Water drops are fun, but can be frustrating! My best advice would be to take time with your set up so it's just how you want it, that will make the process much easier. Also, a flash is essential, preferably an off-camera flash, but the attached flash will work, just not as well.
Here is my first attempt!
As you can see, it doesn't have quite the sharpest focus, but that's mostly because I don't have an off-camera flash. At least, I think that's why. I would be open to critique from someone who has mastered it! =)
p.s. the video I linked in my photo description was VERY helpful. Good luck!
Took this photo of a water drop yesterday, used a tripod for the first time doing this and i would say its a must. I usually use a macro lens but found that a zoom lens works best as you don't have to stand as close and it will keep the lens from getting wet. I also used a remote to trigger the shutter and it seems like the photos came out sharper. This video shows how to use a flash off camera but i don't own a flash trigger so i just left it attached on camera.
@svenskaflicka Looking at your photos, you have a Canon Powershot SX150 IS. Unfortunately this camera is not ideally suited to photographing water droplets -- it has a higher shutter lag (the time from pressing the shutter button to the photo being taken) than a DSLR, and also doesn't seem to have the ability to have an external flash fitted.
Neither of these facts mean it is impossible to take a good water droplet photograph, but they do make what is already a frustrating pastime even trickier. Expect to take many hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs to get a really good one.
There are lots of videos online which will give guidance on how to achieve these shots, and it's worth taking a look at them. As @allegresse has said, an off-camera flash is helpful but not essential. Even though your camera doesn't have a 'flash hotshoe', you may still be able to use off-camera flash -- you would need to find a flash gun with an optical trigger. This is a flash that will detect your camera's built-in flash firing, and immediately triggers itself. You can often pick up something on eBay for around £20 with the required functions.
My best water droplet shot is below. Bear in mind this took about 3 hours and well over 2,000 shots to achieve. This was taken using my 50D, mounted on a tripod and pointed at a tray. The flash was mounted behind the tray and triggered using a wireless trigger, with an orange gel fitted to give the image some colour. I used an aquarium valve and piping to control the water flow -- it's got a simple knob to adjust the drip rate. Again, I picked this up on eBay for under £5.
Don't get disheartened if you take 100 photos and don't manage to get a good droplet shot, it's much more luck-based than talent-based. Even just getting the drop to fall where you're pointing the camera is a pretty good achievement (as those who have tried this will know!) And when you get a good photo, it's such a good feeling!
@abirkill Thank you so much! I know that my camera is not really suited to this, but I think even just trying it would be fun. You had some really good advice, and I will be sure to try it out soon!
@svenskaflicka You're welcome! I guess my main recommendation would be getting a way to control the droplets and get them to always land in the same place, and to fix the camera to point there. So a tripod is essential, and some dropping mechanism (a pipette, a plastic bag with a tiny hole in the bottom, or similar) needs to be fixed above your target so that it can't move.
Once you can get the water droplets to land in the same place, fall when you want, and have the camera always pointing at them, the rest is just patience!
After that, the rest is open to your imagination. The depth of water the droplet falls into makes a big difference to how the droplet forms, food colouring can be added to the drop, the tray, or both to add colour, and you can use something other than water (milk and oil both have different 'viscosity' and will create different effects, and adding a very small amount of dishwasher rinse aid to water will also change how the droplets form significantly!
I've explored this type of photography and have gotten some good results. In short use a tripod, macro lens and off flash setup. You need an apparatus for dispensing the drop.You can use an eye dropper, etc but the drop sizes will be inconsistent. You can hang a bag of water and poke a pin hole in it. I build my own DIY system and use a electronic valve which is triggered manually.
With this type of photography the shutter speed isn't the thing to focus on but rather it's the flash output. Often I use a shutter of +1s and manually set the flash to 1/32 or better 1/64. At these power settings you're getting rather fast shutter like speeds - more than your camera can do (most likely). Fstop is f16 or smaller. Your live preview will be dark which an aperture setting like this. The other challenging part is focusing. I would recommend first determining where your drop is falling, use a fstop of 2.8 or 3, then place a pen or toothpick in the approx area and focus. Once you have focus in place then set your fstop to f16 or f22 Don't expect perfection as you'll probably have to tweak the focusing to get the shot right. Often for me it can take up to 25+ test shots to dial in the focus if I've had to set up everything from scratch. Positioning the flash is important as well. In short, you can do this but it will require from trial an error + googling! There are a ton of sites out there with advice. Ask if you have questions..... brian
This mine :)
I only have an entry level camera with an on camera flash.
