# Milk Drops



## Buckster

Canon 40D, Sigma 180 EX Macro, f/22, two 580EX II strobes @ 1/64 power each during 2 second exposure.

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2





3





 With colored gels over the speedlights:

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5





6





7


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## Mango

fantastic! #7 is the best!


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## Derrel

Harold would be proud of you!


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## robertwsimpson

SICK! (in a good way!)


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## nrois02

wow thats really awesome!


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## Buckster

Thank you kindly for the encouraging words everyone!


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## citjet

Wow those are terrific!  

As a side note, #5 has small drops that look like the big dipper.


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## Buckster

citjet said:


> Wow those are terrific!
> 
> As a side note, #5 has small drops that look like the big dipper.


Wow, cool!  I didn't even notice that!    Thanks for the kind words too!


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## pez

Wow, these are awesome! :thumbup::thumbup:


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## mooimeisie

Wow. Great job.


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## iolair

Love them ... the kind of thing that would be nice to buy as a poster print.


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## Buckster

iolair said:


> Love them ... the kind of thing that would be nice to buy as a poster print.


Just let me know which one(s) and I'll put it/them up in my store for you and throw you a link.  You can get it on prints, posters, murals, postcards, postage stamps, mouse pads, stationary, coffee cups, beer steins, t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, shoes, skateboards, even doggie sweaters.


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## Bellaboo

Wow, love them all, but I think I like the first one the best!


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## UUilliam

#5 or #7 would be awesome!!!! on a skateboard btw..


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## v-dubber

number 6

def my favorite


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## DReali

Very cool!!!! wish i had a macro lens now 
Did you use skimmed or whole?


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## DReali

#5 has been nominated for POM


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## Ancike

Wow, I love them!


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## Buckster

DReali said:


> Very cool!!!! wish i had a macro lens now
> Did you use skimmed or whole?


2% 



DReali said:


> #5 has been nominated for POM


Wow!  Thank you kindly!


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## JohnnyL

Wow! I like the colors in #5 best.

Do you mind telling me how you took these photos? I always though you just wait behind your camera and click as soon as you see the splash but you did it with a 2 second shutter speed?


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## Buckster

JohnnyL said:


> Wow! I like the colors in #5 best.
> 
> Do you mind telling me how you took these photos? I always though you just wait behind your camera and click as soon as you see the splash but you did it with a 2 second shutter speed?


Thanks for the kind words!

On the "how to" side, the thing to remember is that a flash is a lot faster than a shutter, especially if the flash is very close to the subject and set to a low output.  So, in a darkened room, with the shutter open, triggering the flash at the time of the splash produces these shots.

The other thing is that I want a deep enough DOF to get all of the splash in focus, if possible.  Anyone who's done any macro work knows that DOF is the biggest hurdle to overcome.  Well, that means I'm going to be stopping down my Sigma 180 EX macro lens to it's macro sweet spot of f/22.  When I do that, shutter speed is automatically going to be too long to get anything but a blur - unless I disregard shutter speed altogether and use the speed of the flash instead.

So I dim the lights, open up the shutter speed to two seconds, and let it work for me, by giving me the time to drip a drop, trigger the event, and time it precisely for the splash-down, or rather, splash UP!  

There are two basic ways to time that flash and splash with the event.  One is to fire the flash manually over and over and over as you have your drops dripping, and you'll get one here and there that's usable.  The other way is to set up a trigger / timer, which is what I used.

Trigger / timers can react to sound, light, pressure or the breaking of a beam of light, including laser or IR beam.  The devices can be bought or built from do it yourself kits found on the internet.  I put together an IR beam trigger from a kit bought on the internet to do the triggering and a timing circuit to trigger the flash at .x seconds after the drip passes between the IR transmitter and receiver.

I bought my DIY trigger/timer circuit kit online from HiViz.  Here's a shot of a test I did when I first built it with two strobes (upper left and right) fired by the newly constructed circuit:







When I break the IR beam with the Sharpie (or anything else), the trigger fires, delayed by an adjustable amount of time, up to one second.

The photo itself was taken by holding the camera with my other hand only - no other support at all, during a two second long exposure (EXIF included for those interested).  Even with the very long shutter time, It's not blurry at all because it was in a darkened room and a tight aperture, so without the strobes it would have just been a picture of black nothing.  The strobes were each set to just 1/128 power, for lightning-fast exposure, which was one of the major points of building the circuit - no flash sync requirement with the camera itself.  The other was to get a precise adjustable delay time between trigger and fire that I can control.

