amazing effects - first you get a crown, then it goes flat again, but the drop that just landed is still moving under the surface and eventually 'bounces' back out of the water in a column. If you time your second drop very very precisely, you can get it to collide with the first drop as it is on it's way back up. This produces the 'umbrella' effect.
NB the timing needs to be accurate to between 2 and 5 milliseconds.
To get the timing for your second drop, start with one drop and take shots increasing in 5ms intervals, noting the time when the drop passes where you want the collision to occur and the time when it bounces to the same height. If both your drops are the same size, they will take the same amount of time to arrive at the same point. Do some maths and you can work out how much time to delay between releasing your first and second drop.
(note temperature and atmospheric conditions affect the timing, so what worked one day doesn't always work the next).
So that explains how to make the water do it.
Then you have to get the camera to capture it.
The first thing to note... Your shutter isn't fast or accurate enough.
You have to open your shutter and use your flash to 'freeze' the motion.
The second thing to note is that at full power, your flash stays on for too long.
I find that 1/64 is good enough, 1/128 is better... but you will need 2 or three to deliver the light because of the third thing.
The third thing is that these things are small and you are close.. meaning your DoF is tiny.
To get acceptable DoF, you need to be f14 or higher... which plays havoc with the need for very fast flash.
Everything else is artistic abandonment... 
For all the shots above, I had red food dye in the resevoir, dropping into a black baking tray that I had spray painted matt black and filled with approx 95% water and 5% whole milk.
The rest of the colouring is 100% gels on the speedlights.
I built a second electronic circuit to trigger my camera (using an adapted shutter release cable) - Be very very careful if you do this, I will not be held responsible for you frying your camera - I used opto-isolators to ensure that there was absolutely no electrical crossover between the timer circuits and the trigger.
The timer program also then triggers the MUP and takes the shot at the precise time.
I have some wireless triggers on my speedlights, so that enables me to get a bit creative with the lighting angles - i find hand holding the flashes and moving them around, checking the results every 2-3 shots to see what looks to be working is a good approach.
For the reflection, some light from behind is necessary - this needs to be diffused. Some people use acid etched glass to do that (and when I can get my hands on some, I probably will too), but for now, I use a flat white diffuser to bounce a rear flash off.
Something to note is that because your shutter is open longer than you'd like, ideally you have ot work in the dark.. which can be fun - especially when you accidentally kick your tripod and have to set the whole dam thing up again...
There is between 30 mins and an hour of PP for each shot, taking out stray water drops (of which there are lots usually), tidying up occasional bubbles, noise reduction, etc.
This I hasten to add would probably be faster if I was better at it


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## Smokinloads (Oct 24, 2012)

Sorry - i tried to put spaces in that wall of text above, but it wouldn't let me


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## Smokinloads (Oct 24, 2012)

Here's another from the same set and one from a previous day, which better show extremes of lighting i get by moving and hand holding the flash

4.





5.


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## 4meandthem (Oct 24, 2012)

Best drop shots I have seen.


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## FanBoy (Oct 24, 2012)

I'm not much in macro photography, but I love your water drop shots--very professional. You must have a lot of patience for this kind of work!


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## swiftparkour94 (Oct 24, 2012)

Amazing. This is rocket science to me, I have no where near that dedication of time to get shots of water like this. I'll stick to my traditional-like method lol


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## Mully (Oct 24, 2012)

Great work ...I would like to see the images a little more natural maybe with a blue water cast.


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## TenaciousTins (Oct 25, 2012)

Oh my...these are far from the run of the mill water drop pictures...I am in love...I would happily look through all several hundred of your shots and not get bored. Thanks for sharing! I love the last two, and the first one is my favorite.


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## Smokinloads (Oct 25, 2012)

Thanks for the great feedback. 

I going to try to do a set with clear water (no milk) this weekend, if I get chance.

Will post a few here if there are any keepers


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## myvinyl333 (Oct 25, 2012)

Smokinloads said:


> Here's another from the same set and one from a previous day, which better show extremes of lighting i get by moving and hand holding the flash
> 
> 4.
> 
> ...



Your images are phenomenal. Those featured above are my favorite.  Thank you for sharing your work visually as well as providing information. BRAVO!


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## Frequency (Oct 26, 2012)

I am speechless :hail:


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## ceejtank (Oct 26, 2012)

Fantastic shots.


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## PlanetStarbucks (Oct 26, 2012)

Nice shot, bro.  Thanks for the explanation...I always wondered how to get the flat top water thing.


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## kundalini (Oct 26, 2012)

Not your typical drop shots.  Very nice.  Thanks for sharing.


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## mikefisher1304 (Oct 26, 2012)

just breath taking. great work


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