The Comprehensive Water Drop Photography Guide
Not a long while ago the net was exploding with Corrie White's Fun with Water set on Flickr. Her control over those drops, their color and their timing was remarkable indeed.
This is why I am very exited to share Corrie's very extensive guide for water drops photography.
The guide is for all levels going explaining the setup, lights, optional use of a drip mechanism and post.
Equipment List
Starting with water drop photography is fairly easy, you need nothing more than a camera and a way to make drops. As with any craft, when you've exhausted the equipment you are using you can get more equipment and take it to the next level. Bear in mind, though that some of those amazing images were shot with nothing more than a camera and a tripod.
Here is what it come to in the end.
- Canon EOS 50D
- Speedlite 580EX ll
- Speedlite 430EX ll
- Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
- [optional] The Time Machine and Drip Kit
- Univeral Photo Timer and StopShot are other alternatives but
- Hiviz is the cheapest option if you are willing to toy around with electronics
- Camera Axe is yet another alternative, though not the cheapest
Manual Method
The first thing you will need to take care of is creating the drops. I started out photographing water drops using a turkey baster, which has a large drop, but is unstable and hard to control.
As I progressed, my main dropper became a medicine dropper which had a softer bulb and was more suitable for controlling the pressure for releasing drops.
The dropper was very well taped to a sturdy board so that it wouldn't move position when drops were released. I used the timer on the camera to open the shutter in 5 seconds. Just before the shutter opened I would release at least two drops in quick succession (about 7 - 10 per second).
The height of the distance between the tip of the dropper and the water level varies to control the shape and impact of the drops. I use anywhere between 30 and 60 cm.
Drip Kit Method
As I got even more involved with water drop photography I got a drip kit. This opened up a whole new world of water drops. I now have control over which type of drop I want (small/big) and am always pushing it to the limit to see what it can do.
With the Drip Kit I can also control the interval between drops, the size of the drop and the flash lag.
I always set it to release two drops. Even in the three drop splashes, the third drop is a result of the drip valve not closing fast enough when it's set for large drops. These three drop splashes are done with a short interval between drops, a large drop size and the flash lag is variable to get this splash in various stages of the splash.
It takes a lot of tweaking of the settings to get to the three drop splash. One of the problems with the larger drops is that the second one quite often falls slightly off center causing the crown to be tilted. I simply keep shooting until I get a horizontal one.
Stray drops can be a problem. It's the nature of water. Sometimes, though, the stray drops can make a splash more interesting. I do a lot of shots to get various splashes, but only keep the most interesting ones.
Lighting
When I first started out photographing water drops, I used only the built-in flash in the camera. A lot of the early ones on my "Fun with Water" set were done this way. I would use white cardboard behind and on the sides of the water container to reflect more light on the splash.
The more light you can get, the less noise you will have on the image. One very important key to freezing the action is to have your "Flash Exposure Compensation" on a very low setting. It is this low setting which will freeze the motion of the splash, not the exposure setting. If your setting is too high, you will end up with a blurred splash.
I now use two Speedlite flash guns, which are set to a power of 32 or 64 usually. Again, it is the low power which results in a very quick burst of light to freeze the droplets. I find this setting adequate to freeze the drop and yet give me enough light on the image.
Positioning of the flash guns vary with the type of lighting I want. Usually I have both behind the drop, one higher than the other to cover the surface of the water tray.
Directly behind the water tray, I use acid-etched glass with some extra plastic sheets to use as a light diffuser. This gives a nice soft overall light on the surface of the water and will result in a good reflection.
Sometimes I will have one flash behind the tray and one on the side. When I am using milk for the liquid, I will use a coloured plastic sheet behind the drip tray and have the flash guns set about 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in front of the splash site and directed partly at the backdrop for optimum light.
Colours
Colours in the drop liquid are from food dyes.
