# Water drop photography



## advan (Feb 15, 2013)

This is something I've been looking into lately. It looks like it would be a lot fun and a huge challenge!

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/10/28/shooting-high-speed-water-drop-photos-from-start-to-finish/

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## grayzone (Feb 15, 2013)

that was a very cool vid. Looks like its quite a process, but the end results are actually pretty interesting.  The images look great.
I bet with a bit of practice your pics could be awesome, and have us all amazed... but whats new about that?

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## advan (Feb 15, 2013)

Thanks for the confidence Steven! I've been talking to Michael about this for a bit and he has started experimenting. I'll let him post some pics he's shot. 

Some more awesome shots. --> Clicky

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## papilio (Feb 15, 2013)

Wow where's you find this vid Chad?  Love it!!

Markus Reugels is user _Maianer_ on flickr ... his photostream is at -->  http://www.flickr.com/photos/maianer/




Here are some shots of the _easy_ part -- when the drop leaves the dripper. 

I jammed the bottom half of a pen casing through a hole in the bottom of a tupperware bowl, sealing it in place with a little modeling clay.  Once the bowl is filled you will of course just get a solid little stream of water flowing through the pen, but loosely stuff a small wad of paper towel into the top end of the pen and adjust it until you're getting drips (about 2 to 3 per second is best ... faster than that and the tiny secondary drop doesn't form).

Improvise any way to suspend this bowl about a foot off the table (with a catch-bowl beneath).  Just set up the camera on its tripod and focus on the tip of the dripper (pen tip).  Some focusing tweaks will be necessary once beginning to capture shots of the drops.  A remote shutter control is a big help as it avoids having to touch and potentially move the camera body off-focus.

Even though it's straightforward to capture the drop as it breaks away, it happens much too quickly to intentionally capture every time.  Just click the shutter at about the time it's ready to drip and a few shots will end up showing something interesting.    In getting these images I took about 300 shots, doing my best each time to have the flash go off just as the drop was breaking away, but the best I could manage was about 25 images which showed a nice formation of some sort.

These were shot with a bouquet of flowers on the table just six inches or so behind the dripper, providing both a colorful background and something nice for the drops to refract.















p.s.  Try it with milk too!  

---------- Post added 02-15-2013 at 04:22 PM ----------

Thanks for another great link Chad!  So where are _your_ water shots??  :biggrin:

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## grayzone (Feb 15, 2013)

YEP... huge fan already haha. You guys sure capture awesome stuff. 

Im a huge fan of lava lamps (i could stare at one for hours) and that is sort of what the drops look like when theyre photographed as stationary droplets. I also like the mushroom look too, when they impact with the water below.. 


What would be awesome is to maybe snap photos of messing around with mercury. I know its poisionous if ingested or handled, but if done carfully it would be awesome to see the liquid "separating/splitting" 

I used to have some of the necklaces containing silver mercury (got them in mexico) and discovered how cool it looks when one of the glass neclace vial dropped onto the floor.

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## zonbonzovi (Feb 15, 2013)

What would you guys say is a minimum shutter speed to attempt capture of the droplets falling let alone the moment of intersection with another drop/surface?


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## papilio (Feb 15, 2013)

Right Steven, Lava Lamps exhibit precisely the same hydrodynamic forces at work.    If you've ever seen any slow-motion movies of water drops, they'd remind you even more of that lovely 70s icon!  

---------- Post added 02-15-2013 at 04:50 PM ----------




zonbonzovi said:


> What would you guys say is a minimum shutter speed to attempt capture of the droplets falling let alone the moment of intersection with another drop/surface?


Shutter speed isn't important as it's the extremely short burst of the flash which feezes the drop in place.  There's still a bit of motion blur evident this way, try shooting high-speed synch to really get the images sharp.  (I haven't tried this yet but it should help.)

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## advan (Feb 15, 2013)

papilio said:
			
		

> So where are your water shots??


I haven't started yet, I will try some tomorrow. Here's a shot I took while messing with shutter speeds a few months back that sparked my interest.

