NikonJin - the 100% free Nikon Forums

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Here are my setup/quick guide on how to take water drop pictures...
Please remember just like any kind of photography, there are many ways for you to take the same picture.. so the method i posted below is just what works quite well for me. Once you understand the basics, you can choose to do it in some other ways and use your own creativity to improve it.

What you need:
Camera (DSLR preferred)
Marco lens
External Flash (internal flash is probably okay. but you have less flexibitliy)
Tripod
A tray/bowl (to fill water)
A plastic bag and something that allows you to hang the bag above the tray.
Water
Wall
Pen
Time...

How to setup your camera:

[Basic]

1. Put your tray in front of a wall. Add water to tray. (Doesn't need to be too much, even 5mm is enough. You can also play with how much water you fill up your tray and it will give you different effect)

2. Mount the camera with the macro lens on a tripod.

3. Adjust the tripod so the camera is slightly above the tray, pointing towards the center of the tray.

4. If you have external camera flash with either wireless/wired remote connection, move the flash to one side of the camera, point it towards the wall.

5. Now the scary part, fill up a plastic bag with water. Mount it above the tray. Cut a very small hole at the bottom of the plastic bag so water start dripping from it. Make sure you don't end up pouring water onto your camera/lens/flash!!!

6 Adjust the tripod again so the position where the water drop falls onto the tray is at the center of the picture.

7 Now we need to adjust the focus. Your camera's autofocus won't work at all. So you'll need a bit of extra help here.. Put a pen on the tray so the tip of the pen is placed at where the water drop hits the tray. Now you can try either autofocus or manual focus again and it should work this time.


8. Camera settings: Manual mode, Aperture f/16, Shutter speed = your camera's max sync speed (normally 1/250sec) ISO 100 or 200.


9 Flash set to manual. Power1/8

10 Now you can start taking photo. You can either just press the shutter button at random time and hope you've captured the right moment. Or you can try predict when the water will drop onto the tray and press the button just before that. No matter which method you use, you still need a bit of luck to capture the perfect moment.

11 Take a few test shots, check the exposure/focus..etc. If the picture is too dark or too bright, adjust the flash power/ISO. You may also need to decrease the aperture to increase the depth of field. Just remember when you decrease the aperture size, you'll need a lot more light to get the same brightness

12. When everything setup properly, you can start taking photo. Take as many photos as you like. The more photo you take the higher chance you'll be able to capture some good photos!! Good Luck!



[Advance]

1. To get different colour, the easiest way is to adjust white balance. A lower K white balance setting will give you blueish colour photo. And higher k white balance setting will give you yellowish colour photo.
Of course the other way is to use some colour gel.

2. If you want more colours, you can try put something like a colourful magazine cover between the tray and the wall.

6. You can try replace the tray with something else for a different effect. Try a wine glass, or a fruit anything you want. you may get some really good results.

That is awesome! Love all the different colours too

That is very nice! Do you mind sharing how to setup for photo shoot like these?

yeah sure.. i'll post up my setup..etc here soon!

wow! very very nice!! waiting to know your setup!

added my setup to the first post!

(07-01-2009 08:35 AM)yellow15 Wrote: [ -> ]added my setup to the first post!

Awesome write up! How did you get the plastic bag to hang?

Nice thinking of putting the flashes on a bottle !

yellow15,
Thanks for the posting your techniques and write up on water drops. I've always wanted to try this. Outstanding work.

That's an awesome write-up. I will give it a try this weekend. I will try to post my results after.. to see how much I learnt from it.