Colours for the background are from coloured plastic behind the tray, but usually, coloured gels on the flash guns. Gels are coloured plastic which can be bought at a camera shop, but are far less expensive when bought at the dollar store in the school supply department. These are cut to fit over the front of the flash gun and taped to the sides.
Also, mix the colours. For example, yellow food dye in the drop water and blue food dye in the water tray will give you a blue base, a yellow crown and a green stem. Experiment with colours.
Liquids and Additives
The liquids I use are water, milk, almond milk, cream or combinations of these. Milk is good for starting out with drops. It has a higher viscosity than water, making it easier to catch a well-formed umbrella splash. Almond milk is good, but leaves a grainy texture. Water is harder to work with because it has a lower viscosity and flows very quickly. Water is most dense at 4 degrees celcius, so it is better to use colder water (throw in some ice cubes).
With water I will use some additives. Rinse aid - just a couple of drops with give it some elasticity (also some bubble mess).
Dissolved sugar or syrup with thicken the water, but will also give the splash a mottled appearance.
A bit of glycerine added to the water helps a bit. I have used a clear household cleaning gel which will give you the long stringy droplets (like tendrils), but leaves a lot of bubbles in the water tray, so you have to blow them away between each drop (or clean up in photoshop).
Lately, I've been using some guar gum, a powder which is used to thicken liquids. Use only about 1/8th teaspoon in a cup of warm water, beat with a hand blender, cool and strain. This works well but is very lumpy and grainy so it needs to be strained well. I haven't been able to get the 3 drop splashes with plain water, therefore, I use an additive to slow down the movement. For the clearest drops pure water with a quick burst of light is best.
Camera Settings
Ideally, 100 is the best ISO setting. I use 200 to get the bit of extra light when I need it. There's often a fight with noise when you use dark backgrounds and high ISO settings.
Exposure varies. With the manual drops, I used an exposure of 1/250 to sync with the flash guns. I now use 0.5 seconds to compensate for the delay of the flash I need to have the shutter open for this length of time to catch the splash. This makes it necessary to have the room dimly lit.
Aperture is a tough one. I normally use f10.0 to f14.0 to get enough light yet not lose the focus on most of the splash. With a macro lens you normally won't get the whole of the splash in good focus, but one remedy is to back the camera up a bit and do a small crop later in editing.
Focusing Aids
I always use a Socket wrench shaft extender for focusing aid. This way I can release a drop into the center of this and focus on the outside to get most of the front of the drop in focus, which is my preference.
A lot of water drop artists use a serrated bread knife and I'm sure there are lots of other ideas for focusing.
One thing I like very much about the 50D camera is being able to use the Live View feature which enables me to zoom in up to 10 times and focus using the LCD screen.
Post-Editing
For enhancement, I usually boost the levels to brighten the image, clone out a few stray drops and unsightly bubbles in the water, and add a bit of sharpening or noise reduction when needed.
Notes
Patience, persistence, and perseverance are necessary qualities of a water drop photographer. Creativity is also very helpful.
Learn to understand drop behaviour and recognize the signs of various stages of a splash to help you get a good result.
Experiment and have fun !
Links Recap:
- Liquid Drop Art - Corrie White's site
- "How It's Done" & set-ups
- "Fun With Water" set
- The Time Machine and Drip Kit
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Comments
Corrie - the water drop photographer..
Oh, even without reading the text, I knew it must be corrie..
She is just an awesome water drop and double water drop photographer and her style is so unique..
Have to read it later..
Pascal
Just got my macro lens
Just got a 2.8 105mm Nikkor Macro lens so I'll definitely be trying this out later.
Thanks for sharing and the setup shots are really really useful. I've often wondered how shots like this are taken.
Bubbles!
Great article! Can someone make a bubble guide soon?
re: Bubbles
Whats is a bubble guide?
That would be for the bubble
That would be for the bubble as in the last picture.
I just did my first drops (milk in coffee) and put them on my blog. It was easier than I thought.
Jeff
Beautiful
These are quite inspiring images - a wonder to look at and a source of inspriration.