I put my camera on a tripod then tied a plastic bag to my back drop stand. I place a Glass bowl on a stool with card under and behaind it, I the used a pin to prick the bag. I used manual focus and manual settings, you can view the settings in the exif info. I was there for about 2 hours trying to get the timing right with the droplets lol but is was so worth it! I also used a remote so I didn't shake my camera at all ;D
Best of luck!
@allegresse The video was really helpful! @brianl@grizzlysghost Thank you so much for all the good advice! All of these shots are beautiful, and I have some time today to mess around with it.
These are all gorgeous! I'm here to tell ya that anyone with a decent point-and-shoot can take water drop photos. Took a bunch with my Canon 450D DSLR this week, and then switched to my Olympus FE-370 point-and-shoot, set on incandescent lighting and ISO 64, and used the built-in flash. Here's the best of the bunch, taken at our bathroom sink!
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Here is my first attempt!
As you can see, it doesn't have quite the sharpest focus, but that's mostly because I don't have an off-camera flash. At least, I think that's why. I would be open to critique from someone who has mastered it! =)
p.s. the video I linked in my photo description was VERY helpful. Good luck!
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-photograph-water-drops-with-one.html
Neither of these facts mean it is impossible to take a good water droplet photograph, but they do make what is already a frustrating pastime even trickier. Expect to take many hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs to get a really good one.
There are lots of videos online which will give guidance on how to achieve these shots, and it's worth taking a look at them. As @allegresse has said, an off-camera flash is helpful but not essential. Even though your camera doesn't have a 'flash hotshoe', you may still be able to use off-camera flash -- you would need to find a flash gun with an optical trigger. This is a flash that will detect your camera's built-in flash firing, and immediately triggers itself. You can often pick up something on eBay for around £20 with the required functions.
My best water droplet shot is below. Bear in mind this took about 3 hours and well over 2,000 shots to achieve. This was taken using my 50D, mounted on a tripod and pointed at a tray. The flash was mounted behind the tray and triggered using a wireless trigger, with an orange gel fitted to give the image some colour. I used an aquarium valve and piping to control the water flow -- it's got a simple knob to adjust the drip rate. Again, I picked this up on eBay for under £5.
Don't get disheartened if you take 100 photos and don't manage to get a good droplet shot, it's much more luck-based than talent-based. Even just getting the drop to fall where you're pointing the camera is a pretty good achievement (as those who have tried this will know!) And when you get a good photo, it's such a good feeling!
Once you can get the water droplets to land in the same place, fall when you want, and have the camera always pointing at them, the rest is just patience!
After that, the rest is open to your imagination. The depth of water the droplet falls into makes a big difference to how the droplet forms, food colouring can be added to the drop, the tray, or both to add colour, and you can use something other than water (milk and oil both have different 'viscosity' and will create different effects, and adding a very small amount of dishwasher rinse aid to water will also change how the droplets form significantly!
With this type of photography the shutter speed isn't the thing to focus on but rather it's the flash output. Often I use a shutter of +1s and manually set the flash to 1/32 or better 1/64. At these power settings you're getting rather fast shutter like speeds - more than your camera can do (most likely). Fstop is f16 or smaller. Your live preview will be dark which an aperture setting like this. The other challenging part is focusing. I would recommend first determining where your drop is falling, use a fstop of 2.8 or 3, then place a pen or toothpick in the approx area and focus. Once you have focus in place then set your fstop to f16 or f22 Don't expect perfection as you'll probably have to tweak the focusing to get the shot right. Often for me it can take up to 25+ test shots to dial in the focus if I've had to set up everything from scratch. Positioning the flash is important as well. In short, you can do this but it will require from trial an error + googling! There are a ton of sites out there with advice. Ask if you have questions..... brian
This mine :)
I only have an entry level camera with an on camera flash.
I put my camera on a tripod then tied a plastic bag to my back drop stand. I place a Glass bowl on a stool with card under and behaind it, I the used a pin to prick the bag. I used manual focus and manual settings, you can view the settings in the exif info. I was there for about 2 hours trying to get the timing right with the droplets lol but is was so worth it! I also used a remote so I didn't shake my camera at all ;D
Best of luck!
I need to set it up better, use my tripod, get better lighting