*Now for the platform and liquid drop delivery system.*

The platform is a paint-stirring stick found in the barn with a metal "L" bracket Gorilla-glued on so I can temp clamp it to a light stand with the orange-grip clamp.  I cut a hole in the stick to let the drops pass through.






Two clothespins glued to it allow me to reposition the IR LEDs as needed or remove and use them completely apart from this rig to use in other applications.






It can be powered from a 9v battery or a power supply.  I'm using the power supply and the battery option is just a backup option.






The liquid drop delivery is done with this child's medicine dropper.  I get no drips until I decide I'm ready for it.  Then a little squeeze, and I have the control I want when I want it.  It's held in place by a re-purposed wire coat hangar.  






I've attached it to one of my photo light stands, which lets me adjust it up and down to fine tune the time it takes between when the drop passes between the IR LEDs and the time it hits the target, in addition to the electronic time control.






Hope that's helpful to you, and that we'll soon be seeing some high-speed stop action photos from you too!


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## DReali

All I can say is wow....you sir are a genius, i have no idea what any of the above is but the mere fact that you went through all that to photograph MILK is beyond me....you deserve no less than a POM nomination!


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## Buckster

DReali said:


> All I can say is wow....you sir are a genius, i have no idea what any of the above is but the mere fact that you went through all that to photograph MILK is beyond me....you deserve no less than a POM nomination!


LOL!  Well, thanks for the kind words, and the nomination!  I'd reserve "genius" for the folks that pioneered this stuff, especially Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton.  Me, I'm more aptly described as a photography nut who's obsessed enough to go a few extra steps in order to get some interesting shots!


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## mooimeisie

You deserve an extra thank you for going to all the work showing us your set up, thank you.


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## JohnnyL

Yup! Thanks for going through the trouble and posting up the steps!


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## unimix

One more alternative: Splash photoeffect.


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## boogschd




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## MTVision

These are awesome! I love the colored ones. Great job!


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## Buckster

MTVision said:


> These are awesome! I love the colored ones. Great job!


Thank you kindly!


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## shootermcgavin

Wow that set up is amazing, I really love the pictures also.  For some reason I'm disappointed that they aren't in water, like my mind says wait what's going on.  At first glance I didn't notice.  I never thought there was so much to water drop photography but I guess if you want to get the really great shot you don't want to be going for 1 out of 10 or 100 I don't know how hard it is to catch it myself.  I thank you much for sharing your knowledge with the world!  You've inspired me and I'm going to give it a shot, hopefully later I will have some images that are not pitch black.


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## Buckster

shootermcgavin said:


> Wow that set up is amazing, I really love the pictures also.


Thank you kindly!



shootermcgavin said:


> For some reason I'm disappointed that they aren't in water, like my mind says wait what's going on.  At first glance I didn't notice.


You could simulate it by filling the dish just enough to fill the frame with a liquid base, but still very, very shallow to cause the crown.



shootermcgavin said:


> I never thought there was so much to water drop photography but I guess if you want to get the really great shot you don't want to be going for 1 out of 10 or 100 I don't know how hard it is to catch it myself.


Well, like they say, timing is everything.  lol.  I started out by just using the steady drip, drip, drip of a tiny pinhole in a plastic baggie with water in it hung over the setup, then you just sort of count along with it as it splashes into the base, 1, 2, 3, SNAP - and you hit the shutter (remote trigger is even better).  That got me some results, but as you said, it's a bit hit or miss.  Some results from that baggie method are the last 4 shots in this post: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photo-themes/213063-watography-playing-water-2.html#post2006400

From there, I decided I wanted more control, so I put together the rig above, and that worked really well to get a consistent shot every time.

Then, I wanted even MORE control, including the ability to get two drips colliding with each other, which is what's going on in my other thread.  To do that, I got a more sophisticated trigger timing and liquid valve system setup these days, and it's really outstanding for this sort of thing.



shootermcgavin said:


> I thank you much for sharing your knowledge with the world!


Always glad to help if I can!



shootermcgavin said:


> You've inspired me and I'm going to give it a shot, hopefully later I will have some images that are not pitch black.


Looking forward to it!  Have fun!


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