Sunday, February 20, 2011

Still Chasing Water Drops

Green Water Drop

I'm still chasing that "Perfect" Water Drop Photo.  I set up in the kitchen sink with a white bowl 1/2 filled with water.  I add food coloring to make the water  different colors.  I then get the faucet to just drip - not too fast - slower is better.


I make note of where the water is hitting and place a pencil in the same spot and manual focus on that spot.  I have a flash on my camera and a remote flash to the left of the bowl.  I am using my 100 MM Macro Lens with a low ISO (100).  Shutter is set f/14 at 1/200 speed to freeze the water drop.  I then fire off about 3 or 4 in succession - any more than that and the flash says "enough already".
Red Water Drop

2 comments:

  1. These are super, Robert! I find it interesting that you used f/14 which gives you a fairly great depth of field, when a wider aperture would've permitted even faster shutter speed to freeze the motion - but would surely have still been sufficient to keep something as small as the whole droplet in focus? That said, the base of the green water "tower" seems to be sharper than the top part and the suspended droplet? What am I missing?

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  2. Thanks for visiting and the comments. I don't think you're missing anything - I have been experimenting with different settings. I have some colors left in my "food coloring" rainbow, so perhaps I will try a wider aperture and a faster shutter speed.

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