How to create wars of clouds with water and ink

WOOOO what an amazing game, it really came down to the wire with only 3 secs left. Hell yeah, Packers play Atlanta next week. You know I never really used to be all that much of a football fan, but the past 10 years or so I’ve come around. And, being in Milwaukee, it’s Packers all the way.

Ever have those nights on Youtube clicking on one video and before you know it you’re researching the difference between a Nimitz class aircraft carrier and a Kitty Hawk? No? Well, consider yourself lucky. That was last night for me and I came across flowmotion vids, a Sony Xperia ad featuring it, and not many vids on how to do it. ( I really did look up aircraft carriers, Im Army so I had no clue really about the difference) We’ve all seen the 4K reels of this kind of photography so lets look at how I did it.

So first thing this morning I headed out Michaels (or your nearest craft store) and picked up some ink. I saw stuff on acryllic paints work well, ink works well, all sorts of stuff. Experiment, grab a bunch of different kinds and go to town. This stuff was 6 bucks a bottle but the paint was 99cents or so. I knew I wanted to do some packer colors because of the game today so green and yellow it is. This was all they had. Oh well, PS here I come.

Now if you see in the BTS the good ‘ol Nero is there. This is NOT necessary, however you will need some sort of triggering device for more than one color. Any sort of corded trigger with cable lock will work. Believe it or not, I dont have a corded one so on went the Nero.

I wasn’t sure how fast this was going to take, I am really good at shooting fast liquids, but I have never captured this before.

Prior to letting it rip on the camera, always check again and again that your lights are set, and your focus is set. Shooting at f/18 I knew I’d be close but stick a pen in the center of the tank and make sure its where you want it to be. Even though Im taking a lot of shots, this is a ONE time go shot. Mess it up and its back to the long process of setting it up again.

Turns out there is a solid couple seconds to capture an awesome shot, WHEW! It’s not like capturing a single drop mid fall:)

Once you have your shot, time to edit. I will leave this one up to you to decide unless you want me to go further into editing as well. (comment below and next week Ill make it more editing base).

Play around in PS with the colors, the position, angle, have fun. All of these were done with just green and yellow ink but the sky is the limit. This is just what worked for me for the first time ever trying it. I plan on going out and getting inks/paints of different viscosity’s. Have fun and experiment. You can get a cheap 5 gallon tank or so from any pet shop for about $15. dollars. Ink is equally as inexpensive (except printer ink, damn thats expensive).

Any comments, questions or rants? Drop em below or message me on FB. Click the FB link at the bottom of the page, you know the one.

About the Author

Sean Huolihan is an owner of VP Media Group, a studio that specializes in advertising and commercial photography.  Product photography is his passion, as well as on location commercial portraiture, architectural, and automotive photography. You can check out more of his work on his website, follow him on Instagram and Twitter and like his Facebook page. This article was also published here and shared with permission.