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## papilio (Feb 15, 2013)

Yeah that's the one I meant.

The formations you've got going on there are amazing!

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## Formerphobe (Feb 15, 2013)

Water is amazing stuff anyway.  Great pics, you guys!

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## hamhock 74 (Feb 15, 2013)

Be water, my friends.


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## papilio (Feb 16, 2013)

These are fun!

zonbonzovi, I was wrong about using High-speed synch for the flash ... I hadn't thought it through, that would actually make it worse.  Even when using the strobe in normal mode I couldn't come close to freezing the motion of the drops as they approached the splash pool, just elongated blurs.  Turned out that the trick is to go manual on the strobe and turn the power down to 1/64 which reduces the burst duration and freezes the motion beautifully.

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## advan (Feb 16, 2013)

Insane shots Michael! :clap: I don't think I can compete! :worship:

Here are my first attempts, so be nice. 

Set-up






Shots












Blue painters tape over the slave flash












Blue tape on flash and orange food dye added to the water in the dropper.

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## papilio (Feb 16, 2013)

A baby medicine dropper?  You're just kidding, right Chad??  LOL

No automatic water feed, I can't imagine how you did it.   


I love the orange and blue shots!! 




Def better than my own first attempts from last night, before I figured out the strobe thing and came up with a different way to illuminate the scene.  These all show the bad motion blur caused by having the strobe set at full-power flashes ...








---------- Post added 02-16-2013 at 02:25 PM ----------

Apparently there's no way to do the really cool colliding drops photos without an electronic trigger such as this  -> The Mumford Time Machine.

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## advan (Feb 16, 2013)

papilio said:


> A baby medicine dropper?  You're just kidding, right Chad??  LOL
> 
> No automatic water feed, I can't imagine how you did it.


Yep! Hehe I have the timer set on the camera and right before the shutter is released I squeeze! It took me a while to get timing right! 




			
				papilio said:
			
		

> Apparently there's no way to do the really cool colliding drops photos without an electronic trigger such as this  -> The Mumford Time Machine.


That would be nice! I'm all about DIY, it feels better when you get that imagine then having a machine and timing system do all the work! It takes away from the challenge and fun!

Round 2

I ditched the tray I was using and used a blue glass cooking tray that gives off the blue tint to the water. I also moved the flash around and found if it is directly in front of the camera(on the other side of the tray) it gives almost a glass feel to the surface of the water.





































Color dye 





































Blue tape on flash for these next two


































































This was defiantly a fun little project to try out and a nice get away from shooting spiders!

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## grayzone (Feb 16, 2013)

yep.. those are bad ass chad.
for simple ideas, the payoff is great.

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## papilio (Feb 16, 2013)

Re: your technique ... SHOCK AND AWE Chad!    LOL  When your 'timing' is a mater of microseconds ... wow.  :worship:  Yet again your innate ability stuns, have to say it.  

As we both quickly figured out, illumination from the back makes all the difference. 


Same here, when I found out that those stunning shots of 'fluid sculpture' were the results of technogear and not skill/ingenuity, I lost interest pretty quick.  I'm pleased with the results I got as well as being impressed with yours, I'd say we've taken the manual approach about as far as it can go.  A most enjoyable little diversion, thanks Chad!    Pretty pictures, but ...




tough to beat shooting esoteric wildlife!  







p.s.  Sheesh ... having seen endless T photos I've shot, my dad takes one look at these drip pics and excitedly tells me that I've _GOT_ to enter them in the State Fair!!  

:wall:


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## mcluskyisms (Feb 17, 2013)

Nice thread! 

What kinda lens is best for this, Im assuming a good macro?


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## advan (Feb 17, 2013)

mcluskyisms said:


> Nice thread!
> 
> What kinda lens is best for this, Im assuming a good macro?


Thanks Chris! I used a 100mm macro but it isn't needed. When April came over we used her 50mm lens and it worked just as well. The key is having a external flash set to the lowest power so the flash duration is the shortest. Moving the flash around will give you much different lighting, so move it until your happy with the lighting.

