# Little Fresh Drops



## Nicolas Alary (Oct 31, 2007)

Hi guys ! 

I'm really new on this forum and I'm already asking for tips ! Shame on me ! Anyway I was wondering how the Product Photographer were creating those little drops of water sliding on the side of fresh can and bottles ? Is it simple water with special technic or a special product looking like water but working better with this kind of pictures ? Is it post processed on photoshop ?

Thanks for bringing your lights on this ! 

Nicolas


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## Joxby (Oct 31, 2007)

I think its special wet water, only found in the taps of people who pay their water bills..

lullz, seriously tho, I've seen acrylic blocks used as fake ice but I've never seen fake water droplets, thats not to say they dont exist, I just haven't seen any.


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## Alpha (Oct 31, 2007)

It's not water, it's usually glycerine or a mix of glycerine and water.


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## Nicolas Alary (Oct 31, 2007)

Excellent ! Thank you guys ! Glycerine ? Is this the same glycerine as the one you can find in the nitro glycerine ! Do you have to go in a special store to buy some ? Thanks again for the precious advice !


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## Alpha (Oct 31, 2007)

In the US, you can purchase glycerine at the drug store/pharmacy. Perhaps you can also find it there in Paris.

As for the chemistry, glycerine and nitroglycerine are similar, but different. Nitroglycerine, as you might guess, is in plain terms glycerine with nitrogen on it.

Both compounds have three carbons and three oxygens as a backbone. Glycerine looks like this: 





The OH's make it an alcohol. That's why it's also known at glycerol. Or if you're a real chemistry geek, propane-1,2,3-triol (Three carbons means propane. It has alcohol substituents on carbons 1, 2, and 3. And since there are three alcohol substituents, it's called a "triol" (three alcohol) ). 

Nitroglycerine looks like this:




As you can see, the backbone is the same. Three carbons and three oxygens. But this time, instead of hydrogens attached to the oxygens, there are NO2 substituents called nitrates. Hence, the proper name for nitroglycerine is propane-1,2,3-triyl trinitrate.


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## xfloggingkylex (Nov 1, 2007)

MaxBloom said:


> In the US, you can purchase glycerine at the drug store/pharmacy. Perhaps you can also find it there in Paris.
> 
> As for the chemistry, glycerine and nitroglycerine are similar, but different. Nitroglycerine, as you might guess, is in plain terms glycerine with nitrogen on it.
> 
> ...


 

 way to much information. haha


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## Alpha (Nov 1, 2007)

A little organic chemistry goes a looooooooong way in the darkroom.


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## Nicolas Alary (Nov 1, 2007)

Wow !! Thank you very much for this detailed explaination ! I'll have a look for glycerine around here ! At least I'm sure that I'm not going to blow up my living room ! Thank you again for those precious info ! 

Can I pull the string a little bit more ? 

- Have you ever used it to create droplets ?
- Do you have to handle it in a special way ?
- Am I supposed to spray it on the bottle or do I have to put the whole bottle in the mix ?
- If I'm bothering you with all these questions maybe you have a link explaining all that ? 

Anyway, thank you for your time and sharing your skills !

Nicolas


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## Alpha (Nov 1, 2007)

Glycerine is very viscous (thick) and very sticky. It doesn't require any special handling except that you wash your hands so as not to get it on your gear. Yes, I've used it before, though only on people's skin. Make a 50/50 mixture of glycerine and water in a spray bottle and give it a try. You can try combinations of more glycerine/less water or the other way around in order to get the consistency the way you want. If there's too much glycerine in the mixture, then the spray bottle will clog.


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## Helen B (Nov 1, 2007)

A lot of the things you see in good food and drink photography are not what they seem. Pouring drinks are rigid plastic, ice cubes are hand-carved acrylic, the splash is created by a jet of compressed air, that inviting glow from the beer is not from the beer but from a small gold card behind the beer...

(I don't want to give the impression that I am an expert food photographer - but one of my friends is. I've directed or shot a few beer and restaurant commercials but they were motion pictures so pours had to be pours and people had to eat some of the food.)


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## Alpha (Nov 1, 2007)

I've also heard that the "milk" in cereal shots tends to be glue or something similar, in order to preserve the super white-ness and keep the cereal floating on top.


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## Nicolas Alary (Nov 1, 2007)

Priceless info !! Thank you very much ! I just bought the Sigma 50mm f2.8 EX Macro lens and I'm getting all the stuff to build an home made Light Box ! I'll post the result here as soon as I get a pleasant result ! Thanks again for your help !


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## Flash Harry (Nov 1, 2007)

There's a million tricks in food fotos, the thing is to make it look really fresh, when selecting your subject pick only the most fresh produce and look for the prettiest shapes, heartlike for strawberries etc, set it up n shoot it quick it soon deteriorates under lighting. Cooked food shots are usually very quick cooked on the outside only to keep their shape, properly cooked food goes very saggy/unpalatable looking very quickly, photographers employ stylists to create the dishes, we create the shot. H


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