ronfritz
Senior Member
This could go on for a while but after going so long without posting any shots, hopefully nobody will mind too much.
Also included is the photo of the setup.
I used a Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro. I set it to manual and chose 1/320 and f10 to f13. Larger apertures such as f5.6 and f8 were tried but the depth of field just wasn't enough. You can see in the splash below that the focus point could have been moved back a smidge and I'd have gotten more of the splatter in focus.
Focusing was set to manual as well. To focus I started the drip and got the drip centered in the bowl. Then I laid a pencil or a knife across the bowl until it's edge bisected the path of the drop. Then I focused manually, took a few shots until I could get a few sample drops and zoomed in on them to see whether the focus needed to be adjusted closer or further. If I needed to adjust the focus, I didn't bother looking through view finder; rather I just nudged the focusing ring a little bit one way or the other.
Once it was all in focus, I increased the drip rate and started to hammer off the twelve shot sequences. That worked much better than trying to time the shutter release with the drop. I spent the better part of the day and took about 8,000 shots. From them I got probably 80 keepers....although I suppose if I counted the "near duplicates" that I discarded the number would be closer to 160. So figure about 50 shots per "keeper". Near the end I was trying hard to get a shot of two drops colliding which yields a sort of umbrella looking splatter. It's tough because one drop has to be bouncing up while the drop behind it is coming down....so about the only way I had to make sure that happened was to increase the drip rate and adjust the height of the drip above the water. I did not have much luck. I got a couple off center collisions but that was as close as I got.
Your lens is going to get wet so make sure you have a filter attached to it. Not too messy otherwise unless you use the fluid that comes in the IV drip bag...that isn't water in there and it's a little like spraying sugar water on your counter top and floor. If you do manage to scrounge up an IV drip bag, I'd suggest ditching the contents before you start. I cut a little hole at the top corner and used a funnel to refill it.
Also included is the photo of the setup.
- D300 on tripod oriented to portrait mode. I use an angle bracket but you could also just rotate the tripod head to the 90 degree position. The bracket is nice because it keeps the camera centered over the tripod and reduces the likelihood of tipping over.
- Corded shutter release
- SB-800 connected via a Nikon SC-29 TTL Coiled Remote Cord
- IV drip bag or plastic bag. IV drip is nice because you can turn it off and on and can vary the drip rate.
- Some way of hanging the drip bag over the water basin. I used a boom that is for positioning a portrait reflector. If you look up water drop photo, you will find all kinds of contraptions that have been rigged to hold the water bag.
- I used three bowls for this run. The large bowl catches the over flow. The blue bowl is simply there to give it some height. The glass bowl is full of water to it's rim.
- Background. I Googled "psychedelic photoshop" and found a easy lesson then printed the result and taped it to a box. I printed a swirly one and the one you see in the photo.
I used a Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro. I set it to manual and chose 1/320 and f10 to f13. Larger apertures such as f5.6 and f8 were tried but the depth of field just wasn't enough. You can see in the splash below that the focus point could have been moved back a smidge and I'd have gotten more of the splatter in focus.
Focusing was set to manual as well. To focus I started the drip and got the drip centered in the bowl. Then I laid a pencil or a knife across the bowl until it's edge bisected the path of the drop. Then I focused manually, took a few shots until I could get a few sample drops and zoomed in on them to see whether the focus needed to be adjusted closer or further. If I needed to adjust the focus, I didn't bother looking through view finder; rather I just nudged the focusing ring a little bit one way or the other.
Once it was all in focus, I increased the drip rate and started to hammer off the twelve shot sequences. That worked much better than trying to time the shutter release with the drop. I spent the better part of the day and took about 8,000 shots. From them I got probably 80 keepers....although I suppose if I counted the "near duplicates" that I discarded the number would be closer to 160. So figure about 50 shots per "keeper". Near the end I was trying hard to get a shot of two drops colliding which yields a sort of umbrella looking splatter. It's tough because one drop has to be bouncing up while the drop behind it is coming down....so about the only way I had to make sure that happened was to increase the drip rate and adjust the height of the drip above the water. I did not have much luck. I got a couple off center collisions but that was as close as I got.
Your lens is going to get wet so make sure you have a filter attached to it. Not too messy otherwise unless you use the fluid that comes in the IV drip bag...that isn't water in there and it's a little like spraying sugar water on your counter top and floor. If you do manage to scrounge up an IV drip bag, I'd suggest ditching the contents before you start. I cut a little hole at the top corner and used a funnel to refill it.