Bubbles !!!!
GREAT article
Thanks for the explanations on your set-ups
Nice photos too I love the colors :-)
best regards
AYRTON
Great post! Very useful and insightful
First of all, great pics, love how the color gradient works out. However, the more important comment is a big thank you for providing the info about water additives. Great stuff.
Regards,
http://reviews.davidleetong.com
Dave T
Amazing...
Thanks for this valuable sharing....I will try it..and I will be Patience, persistence, and perseverance,,,until I get the great waterdrops pictures...
Very good explanation
Thank you for this great tutorial. I learned a lot from it.
One thing I didn't get though - about focusing. I didn't understand why do you need socket wrench or serrated knife for focusing.
For focusing I would first focus my camera on the plane where the drop is going to fall, then switch to manual focus and start photographing. What am I missing here?
Bubbles
To make a water drop in a bubble, just use bubble mixture and add a drop or two of glycerine to add some life to it. Use a bubble wand, blow a bubble on to the water surface and move it around with your finger or blow it to where the drop is going to fall. You have a drop in a bubble !!
Re: Focusing
To Greg: With a macro lens I need to use manual focus, therefore, I need to prefocus before I shoot the drop. Personal preference with the socket tool. I like to see a little more than the central point this way. I should be using mirror lockup as well, because even the slightest movement with the macro lens will throw it slightly out of focus.
timing?
Great stuff. I did not understand from the article how you time when the shutter release to catch the drop. Is that just trial and error and guessing or is it automated with a sensor?
Timing
With the Drip Kit method, when I push the trigger to start the action, the shutter is opened instantly which means I need to have the exposure set to 0.5 to give me sufficient time to catch most splashes. With the manual method, I had the timer set to 5 seconds at which time I got used to sensing when the shutter would open for me to release the drops in time. At 1/250 exposure this was hit and miss most of the time.
Amazed!
Amazed by the shots...the color, reflection and background (and the timing also) are awesome! I always wondered how to shoot waterdrops...and I tried once also...but miserably failed....will try out with these tips definitely! :)
Want to Know Rule of Third?
Probably a stupid question
First of all, I would like to say "wonderful shots!". These are absolutely stunning. And a great tutorial too - I'm definitely inspired to start water drop photography.
My stupid question concerns the flashes - did you connect the second flash to the first flash with a PC cord? Or how do you get the two flashes to fire from the one flash port on the time machine? Thanks :)
Thanks, Julie. Not a stupid
Thanks, Julie. Not a stupid question. This is one of the things I had to solve. The 580EX II would not fire as master with the 430EX II as slave. They would only work if both of them were set as slaves. Also, the PC connections on the flash guns are the same as the one on the Time Machine, so I bought 3 flash cords, cut off the male ends (sorry, guys), and spliced them all together (wires inside are colour coded). I'm sure there's a much better method, but they didn't have any male to female adaptors in the store and I wanted it to work immediately, so this was the solution. Works perfectly !
Great Article
Amazing article. I've done some droplet photography and there were a lot of gems I didn't know about here like adjusting the viscosity of water. Brilliant!
One droplet trigger that you missed in your list was the Camera Axe. There's also a blog post about a valve sensor for the Camera Axe that is specifically designed for droplet photography.
[Disclaimer: I'm the creator of the Camera Axe, but it's a project of love since I open source all the hardware and software from the project.]
re: camera Axe
Of course, how could I miss that one.
Camera Axe added to the list
Excellent! Amazing Tips! My experience...
Well,
first of all sorry about my english, i'am a brazilian guy and my englishs is not so good. Second, I have to congratulate you for this amazing sit with bunch of tips that i really loved.
