I have been wondering how to do the cool water crowns with a nice background, and it's in good focus! Any tips or pictures that you could share with me would be wonderful, since i'm wanting to try it! When I try, it's either blurry, or the bowl makes it too light... :( Please give any advice! Thanks!
To get it in focus you need to focus before you take the shot and then turn off auto focus. For me, I'll usually float something on top of the water where I expect to drop the water and then focus on that. When it's in good focus i turn the camera to manual focus so it's locked in. Then from there I drop the water in the same spot I focused earlier and in theory it should b e in perfect focus.
Keep in mind this only works if you are using a stable setup, such as the camera on a tripod so that the distance/perspective doesn't change. Also keep in mind that the wider the aperture, the shallower the DOF. This can cause part of the drop to be in focus while the ripples aren't, etc. So you'd ideally like to stop down the lens if you can to ensure most of the drop is in sharp focus.
I've done a few water drop shoots, but want to try one with a cool background reflection. Might be a good project for my son and I next week. I'll get him to paint me something I can use.
I just use a big cooking pan and plastic baggy with a hole poked in it hanging over. Not quite as fancy, but it works for me :) to help with the focus on the droplet i just stuck the end of a chopstick or something where the drop was landing to give it something to focus on..of course Jeremy's way seems a lot better..haha
I have my camera on a tripod with my macro lens and my speedlite flash. For my background color I set up a small tray sitting upright with whatever thing I am using for color. Yes, I do use wrapping paper. I get the foil kind though so it can take the water. Then I have one of my tripods sitting on the table with a baggie of water and I poke a pinhole in the corner. I manually focus and I use a pencil and hold it on the outside of where the drop splashes up. For this shot I'm using a purple foil wrapping paper. I haven't done them in a while and I just got a remote flash trigger so I can't wait to try it.
@ehenry95 they all help me!! I especialy like this one cause it's not so high tech :) They all give me great ideas! Thanks for the help! I think I'm gonna try that one :o)
Thank you! My setup is a bit odd because I don't really have any fance gear. I use an old tripod and I clamp my baggie onto the handle and let it hang down over my pan of water. I used to clamp it to my table lamp that I use for extra light but this works better. That's one thing I forgot in my explanation is that I use a flexible table lamp and shine it on my background for more light. I'll have to take another picture of my setup the next time I do drops.
This is the tutorial I used for my water drop, but I do not have anything but the flash on the camera so I used a couple of lamps. This is the shot I managed to get.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y
I just used my sink, and an external strob pointed at the celing in my bathroom. yes you can tell its a sink and yeah it took me about 200 pictures to get this one, but hey it was fun and kept me expirementing
For mine I just use a plate to make the water shallow then use food coloring to dye the water the color I want it. Just have patience. I didnt use a tripod with mine, and flash will help (even if its on camera.)
This was taken with nothing more than a candle holder and my camera, no macro lens, no special lighting. My son dripped the water from above with an aromatherapy oil dropper. Just do a test shot to make sure you have a good focus and click away. The colour is from the candle holder, and im sure you can see my son in the droplet....Good luck xx @tigervolleyball
I treid with my DSLR a while ago...tripod set up, tap dripping etc, and ook about 500 shots and got a few decent ones. Then I tried with my P&S. On macro zoom, hand held and got more in focus than with my dslr. Tap dripping onto a cd.....
When i first started doing water drips & crowns, I took so much time and effort making sure lighting, background etc was perfect.. And yes all of that helps..
My recent ones, i threw the rule book kind of out the window on. I used a tripod, no pretty background, the flash was on the camera and not pointing in any fancy direction.. The colour was from food dye on a plate and that was it basically... here is the result:
The biggest key to them is getting your focus spot on especially your dof.. Here was a 'practice' shot that i took whilst using a pair of tweezer to ensure my target area was in focus.
Here is a drip i captured by just using natural light from the window behind. No flash and no background. The colour is a little food dye in the plate.
I would say, as long as you have your focus spot on in the target area, and your dof high enough, then you just need the tripod & flash.
By trial and error I eventually managed my shots with a blue tupperware box, a plastic bag suspended using a ruler held on a windowsill under a pot plant! The reflection of the wrapping paper placed behind I discovered more or less by mistake. There was something else there, and I realised how it reflected so went looking for something colourful to put there instead. I focused manually using my finger on the splash spot, took about 300 and got a few good ones. Although I was only happy enough with 4 to post them here!
I'm glad you started a thread - I've picked up a few tips for next time!
Enjoy!
I've never tried this. and maybe never will, but I love the shots you have all produced. It's fascinating reading about how (differently) you all did it and I love looking at your results!
Tweets ahoy!
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To get it in focus you need to focus before you take the shot and then turn off auto focus. For me, I'll usually float something on top of the water where I expect to drop the water and then focus on that. When it's in good focus i turn the camera to manual focus so it's locked in. Then from there I drop the water in the same spot I focused earlier and in theory it should b e in perfect focus.
Keep in mind this only works if you are using a stable setup, such as the camera on a tripod so that the distance/perspective doesn't change. Also keep in mind that the wider the aperture, the shallower the DOF. This can cause part of the drop to be in focus while the ripples aren't, etc. So you'd ideally like to stop down the lens if you can to ensure most of the drop is in sharp focus.
Here's the setup I used for that shot:
but heres the shot i got:
Here is an older one:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5551118&l=a844552a5b&id=657401851
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y
This was taken with nothing more than a candle holder and my camera, no macro lens, no special lighting. My son dripped the water from above with an aromatherapy oil dropper. Just do a test shot to make sure you have a good focus and click away. The colour is from the candle holder, and im sure you can see my son in the droplet....Good luck xx @tigervolleyball
With my dslr, tripod set up:
So it can be done with a P&S or DSLR. Much fun!
My recent ones, i threw the rule book kind of out the window on. I used a tripod, no pretty background, the flash was on the camera and not pointing in any fancy direction.. The colour was from food dye on a plate and that was it basically... here is the result:
The biggest key to them is getting your focus spot on especially your dof.. Here was a 'practice' shot that i took whilst using a pair of tweezer to ensure my target area was in focus.
Here is a drip i captured by just using natural light from the window behind. No flash and no background. The colour is a little food dye in the plate.
I would say, as long as you have your focus spot on in the target area, and your dof high enough, then you just need the tripod & flash.
Good luck x
I'm glad you started a thread - I've picked up a few tips for next time!
Enjoy!
Everyone's pictures are awesome, thanks for telling me how to do it! That might.. be my shot for today! we'll have to see!