# Water Droplet noob



## weags77 (Sep 17, 2013)

Hi all this is my third go at some water droplet photography. Pretty basic setup with a plastic bag dripping into pan. Camera setup is Tokina 100mm macro with off camera sb400 flash. Still need to work on DOF but thought they were on the right track. Would love some C&C or tips. Thanks. 

PS quality not that good I had to download from Facebook onto phone instead of direct upload. 





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## GDHLEWIS (Sep 17, 2013)

Good start, took me at least 5 attempts to similar results. I was going around the whole process badly but such is life.
Try getting a multi-colored background and shoot the flash at that instead of the droplet normally adds some color to the droplet and surrounding water, also I have found darker dishes / pans are better than light ones.
GDHLEWIS Gallery - The Photo Forum Photo Gallery
you can find a few of my efforts via the link. 

Keep it up and enjoy


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## weags77 (Sep 17, 2013)

Thank you. I was firing the flash all over the place haha just trying to see the different results. I will try the dark pan, most of the tutorials I see use them too. This was just with a white baking pan and the results weren't exactly what I was hoping for. 

I tried looking at the link, but couldn't click on the individual photos. Were those your 3 droplets that almost looked like umbrellas ? Very cool if they were. Any tips to get that affect ? Most of mine are just the big drops or the splash variety. 

Thanks again, these a fun to play with and will be key to scratching the itch come winter when I don't get out as much.


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## GDHLEWIS (Sep 17, 2013)

To get the umbrella looking ones you will need to increase the drop rate. I use a medical pipet to get my drops, found that way you can increase drop rate. Try using milk as well the thicker liquids can be a little more easier to work with than water. Also play around with food coloring can get some interesting effects. I also watched and read god knows how many tutorials and even tho I took away something from every one of them in the end I found it far more satisfying to just play around and learn as I go. If you have the money you can buy proper equipment for this sort of photography but you will be spending around 400+USD for it. Attempted to beg the wife for one but lost the battle . . . for now 

If you can get colored plastics instead of papers as they obviously reflect the colors better. 

The collisions (umbrellas) took me roughly 300 shots to capture and found that milk was better for that purpose alone, I generally put my camera on a two second timer and once the last beep goes I start squirting liquid from the pipet. will need roughly 10 drops a second give or take (not an exact science) to capture a collision. Gels over the flash can add a lot of color as well.


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## weags77 (Sep 17, 2013)

Awesome man thank you for all that info. I don't see me having any luck convincing my woman to spend that kinda money so I can drop water into a pan either haha. So ill stick with improvising. Kinda more fun that way, in a way. 

Ill try the milk and definitely food coloring. Gonna have to make a run to the craft store too for some other stuff too it looks like. I was just using colored paper and scrapbook pages. Never in a million years did I think I'd be so excited to go to a craft store but hey haha


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## Nervine (Sep 18, 2013)

I recently updated my rig for waterdrop shots. It consists of a retort stand/boss head and arm to hold my water dripping system. For my drops i have used a 250ml bottle of water, made a 3mil diameter hole and inserted about 5cm of 3ml plastic tube and on the end i have a valve i bought from hardware shop for about $1. I can open close the valve to obtain faster/slower drops. This is probably my 3rd/4th time attempting these. Ill post my first collision. I know it's not great and background is distracting however i started trying retractions in the drops.

My next step is to play with colored cellophane paper and milk drops, I also recently bought an iv kit with regulator and will try that when it comes. Like Gdhlewis said its better to play and experiment.


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## Olympus E300 (Sep 21, 2013)

I really dig the orange colored one with the tiny orb floating top-right of center.  It reminds me of the planet saturn for some reason.  Then again, I may be crazy... Either way, I really like that particular shot!  Well done!!


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## fotofinish (Sep 25, 2013)

I like the first one and the orange one best. The orange one would be even better if the droplet was larger.

I am sure you are going to surprise us with many more great shots.


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## badrano (Sep 26, 2013)

Really cool shots!

What shutter mode are you using? Continuous?

I made some attempts with water drops a few months back, but lighting was my biggest problem.  Now I have a flash, so I guess it's time to try again


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## weags77 (Sep 27, 2013)

Thanks for the compliments guys. I liked the orange one best too I think. It came about the time I started playing with my flash and actually saw some progress with reflection of the background in the water. I too like the bigger droplets usually but kinda liked the black hole swallowing the tiny drop with this one. 

Will hopefully find some time this week to give it another go with a better setup using some of the tips given in this thread. 

And yes I was using continuous shutter. Wish I was good enough to time it but these things are tricky. And my setup is definitely less than optimal. So I took the blind fire approach haha. Which can actually be more fun as you really don't know what exactly you've got until you go to process. 

I will post some more here when I get to taking some more. Glad you enjoyed and I appreciate the tips and compliments !


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## Gavjenks (Sep 27, 2013)

If you want different drop shapes, then you need to have different fluid mechanics at work. Vary any and all of the following things:

1) Drop rate
2) Surface tension (big one!). Oil or alcohol or slightly soapy water will look significantly different than water. Probably more "ropey." If you really got super into it (and followed very strict safety precautions!), mercury would be an interesting option, too.
3) Immiscible liquids. I.e. drop oil into water or vice versa, etc.
4) Density. Adding sugar is probably the easiest way to increase density without dramatically influencing surface tension. 2 parts sugar to one part water dissolved can be almost twice as dense as water, which will obviously affect the splash characteristics. Glycerine is also significantly heavier, but not as much. Hexane (you can buy it on amazon) is reasonably safe.. use ventilation, but its density is about 65% that of water. It is extremely hydrophobic, too (see #2)
5) Temperature of the liquid
6) Velocity of the drops
7) Size of the drops (Somewhat conflated with the above. depends on things like hole diameter and rate and surface tension)
8) The drop and the liquid being dropped into having different surface tensions / temperatures / densities
9) As mentioned, different colors or opacities (milk)

Extremely dangerous options:
10) OVERsaturating the liquid with something like sugar can give it dramatically different properties. For the highest super saturations, heat water very carefully with sugar in pyrex narrow mouthed containers, and prepare safety-wise for the possibility of super hot boiling sugar liquid to explode (i.e. goggles + don't stand nearby or use a microwave, etc.). Possibility of instant crystal formation upon droplet impact, if you do it right (or drop something other than plan clean water, like charcoal or pumice)
11) OVER heating the liquid (same deal but intentionally going closer to the explosion point). Possibility of triggering explosion with a drop of water or dropped nucleation site (little bit of activated charcoal or pumice)
12) The aforementioned mercury.  Even obtaining it legally would be rather difficult (lots of small amounts), and you have to always use it outdoors with multiple redundant splash and drop catching systems, plenty of personal protection, pipettes to suck up the drops that spill by submerging them in water, etc. etc.


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## weags77 (Sep 28, 2013)

Wow thank you Gavjenks for all this info !! While I don't understand or won't try half of it (I.e the dangerous stuff) this is a wealth of information and possibilities. Can't thank you enough as you've saved me and hopefully others much time and effort trying to find this on our own. Really appreciate it.


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