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## mcluskyisms (Feb 17, 2013)

advan said:


> Thanks Chris! I used a 100mm macro but it isn't needed. When April came over we used her 50mm lens and it worked just as well. The key is having a external flash set to the lowest power so the flash duration is the shortest. Moving the flash around will give you much different lighting, so move it until your happy with the lighting.


Cool, I may have to have a go at that! Cheers.

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## AprilH (Feb 17, 2013)

A couple of my shots using my camera with Chad's setup:

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## papilio (Feb 17, 2013)

Pretty sweet April!    


I'm currently trying some shots with a paper-thin splash pool in order to get some nice crowns, some with milk ... dismal failures so far.  LOL  
I remember creating some beautiful ones in HS, getting too old to remember how I did it.  ::


p.s. #4 is my fave.


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## AprilH (Feb 17, 2013)

I made a Loch Ness Monster!

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## Shell (Feb 17, 2013)

opiate said:


> I made a Loch Ness Monster!


I was just about to comment with something similar! Very nice (and that's my fave of your pics  ).


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## papilio (Feb 18, 2013)

Before I closet my apparatus I wanted to show how nicely a water/milk mixture works with this.


(This first one is just an image I liked from when I was trying in vain to get some nice crown splashes ... I took about 300 shots without nailing a single splash!  







While not as dramatic as water drops, especially the wonderful way Chad lit his, milk has a charm too.

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## advan (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice shots April! Kinda of addicting isn't it? 

Awesome milk shots Michael! I think you should have a few cheerios floating around in the picture.

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## papilio (Feb 18, 2013)

advan said:


> Nice shots April! Kinda of addicting isn't it?
> 
> Awesome milk shots Michael! I think you should have a few cheerios floating around in the picture.


hehe  I think my choice would be lucky charms. 

VERY addicting!!  I thought I was done but I've been working on a whole new set all night!  A 30% addition of maple syrup. 


(My camera is SO sticky!  LOL)

---------- Post added 02-18-2013 at 09:09 AM ----------

Okay, so I had to work up another set, this time I added a 30% solution of maple syrup to increase the surface tension and viscosity.  It both makes the splashes more controlled and symmetrical and creates some interesting strings up by the dripper.

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## Anonymity82 (Feb 18, 2013)

Are you guys taking requests? 

Kool-aid

Skim milk VS Whole Milk

non-newtonian fluid. SPLAT

Nice shots!!!

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## papilio (Feb 18, 2013)

Thanks njnolan!  



Non-newtonian fluids are commonly added to the primary liquid in order to produce various desired effects, commonly shampoo rinse, soap, glycerine and sugar guam.  Some other as-yet untried non-newtonian materials might be silly putty ... or the _non-fictional_ oobleck and flubber!  

This project begs and screams _"experiment!!"_  LOL


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## advan (Feb 18, 2013)

Today I just experimented with different colored diffusing. All the liquid is plain old water, the coloring is coming from the flash. 


















































I had a few more ideas I wanted to try tonight but I forgot to charge my flash's batteries! Another day............

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## papilio (Feb 18, 2013)

OMG I'm on acid!  


Very cool Chad!    How did you get the multiple colors with a single flash?



[edit]  Ah, never mind ... I can see the diffuser refracted in the drops.

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## advan (Feb 18, 2013)

papilio said:


> OMG I'm on acid!
> 
> 
> Very cool Chad!    How did you get the multiple colors with a single flash?


Thanks Michael! Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters taught me how!

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## papilio (Feb 18, 2013)

advan said:


> Thanks Michael! Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters taught me how!


  hehe  nice!!


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## AprilH (Feb 18, 2013)

LOVE all the crazy colors! Those turned out great!

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## papilio (Feb 19, 2013)

I'm not at all interested in paying the big bucks for the electronic sensors and triggers required to get water drops to collide with foolproof accuracy, but some of the same interesting effects can be seen by smashing the falling drops onto any object ... in this case a screwdriver blade.  A 10% syrup mixture gave these shots that cool superstring effect.  

