[arrasleds]

OK guys! I got the idea to play around with some water photography since I now have a remote flash (F42), and wanted to share the results with you. These are (literally) my first tries, so be gentle on the feedback.

To do these, i set my A700 w/ 100mm macro on a tripod, and had a faucet dripping into a shallow plastic container. I moved the flash around, and introduced the color by putting color flash filters in the water under the drops (or sometimes putting the color on the flash itself).

If anyone has advice on how to get better shots, please let me know! I love experimenting.
Anyway, enjoy the photos!

#1


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#7


#8


#9

[RlUbQU3R]

these are very nice .[thumbup] what settings did you use ?

i was into liquid photography for a while too its a lot of fun but be careful things can get pretty messy

[truportodfa]

Most of them are a soft, and quite a few of them are crooked. Try coloring the water with food coloring instead of gelling the flash.

[saruxanset]

Number 9 is my favorite.

Good stuff sir.

[indianstory]

Most of them are a soft, and quite a few of them are crooked. Try coloring the water with food coloring instead of gelling the flash.

The sharpness I can agree on (something I will keep working on, as it was a personal disappointment.); when working so close with a macro lens, it is not easy to get everything in the DOF. The crookedness however, just comes from the way the drops were coming. The camera was leveled with a bubble level; the odd directions comes from the sink, and the drops sometimes getting thrown off to the left or right. I do need to get a better method of drop delivery (which will then let me use the food coloring.

Number 9 is my favorite.

Good stuff sir.

Thanks buddy! [thumbup]

[dHXaE2h9]

Most of them are a soft, and quite a few of them are crooked. Try coloring the water with food coloring instead of gelling the flash.

i agree with the soft part. thats why i was asking the settings. kinda wondering what aperture u were using. and yes try coloring the liquid not the flash with gels or stuff.


i am not a master of liquid photography but here is what i do:

1- i set a pretty small aperture (like f/8 or more cheapish lenses are usually very sharp around f/11) as ur using flash aperture and light shouldn't be much of an issue (this one is for ensuring sharpness of your subject).

2- expensive flashes are very nice BUT they even tho they can adjust power with TTL they lack vari-duration. thats why i got some very old vivitar 283 flashes moded for duration so i can pick between 1/800 up to 1/20000. (remember high speed shot with flash has nothing to do with the shutter speed so x-sync or high speed synch has nothing to do).

3- even if you are experiencing low contrast situation (clear water letting background color blend in too much) try to place a flash behind the subject at lower power like 1/16 or 1/8 with a diffuser. this also holds true for shooting smoke etc. (low contrast subjects). just the location of the flash changes with different types of subjects ie. smoke/liquid etc. (this one creates a hotspot on the backdrop as well, resulting in a contrast difference even with clear liquids infront of white backdrops).

4- manual focusing is a must. i am sure u already know that but, manual pre focusing on a liquid is very difficult as its pretty uniform and hard to focus even for human eye. so when you place your camera on the tripod, hold a little straw in the glass and let camera auto focus on it. then flick the switch to manual focus and ur ready for shooting.

5- oh and i of course always touch up the contrast a little bit with photoshop after.


here are a few of my liquid photography.

nothing special but just to show u can even shoot clear water and make it still visible clearly.










oh and one very very important thing ... if you are shooting with flashes. make absolutely SURE you are shooting in a dark place. well not completely dark but dark enough so when you set your aperture resulting photo without flash results in nearly black/dark. so only illuminated image is illuminated by the flashes own duration.




wohaaa!!!! 1/6400 and 1/5000 shutter speeds :-S

mine are only 1/160.

shutter speed has very little to do with shutter speed when ur shooting with flashes.