Well I's like to share my experience with the Splash effect. I have no professional camera (D-SLR or SLR) i have just a Finepix S5100 and S9100 from Fuji. And no flashes a part. Just the built in one. What I used to do to take same Splashes shoots was first, Put the camera as close as possible of the sink, after that I had to control de aperture of the tap until it release about 1 drop per second (yeah it sounds crazy, and it really was) So I Turned off all the lights, just let the minimun to find out the camera. I setted the camera to about 10 seconds speed. I was guided by the sound of the drops touchinf the bottom of the half full sink (about 1 drop per second) and when was about to hear the next drop I turned the lights on and off quickly, and so you have to just wait the camera shoot to turn on the lights again and take a look at the result.
So I have to agree that the Necessity is the mother of invention.
Best Regards,
Vinicius Machado
Magnífico tutorial
Gracias por compartir este magnífico tutorial.
Drip Shots
Looks like fun, wish I could afford all the gear.
Avoiding flash shadows
Hi Corrie
Great article and some stunning pictures.
I've been using CameraAxe with its "valve sensor" to shoot drop-on-drop collision pictures (to get the nice umbrella effect), but on almost every picture I'm missing the crispness that I see on your pictures. After reading your article a couple of times, I realised it could be flash shadows since pretty much everything else is eliminated (tripod for the camera, shooting in dark room, water on water, triggering via cameraaxe, iso 100, exposure 1 second).. The flash guns are Canon 550 EX II and both are set to 1/64 (I've tried both 1/32 or 1/128 as well), and I position one of them behind a translucent plastic tray (to shoot through) and other at 7 PM angle.
After reading your article, I tried reducing flash exposure compensation by 2 steps, but it didn't do anything for me... *sigh*
What else could I be doing better? Very exasperated at this stage...
Regards
Manav
Avoiding flash shadows
Manav, you didn't mention the type of lens you are using. It is very helpful to use a macro lens for this type of photography. Also, you should be using a remote or cable release to trigger the shutter. When you are using a plastic diffuser between the flash and the drop, it is better to have both flash guns behind the diffuser - the one close to the drop area doesn't really have a lot of effect this way unless you are working with milk. The power of your flash will work well at 1/64 or 1/32. If you use 1/32 then you can set your aperture for more depth of field.
Also, with with type of photography as with any other, there is a certain amount of post processing that needs to be done and sharpening is one of them. Most photographers use sharpening as a final step in editing. Without seeing the actual images of your drops, this is the best I can come up with right now.
Good luck, Corrie.
Hi Corrie Many thanks for
Hi Corrie
Many thanks for your reply.
I do use a remote trigger with CameraAxe and am using Canon 100mm f2.8 with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I'm going to try with both flashes behind the diffuser - see if that makes a difference.
I've uploaded some pictures on Flickr and marked you as a "friend" - so you should be able to see them and perhaps comment? You'd notice visible flash shadows..or perhaps I need to slow the water down by mixing some glycerine?
Thanks again
Manav
another camera &flash control tool
http://www.apcc.tk
DIY arduino based open source advanced photo camera control
CPU 16Mhz Atmega 328
84x48 graphic LCD with backlight
IR & Wire Photo camera trigger
2x Wire Flash Trigger
onboard light/sound sensor or 2x external sensor
2x digital IN/OUT
timelapes function
onboard RTC clock
onboard buzzer
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/APCC-Advanced-Photo-Camera-Control/194425487264052?sk=info
Wow stunning pictures. Can
Wow stunning pictures. Can you tell me where did you buy the time machine?
Could you also tell me what that thing in front of the flash is?
Markos, the Time Machine link
Markos, the Time Machine link is included in the "Equipment List" section.
The "thing" in front of the flash? You are probably referring to the frosted glass which is used to diffuse the light from the flash.
additives
I have purchased some guar gum and rinse aide, but unsure from the text which goes where? Should add guar gum to the drop dispenser and rinse aid to the tray? Great article. I have built the Camera Axe kit and have had immediate success at splashes, but now am looking for bigger action!
Keith
Additives
Keith, the guar gum is added to the drop mixture in the dispenser. Normally, a drop or two of rinse aid is added to the water tray to reduce the tension there. You can also use Xanthan gum. You need less, it lasts longer when you make a batch, and is easier to strain.
