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headstandphotography
June 22, 2016
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was indoors with a Arduino based controller that uses timed signals to trigger the water drops, camera, and flash independently. The water was rasied with a homemade wooden frame and splashed into a bowl beneath. With correct timing, two water drops can intersect and create a midair splash. It takes a little experimentation to get just right, but once the correct timing is configured I set up the controller to shoot a few hundred drops, which I inspect later for any good ones.Time
This was from a session late afternoon or early evening, I had to cover the windows to get a dark environment.Lighting
This used several flashes with colored gels over them. The trick with this kind of capture is to get such a small slice of time you control the exposure with the flash, not the shutter. At the lowest setting (e.g. 1/128th) on flashes, the light might only fire for 1/20,000th of a second. Much faster than you can do with a shutter! So my controller will open the shutter, open the water valve twice, fire the flash, and then close the shutter, in that order. Because of the long actual shutter speed the studio environment needs to be dark. Good results can be made with shutter only, but will be much more susceptable to motion blur.Equipment
This was taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 180mm/f3.5 macro lens, on a tripod. The water drop setup was a homemade circuit and wooden frame and water reservoir.Inspiration
I am developing a camera controller that can, among other things, control timed water drops. This shot was the result of my very first iteration, using a breadboard and a lot of messy wires.Editing
This shot took fairly minimal post work. I cropped, tweaked the colors slightly, darkened the corners, sharpened a bit, and used a 'heal' tool to clean up some splatter in order to isolate the main two-drop collision.In my camera bag
While shots like this take a lot more setup and equipment than I would ever carry in my bag, the Canon 6D, Tamron 180mm/f3.5 macro lens, and tripod that I used are part of my standard carry. I also always have my Pentacon 135mm/f2.8 vintage lens, a set of extension tubes, and a Raynox macro filter.Feedback
These kinds of shots take careful setup and a lot of patience. Use (or make!) a drop controller that allows you to find the right settings, and then take a long series of unmanned shots. The results are endlessly different and the more photos you take the more you have to go through afterward looking for the diamond in the rough - but it can be worth it in the end. It's also a lot of fun finding shapes in the water!