I am no professional by any means. I have a point and shoot camera, which I am learning the manual settings on. Recently, I have been practicing with water shots and using macro. In general I use SOOC, basically because I have not yet learned how to edit photographs. The pictures you see are some of the results from the playing with water and using macro settings. I will explain my learning process, so anyone who wants to achieve the same can save hours of fiddling, frustration , smacking heads off walls and battery life. I know the following photos are not perfect, but they are the best examples from over 700 photo's I captured, from hours and hours of adjusting things.
This was from my first attempts, I could see the crown, but realised there was too much 'noise' in the photo. This was just allowing the tap to drip onto the granite kitchen surface.
Still far too much 'noise' and the lighting from my flash is simply casting too much light. Using a roasting pan with the tap dripping.
Another attempt.. Placing a black t-shirt into the roasting pan.. The noise is now caused by using hot water instead of cold.. Simple but valuable lesson. The flash was making my life hell as well..
Slight adjustment to angle that I am shooting from.. But the background 'noise' is still there..
With some advice from David, I now changed tatics.. This shows the set-up I used to capture all 'rainbow' colours. At the rear is a kitchen tray with rainbow wrapping paper taped on. There is a desk lamp and another halogen lamp pointing at the rear rainbow tray. Below the tap is a matt black tray. My camera is set up to shoot in macro, I never used a tripod and hand held my camera at all times. The tripod was too cumbersome for me, as i constantly needed to wipe drips from my lens and needed to get up close and personal with the water drops. I taped a piece of card just under my flash, as I needed as much light as I could muster bouncing off the rainbow tray and not bouncing of the splash area. The rainbow pattern on the water is caused by the reflection of the wrapping paper.
Then with the main kitchen lights off, I sat for hours photographing the drips as they hit the tray of water beneath.
I originally set out to capture 'water crowns'
But water is so much more beautiful in many different ways
In order to achieve the above, the water needs to be slightly deeper within the catching tray.
In order to catch crowns, they are easier to achieve in a shallow filled tray, literally a very little covering of water, as you need the drip to bounce off the base of the tin.. This following photo was taken using a shallow tray with a foil lining.
My camera literally struggled to capture what I was trying to achieve. I am sure anyone who can get more fps and a faster shutter speed could achieve much better results than I managed. I do look forward to seeing some amazing results :o)
My water project is now complete. I really want to thank everyone who was patient with me during this experiment and commenting on my photos as I worked through the learning process.
On a saftey note, please be very careful when using lights / electrical equipment around water..
Thank you, and I hope this helps to explain the process..
@michelleyoung valuable lesson! has saved us many point and shoot owners a lot of time. I love your picture directly after the "set-up" one, I think that one and the second one with the rainbow are the very best!! Kudos on the determination for the endless hours of work!!
Michelle thank you for sharing, my absolute fav is picture 7. it's been Great seeing you progress and perfect the water shots, your hard work has paid off.
I'm going to try this out over the weekend.
You have shown us all what's possible with a point and shoot camera, I never imagined work of this quality would be possible..
I had to laugh when I saw this set up. I had done a water splash in a wine glass shot, and I posted this photo in my second album to share the directions. We have both shown that you don't need professional equipment to do water shots!!
Turned out like this.
@dcr Drew, I am hoping you will try this out.. I know how good you are with a macro lense, and you have a great camera, so I am certain you will produce amazing results :o)
@tori3012 Tori, I dont know how you put up with my little missions and more ot the point my frustrations at these missions lol xx Thank you so much huni for your continued support xx
@michelleyoung I still haven't mastered a water crown shot that I have been happy with. I try for about two hours until the left side of my face starts to have spasms from squinting while I take pictures, and then give up!! One of these days. :) You have inspired me to try again.
You are truly a God send! I have been trying to figure out water shots and not having much luck. Thank you for the very detailed explanation. That's amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your shots are beautiful!
@petersonsheri Sheri, go for it =o) @mcrenshaw66 Shelby, thank you for being so gracious with your comment :o) @miata2u Thank you Peggy, Have fun with it =o) @sueb Thank you Sue :)
Thank you so much. I just finish doing my water shots. I went to Wal-Mart just to buy a black pan and different color plastic-paper bag (planning to return it) haha. I couldn't get the crown picture. It was hard for me to control the water amount coming out of the faucet. How did you do make the water so deep? Was it the water control?
@calumpit Jon, for the crowns the water needs to be only just covering the base of the tray.. To go the alien looking things, the water was about an inch deep. The tap, I managed to set on a reasonable drip rate, fast but not too fast.. There was constant drips, approx about 1 every 2 seconds.
@michelleyoung 99% of my pictures where like the one below. I think i'll try again tomorrow and try to get crowns. I think I need to try a different angle. Maybe more of a 70 degree angle rather than 20 degree angle.
@michelleyoung Thank you so much for the tips! I tried this tonight using a similar set up (with a point and shoot as well), and about 2 hours later (plus a lot of trial & error), achieved this:
Fantastic. I've just asked you about water shots but I should have read this first as I think it covers all I need to have a go myself! Thankyou for sharing and inspiring.
Awesome. I'm really loving the "MacGuyver" vibe in here. As soon as school is done for the semester, I'm going to make a big mess in my kitchen. :) thanks
Wow, these are so awesome! I'm definitely going to be giving it a try - tonight, most likely. :) I especially like #6, even though it isn't a "crown" I just really love the color.
WOW - I have many photos similar to your first ones, but have yet to capture any like your later ones. I love it - amazing water shots!! Thank you SO much for the tips. I will have to try this again. It's been a lesson in frustration for me, but with your tips, I hope to improve. Thanks again!
A special big thanks to you Michelle for helping us all learn the water shots. I was not pointing my light on the paper, that made all the difference. Any other tips you have for us we all appreciate. Seeing it as clear as you lay it out really makes it easier for us who are learning.
You have explained this so nicely and simply! i have been wanting to try some water shots but all the info I had found required all sorts of things and equipment that I do not have. By following your method / instructions all I have to do is raid the cupboards. I hope to test this all out very soon :)
I have been hesitant to try water drops primarily due to the amount of setup needed, but I do like how almost everything used was in your house and easy to set up. Thank you.
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I'm going to try this out over the weekend.
You have shown us all what's possible with a point and shoot camera, I never imagined work of this quality would be possible..
Thanks for making the effort to write this up Shells. Stunning results. The rainbow effect is just awesome.
Certainly on my "to do" list.
Turned out like this.
@mcrenshaw66 Shelby, thank you for being so gracious with your comment :o)
@miata2u Thank you Peggy, Have fun with it =o)
@sueb Thank you Sue :)
@kebeni Kelli, Good luck!!!
@b_rock B Rock, have a go :)