dejongb
_MG_7657
Now, water drops. The hardest part is getting something to control the flow of water with. For the first ones I used an old fuel tank from one of my RC Airplanes. Yup, an RC plane fuel tank. The tank has two ports on it one for the output and a breather. Works well. I am now using an IV bag. My wife works at a vet clinic so I bought a full IV set; a bag of plain saline water and the hose and most important the little plastic thing that control the flow. NO NEEDLES. I cut a corner from the top of the IV bag so I could fill it with whatever fluid I want. I have mainly used water and milk. Milk makes a mess but its opaqueness is what makes it cool.
So, once you have a way to create a controlled water drop you can move on. I used a clear plastic rectangle container that a small toy car came in for the water to fall into. I wanted the container to be invisible as possible. I filled the container to the top. Suspended the water container from the light above the dining room table and set the camera on a tripod. On a chair directly across from the container but at least 5 feet away I set the backdrop. Sunny delight box, a cereal box, a bag of chips. Whatever I could find that would give a colorful backdrop. It is important to use a macro lens to get the background as blurry as possible.
I used a Sigma 150mm EX Macro lens.
I used my 430 ex flash and had the room well lit.
I used f8 and a shutter speed of 1/250-fastest sync speed of my camera.
Now the hard part is timing, let the water flow, in controlled drips and have at the shutter. Remember its digital so if you take 500 and only get a few keepers so be it. Its easy to delete the bad ones, re-fill the tank and shoot again.
The fun comes in getting the backdrop item to be in perfect focus in the water drop. Just move the backdrop closer or farther away to get the desired effect.
Most important part is to have fun, think about what is happening and don't worry if it takes a while to get it right. I spent all day long and countless gallons of fluid to get it right.
_MG_7657
Now, water drops. The hardest part is getting something to control the flow of water with. For the first ones I used an old fuel tank from one of my RC Airplanes. Yup, an RC plane fuel tank. The tank has two ports on it one for the output and a breather. Works well. I am now using an IV bag. My wife works at a vet clinic so I bought a full IV set; a bag of plain saline water and the hose and most important the little plastic thing that control the flow. NO NEEDLES. I cut a corner from the top of the IV bag so I could fill it with whatever fluid I want. I have mainly used water and milk. Milk makes a mess but its opaqueness is what makes it cool.
So, once you have a way to create a controlled water drop you can move on. I used a clear plastic rectangle container that a small toy car came in for the water to fall into. I wanted the container to be invisible as possible. I filled the container to the top. Suspended the water container from the light above the dining room table and set the camera on a tripod. On a chair directly across from the container but at least 5 feet away I set the backdrop. Sunny delight box, a cereal box, a bag of chips. Whatever I could find that would give a colorful backdrop. It is important to use a macro lens to get the background as blurry as possible.
I used a Sigma 150mm EX Macro lens.
I used my 430 ex flash and had the room well lit.
I used f8 and a shutter speed of 1/250-fastest sync speed of my camera.
Now the hard part is timing, let the water flow, in controlled drips and have at the shutter. Remember its digital so if you take 500 and only get a few keepers so be it. Its easy to delete the bad ones, re-fill the tank and shoot again.
The fun comes in getting the backdrop item to be in perfect focus in the water drop. Just move the backdrop closer or farther away to get the desired effect.
Most important part is to have fun, think about what is happening and don't worry if it takes a while to get it right. I spent all day long and countless gallons of fluid to get it right.