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Nothing Can Stand In Your Way, Not Even Gravity

Mar 31, 2011 by Udi Tirosh Add Comment

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Water defies gravitySometimes it seems that everything is against us. Nothing is working. It’s as if the rules of the universe themselves were built to set us back. Well, not for Andy Price.

If the image above looks weird, it is because Andy found the perfect way to defy gravity.

With a little fairy dust, a Whiskey bottle and some tubing, Andy DIYed his gravity defying device. Oh, yea, did we say this was not a composite?

Andy Explains:

Water Flowing Upwards Setup

Water defies gravity - set up

The difficulty is getting liquid to flow from the bottle and look real. What I found was that because the glass (and everything else, except me) is upside down the bottle has to tilt upwards and it is difficult to avoid the water flowing from the bottle without it being obvious that it is upside down.

In order to control the flow I broke the bottom off of a whiskey bottle (empty of course!) and stuck the jagged end into a plastic vitamin tub into which I had inserted your standard 5mm plastic tubing. The other end of the tube is gaffered taped to a plastic bag behind the camera.

This allowed me to control the water flow and avoid tale-telling bubbles. Talking about bubbles, it is important to get the neck of the bottle completely full. It just does not look very convincing with the bubbles going the wrong way. A good way to do this is to have the bottle as full as you can before you start and use a big bag of water.

Nothing Can Stand In Your Way, Not Even Gravity

The entire contraption was then gaffer taped to a ‘stick in a can‘ (literally a piece of wood inside a can which is filled with cement to provide a flexible support on a solid base) The bottle has to be angled slightly upwards or it will look odd when the image is rotated.

The glass is suspended on invisible thread (as can be seen in the set up pic) although this did not matter in the end as the bottom of the glass is not showing.

Water defies gravity

Lighting

Support: I used my DIY still life table. It is a sheet 60″ x 27″ of white Perspex (we love Perspex) bent through about 40 degrees with a hot air gun.

The sheet of perspex is suspended on one of those portable clothes rails (you can vary the height from about 3 ‘ to 5’) using three shower curtains metal hooks.

The front piece is rested on a trestle and for heavier set ups a second trestle can be place further back (although this could compromise the lighting)

Lights and placement: I used black cards either side of the glass manage reflections, and to create Bright Field Lighting.

Two flashes were used – Youngnuo 460 at 1/2 power behind the perspex to illuminate background, and a Canon 540 at 1/4 power beneath perspex.

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Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Projects, Readers Projects

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.net

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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