Since sharpness isn't really an issue here these were shot at f/32 to try to get everything in focus.



Alien water-mantis. 


































Fingernail splash! by _papilio, on Flickr

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## Anonymity82 (Feb 19, 2013)

Wow, awesome pictures. As awesome of these pictures are I must say it must look a little comical watching the photo shoot .

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## papilio (Feb 19, 2013)

njnolan1 said:


> Wow, awesome pictures. As awesome of these pictures are I must say it must look a little comical watching the photo shoot .


Thank you njnolan!  


LOL  I suspect you're right!  I'm always so absorbed in what I'm trying to do that I never think of how it must appear to an observer standing behind me ... nothing going on except my flash firing as wildly as it can without overheating!

It's probably about the same were someone to watch me shooting slings.    In either case, not really much to see until the computer reveals what's on the memory card!  Such is the fascination of shooting macro.

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## AprilH (Feb 19, 2013)

I like the fingernail shot. It looks kind of like an eye!  

Yeah, we're cool. I spent my Saturday night taking pictures of water.  he he

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## papilio (Feb 20, 2013)

opiate said:


> I like the fingernail shot. It looks kind of like an eye!


Thank you April!  

Yeah it does ... almost disturbingly so, appearing as it does to be dripping with fresh bodily fluids.  

...  



opiate said:


> Yeah, we're cool. I spent my Saturday night taking pictures of water.  he he


  

That's okay though, I think Pascal would be pleased.


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## Malhavoc's (Feb 20, 2013)

So, anyone manager to capture a fragment of memory in the drops yet? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_memory

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## papilio (Feb 20, 2013)

Malhavoc's said:


> So, anyone manager to capture a fragment of memory in the drops yet? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_memory


Hmmm ... next time I do some more pics I'll have to remember to interrogate the drops.   

I don't mean to scoff, your link reminded me a bit of some rather compelling studies done in Japan involving crystalline formation ... a statistically significant correlation was demonstrated indicating that the mood/well-being of the scientist or assistant growing the minerals was reflected in the degree of perfection of those crystals formed under their supervision.  I attended a lecture on this at Carleton College here in MN a few years back, pretty interesting.

Regardless, I'd certainly have to say that these water drops have very playful personalities!


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## Malhavoc's (Feb 22, 2013)

very interesting!

 I actualy just reread my link, and I think I may of incorrectly linked the wrong theorium! this is the one I was thinking of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILSyt_Hhbjg


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## grayzone (Feb 22, 2013)

You guys are freakin awesome.
I havent looked in on this thread since it was still at page 1. Im glad i did:biggrin: Between the lavalamp-esq comparison my mind makes to the drops/splash, and chads "fryin balls" photo shoot this thread reminds me of that store Spencers found in most malls haha.

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## advan (Feb 23, 2013)

Very nice Michael! I need to try some splatter shots! 

Tried some milk earlier this week. 

























I should really rename this thread to liquid photography.

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## papilio (Feb 23, 2013)

That first shot is the most perfect drop splash ever!  

Defiantly try some splatters, they're my favorite liquid sculpture forms so far and I love the pics I got of them.


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## advan (Mar 2, 2013)

papilio said:


> That first shot is the most perfect drop splash ever!
> 
> Defiantly try some splatters, they're my favorite liquid sculpture forms so far and I love the pics I got of them.


LOL Got lucky with that one! But I guess luck is how these shots turn out! 





































Probably my favorite because I finally got a decent reflection.

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## papilio (Mar 2, 2013)

I won't even ask how you got these.


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## le-thomas (Mar 2, 2013)

This has been a favorite photography genre of mine for a pretty long time. These are all fantastic!

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## advan (May 14, 2014)

It's been a rainy spring, not many chances for outdoor photography, so........

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## Tivia (May 15, 2014)

Wow, these are amazing!  I love how unique each one is and the colors/reflections are beautiful.  They look like miniature blown glass sculptures.  You have wonderful talent!

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## Eldric (May 15, 2014)

Love this thread. Let's see you do this with carbonated water now...

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