Stunning pictures
This is a really nice tutorial. I have been doing drop collisions for some time now and am still amazed by these pictures. One thing that I haven't been able to achieve is the reflection of the collision in the water below. I guess it is because my baking tray is not big enough to show the reflection without having its side wall behind the drop.
Stunning pictures
Yes, it is important that your water tray is long enough to accomodate the reflection. The one I normally use is at least 16 inches long. It is important that your splash is high enough to get past the ripple area of the drop zone. Also, make sure that your camera angle is as low as you can get it without showing the sides of the water tray. This is important for light and reflection.
Time Machine vs Stop Shot
Thanks Corrie for sharing your inspiration and information - a truly valuable resource. I'm debating between the Time Machine and Stop Shot kit and it looks like the Stop Shot is a better deal. Do you prefer one over the other based on feature sets or are they pretty much equivalent? Any advantages to the Time Machine as that is what it looks like you have in your setup?
Time Machine vs Stop Shot
Of course, I am biased in my preference of the Time Machine. I have been able to produce some unique results with it. I have also seen good results with the Stop Shot. In the end, I think it's what you can make it do for you. The one advantage of using a Time Machine is that is has several functions, such as time lapse photography, that you can do with this rig. I really don't know how versatile the StopShot is other than the timing for water drops, etc. I would have to do more research in this regard.
Why control shutter and flash separately?
Hi Corrie I want to thank you taking such fantastic photos and your detailed toturial. That really inspired me, I love these photos so much that I have purchase a set of Time Machine and Drop Kit from their maker Bryan Mumford to enter this field. After 4 weeks waiting I received them but he unwittingly switched my Time Machine with someone else's in the same batch (I've ordered a EL backlight function but it didn't have it), so I send it back and now waiting for it's return after Bryan's updating it.
I have a question for the shutter and flash control by Time Machine. Now I use Nikon DSLR and have a R1C1 flash kit which is composed by a wireless commander SU-800 (to attach on the camera hot shoe) and 2 small flash units SB-R200. Since the flash is controlled by the commander wirelessly and will fire right after the shutter is opened, so why can I just remain them on their position, manually set their flash powers, and just connect the camera to the Time Machine and set the shutter lag? So after I push the trigger to open the electric valve on the the drop kit, the shutter will open right on my lag setting on Time Machine, then the flashs fire, shutter close finally. Any problem in this thinking? I don't know why should we connect and set the shutter and flash separately on the Time Machine?
I'm just a newbie of this field, thank you if you have the answer of my question.
Hope you have a nice day!
Acon in Taiwan
Shutter and Flash Control
Thank you Acon. I am not familiar with the workings of the wireless commander with the Time Machine settings. There is no shutter lag on the machine, only a flash lag. Push the trigger button, the shutter opens and the flashes fire at the time you have set on the machine. You need to set your exposure long enough to allow for the flash lag. I'm sure Bryan has an explanation on a setting for wireless commander.
Thank you Corrie, I will try
Thank you Corrie, I will try when my Time Machine return to me. Maybe I'll post some pictures (if I get good ones).
Great advanced tips
I loved your shots. You were really able to do some amazing pictures by varying the lighting and liquids. Keep up the good work and I appreciate the photography tips here.
Where to get the suitable platic tray on internet?
Dear Mrs, Corrie White,
I got my Time Machine back (finally), it works fine. But I got a problem here. In Taiwan, you have no way to get a black plastic tray! Believe me, that's because black means death here and no manufacturer would produce black plastic tray here! We got red, blue, green, but no black ones. I tried to find a black one for a long time but failed.
So frustrated. I believe black is important to eliminate the interference of color of background project by the flash, is that right?
