emellin66

things within a thing topped with a thing and drops placed on the thing

things within a thing topped with a thing and drops placed on the thing

Light painting photograph. A long exposure of a hand-held light show between a boxed mirror configuration and a pane of glass covered with water droplets. No po...
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Light painting photograph. A long exposure of a hand-held light show between a boxed mirror configuration and a pane of glass covered with water droplets. No post-processing enhancements-Photoshopping has been used.
Read less

NIKON D3000

settings

Aperture f/14.0 ISO 100 Shutter 10/10

upload_date

Apr, 2012

Views

1007

Likes

+23

Awards

Zenith Award

Legendary Award

Staff Favorite

Outstanding Creativity

+15

Superb Composition

Top Choice

Absolute Masterpiece

Exceptional Contrast

Peer Award

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

love the title and the photo of all the things! Well done!

This is wicked cool! I love the colors and the detail! Wonderful work! This would make a really nice screen saver!

I'm making this a favorite!

Wow. Congrats on your award!

congrats

Congrats on award

Congrats

Amazing effect, superb, congrats. Top choise & fav

PRO+

Great Job. Do you use Armour all to help get the droplets like that. I have a hard time getting nicely shaped droplets like you did. I wonder if it is because I am using plexi glass instead of real glass.

this is awesome! Great creativity!

See all

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

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Behind The Lens

Location

Obviously, this photo is not a landscape, at least from this planet. This photo was taken in the kitchen in my apartment.

Time

It is a long exposure light painting, and it was a completely dark setting where all natural and ambient light was blocked out.

Lighting

The lighting is the key here, as well as the setting. A pane of glass covered with water drops was placed above a 5-sided mirror configuration. Inside the mirror, I placed multiple color strands of El-Wire and light-up toys. Due to the many layers of reflections, a terrific light show was produced and captured inside the water drops.

Equipment

The set up was the most difficult part. I tried many different light-up configurations, different distances between the glass and mirrors and the critical piece, using Rain-X on the glass to get nicely rounded droplets. For this shot, I used a regular macro lens for the close up of water drops. At that time, I was using my very first DSLR camera I ever bought, a Nikon d3000. It was a long exposure, so the camera was mounted on a tripod and no flash. I used a remote shutter release, a critical piece of equipment to prevent shake.

Inspiration

It was winter and so cold that going outside was not going to happen for me. I live in NYC and with space in my tiny apartment at a premium, if I was going to take a photograph, it would have to be of a smaller scale. At that time, I had seen a photo of a waterdrops over M&M's, and I thought, how cool would it be if I did a light painting with waterdrops? Many interations later, this was the best shot I got out of a few days of winter hibernation.

Editing

There is absolutely no post-processing of any kind. This is the image straight out of the camera.

In my camera bag

I currently am shooting with a Nikon d800. My bag has a few lenses. One macro, one zoom, one fish-eye and one prime portrait lens. My bag also is chuck full of a variety of light sources from lasers and light-up toy gizmos, to a suite of flashlights of varying lumen output and color filters. In fact, I spend much more time obsessing about my lighting tools than I do with my camera and lenses. I guess that is what makes me a typical light painter.

Feedback

Water droplet shots are fun to do, just have a towel ready and a lot of patience. It took lots of trial and error to get this shot, but it was well worth the effort. Rain-X on the glass is critical. It assures that you will have nice, round beads of water. Spray the glass with a pump hair-spray bottle or perfume atomizer. Why? Those misting sprays generate lots of tiny droplets and with each spray, they get gradually larger until you are satisfied with how they look. El-Wire hates getting wet, so be sure that you are careful to not get the wire wet or it will cease to work. That said, a tiny tiny drop of water is OK. Experiment with a regular water droplet shot before adding a long-exposure/light painting element to the shot. That way you are not terribly frustrated.

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emellin66

emellin66

things within a thing topped with a thing and drops placed on the thing

Light painting photograph. A long exposure of a hand-held light show between a boxed mirror configuration and a pane of glass covered with water droplets. No po... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow emellin66

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Light painting photograph. A long exposure of a hand-held light show between a boxed mirror configuration and a pane of glass covered with water droplets. No po...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.