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This image was shot to produce a canvas for our new house… It's a simple splash shot with a twist!

This image was shot to produce a canvas for our new house… It's a simple splash shot with a twist!
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upload_dateSep, 2015

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High Speed Photography Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1

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1 Comment |
adavies PRO+
 
adavies October 05, 2016
Really cool! Great job! If you haven't done so already, please consider joining my Fun and Games challenge:)
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/fun-and-games-photo-challenge-by-adavies

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Tags

#water #splash #marbles #still life #high speed #macro
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Behind The Lens

Location

This image was created in my 'studio' otherwise known as my kitchen! By their very nature, close-up images don't require too much space to shoot and the results can be spectacular!

Time

With a day job and 2 children the only time of day I can easily shoot is in the evenings. However, this gives me a few hours of uninterrupted time to setup, refine and complete the shoot and tidy up afterwards.

Lighting

The lighting setup for this image is pretty simple and I used 2 cheap speedlights. The secret to shooting clear liquids is that they have to be backlit, so a white card was placed behind a fish tank. The other fact used in this image is that the surface of water (top or bottom) acts like a mirror when shot at low angles. One speed light was fitted with a blue gel to colour the lower portion of the background which is reflected onto the under surface of the water. The other was used bare to produce the white background. This setup produces light behind the splashes to freeze the motion but leaves the areas at the sides and in front of the splash dark and it is these areas that give the splashes the shadow areas that give them shape and definition. The marbles were simply dropped into the water by hand and the shutter released using a wireless remote. One flash was triggered using a Hahnel Combi TF flash trigger and the second flash was operated by optical slave.

Equipment

Fish tank, marbles, white card background, 2 x speed lights (1 with blue gel), Nikon D7000 on Manfrotto 190X tripod, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 ED/IF Micro, Hahnel Combi TF flash trigger, a sweet sense of timing and a dash of luck!

Inspiration

I set about creating this image to put in a recently decorated downstairs cloakroom. The final image is now proudly displayed as a 36"x24" canvas! I love the result and it often gets comments from visitors! I also just love high speed photography and harnessing the motion stopping power of flash to capture moments that cannot be appreciated with the naked eye!

Editing

The vast majority of the image was created in camera and post processing was limited to cleaning dust from the under surface of the water and any stray bubbles... oh, and obviously the image was inverted! A little contrast boost and sharpening and a slight vignette was the only other work that was required.

In my camera bag

I have 2 Nikon D7000s which I just love... they are so well built and have a real solid feel to them in the hand. The 16Mpixel images are more than sufficient for large prints and unless they get damaged I've no desire to upgrade to the 'latest & greatest' bodies just for the sake of it. I'm a firm believer that you should invest most of your spending on decent glass and have the following range of Nikkor lenses in my kitbag that allow me to shoot my favourite subjects; dynamic still life images and portraits: 17-55mm f/2.8, 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8, 85mm f/1.8, 105mm f/2.8 Micro, 70-200mm f/2.8 & a Lensbaby Composer Pro for quirky portraits!

Feedback

The whole concept behind this image relies on the fact that the surface of water acts like a mirror. Therefore, you have to work out the angles involved to get the camera just below the surface of the water looking upwards towards the undersurface. The lights are then positioned carefully to get the desired lighting and colouring - this part can be a little confusing as you have to think backwards when moving the lights! After that you just have to prefocus on a spot in the water and switch to manual focus and then be prepared for a lot of repetition and hone your hand eye co-ordination to get your timing spot on! When creating this image I probably shot over 100 images and around 10 of them had decent composition! It's all about experimentation and every image will be different and show an event that is impossible to see with the naked eye... so go on - get experimenting!

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