I tried to paint them to black but failed because plastic material seems don't adhere to paint very tight so the particles of paint would depart from it to the liqued. @_@
So, can you tell me where to buy the plastic you use in the photos on internet (I mean ebay or something)? I can't find suitable ones but only this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Plastic-Display-Tray-/350489317673?pt=LH_D...
But I am afraid it's too shallow (only <3.8cm) so it'll affect the splash.
Or could you tell me where to get the ones you use on local store in USA? I have friends studying in USA so maybe I can tell them to buy it and ship to me...
Thank you so much!!
Best regard,
Acon Cheng in Taiwan
Acon, I just use an old dark
Acon, I just use an old dark baking pan. I put a piece of black plastic in the bottom because I prefer this. You can use a white one and find something dark to place on the bottom. Try something like this. Also, 3.8cm. is deep enough.
bubble drop
hello,thankyou so much for sharing all your info with us.
can i ask a question,how did you do the shot with the drop inside the bubble ???
do you put something into the base fluid ??
thanks chris.
Bubble Drop
For the bubble shot, I simply blow a soap bubble onto the surface of plain water in the drip tray and blow it to where the drop will land or move it with the wand or a wet finger. Takes a bit of practice.
An excellent guide, well
An excellent guide, well written and some great shots, thanks for sharing.
About the acid-etched glass
Hi Corrie, I am curious about your acid-etched glass setup, can you share some details about it? Is your glass acid-etched one-sided or both sides? And what do you mean "with some extra plastic sheets"?
I will order a acid-etched glass tomorrow so I want to know your setup. :)
Thank you!
Acid-etched glass.
Acon, this glass is etched on one side only. I got it from a stained glass warehouse and I wish I could find something a bit smoother, but it's all I could find in this city. Sometimes I use a clear plastic sheet for extra diffusion, but this also makes the image a bit darker, so now I use an extra flash gun for more light.
Thank you Corrie, I have
Thank you Corrie, I have ordered 3 2-sided acid-etched glasses (1 at the back, 2 for the sides). Let's see if it works.
Water Drop Photography
Looking at some fantastic shots, I got fascinated in this area of water drop photography and wanted to try it myself. I have been learning and experiementing for about a year now. This post is my acknowledgement of the many things that I have learnt from some of your tutorials and you also cared to reply to one of my personal mail. Thank you so much.
Your photos are just the class apart. I have been surfing net on the same subject and haven't seen any as good as yours. I am aspiring to achieve that level one day.
Being a techincal person, I could develop a complete kit to take these shots more accurately. With the kit now I am able to concentrate on composing the shots and bring in variety. I am still a infant on this niche area.
I placed the detailed of the kit that I have developed in my website www.wingsofpassion.org. This site has some sample shots of water drops / Drop collision shots. Some shots of Smoke art are also displayed.
Thanks,
U. Moharana
Water Drop Photography
Thank you. Great website.
Time machine
Dear corrie
Thanks for your wonderful website and information. After seeing your work I decided to try out the time machine. It has arrived but I can't get the flash to work. I think I need some help with the configuration and set up for the flash. Can you help?
Thanks
Cathryn
Time Machine
Cathryn, in the comment section, click on my name in blue where you will find a contact link. Send me an email.
glycerine
hi corrie great guide , and incredible photos . im just getting into collisions . could i ask what ratio of glycerine to water you use please? and is it used just in the drop water , or the tray as well ?
Glycerine
Mark, I use just a few drops in a cup of water for the drop liquid. What works better is guar gum, well mixed and strained. I get this at a bulk food store.
These are fantastic. Thanks
These are fantastic. Thanks for the guide. At the moment I've only got basic equipment but I'm hoping to get a drop kit and better lighting soon.
This is what I've done with what I have http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLc2Cu5M8U&context=C3f56c4fADOEgsToPDskJUJnXGh82XmpZBsenfV4yG
macro flash
Very bright macro flash with high power leds, DIY project. Is a very useful gadget for water drop photography. You can read more here: http://www.apcc.tk/top-diy-projects/macro-flash
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