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I had the opportunity to play around with a few water drop setups recently at a friend's place. I think the 'shutter' was slightly slower than I wanted but I made the mistake of not having it tethered so the mistake was only obvious afterwards!

I thought the best presentation was on this sort of multiple format as each individual image is not strong enough on it's own. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this and other aspects of the pictures. Thanks.

It works well like this, no question. I'm not sure whether the blue drop would be better a little more central in its frame or whether it helps with assymetry.

Murray Foote wrote: I'm not sure whether the blue drop would be better a little more central in its frame or whether it helps with assymetry.

Thanks for your input Murray. Unfortunately the blue drop was framed thusly by mistake so can't be 'easily' centred... It was the first time I had used the pesky 100mm macro which requires some patience to focus and frame etc.

You might be able to join it with a mirror image in Photoshop.

I've never tried water drops - tricky to time? Were these shot with a higher than normal ISO? I'm wondering if they'd have a smoother more shimmery water look if you hit it with some NR to remove that fine grain - I guess you have to balance the sharpness of the drops and water shapes as well given they look a little soft already.

Murray Foote wrote:You might be able to join it with a mirror image in Photoshop.

Facepalm! Of course. Didn't think of that.

Remorhaz wrote:I've never tried water drops - tricky to time?

Not really as it was a regular drip rate.

Remorhaz wrote:Were these shot with a higher than normal ISO?

You have a keen eye grasshopper; They were under exposed as the flash struggled to keep with the f32 etc... Apparently I didn't feed it new batteries.

Remorhaz wrote: I'm wondering if they'd have a smoother more shimmery water look if you hit it with some NR to remove that fine grain - I guess you have to balance the sharpness of the drops and water shapes as well given they look a little soft already.

Hmm not sure what you mean because I'd say that smoother is opposite of shimmery. For the former, you will probably require either two exposures combined (sharp one for the drop and longer for the puddle - perhaps with two cameras??) or larger light source. I might have to give this a go at home but might be trickier as I don't have a macro lens (so tubes will have to do) and don't have a nice drop setup (This could be solved but will take a few weeks.... )

I like it, but I 'm not sure how you can improve it
short of changing one of the colours to make it
contrast even more. As the shapes are all different,
symetry is a challenge.

[quote="surenjdon't have a nice drop setup (This could be solved but will take a few weeks.... )[/quote]

You should be able to get hold of a hospital drip unit or two should you not? The older manual types obviously.
I have some gear from a couple of years ago when I was friendly with a couple of nurses. Still yet to unpack or use any of it though.

The ones done with coloured milk look really good, especially when there is a double drip set up and they collide.

colin_12 wrote:[quote="surenj]don't have a nice drop setup (This could be solved but will take a few weeks.... )[/quote]

You should be able to get hold of a hospital drip unit or two should you not? The older manual types obviously.
I have some gear from a couple of years ago when I was friendly with a couple of nurses. Still yet to unpack or use any of it though.

The ones done with coloured milk look really good, especially when there is a double drip set up and they collide.[/quote]

I like the sound of this!

My cold-drip coffee make would work for this as I can easily regulate the drips.

Reschsmooth wrote:My cold-drip coffee make would work for this as I can easily regulate the drips.

hmmm that sounds like a great idea...hours of fun taking photos and a coffee reward afterwards!

colin_12 wrote:You should be able to get hold of a hospital drip unit or two should you not? The older manual types obviously.

Colin, I admit to nothing.

colin_12 wrote:The ones done with coloured milk look really good, especially when there is a double drip set up and they collide.

Didn't try this. Next time definitely. I thought I'd try to cover basics in the first session.

Patrick, that's a great idea but I hope you can increase the drip rate to very fast ie few per second for certain shots!

aim54x wrote:I like the sound of this!

Maybe we could all do a session together somewhere (at least we wouldn't have to get up at 3 or 4AM to do it )

Remorhaz wrote:Maybe we could all do a session together somewhere (at least we wouldn't have to get up at 3 or 4AM to do it )

That certainly has its advantages!

Remorhaz wrote:Maybe we could all do a session together somewhere (at least we wouldn't have to get up at 3 or 4AM to do it )

Yes, we will only need one camera/1-2 speedlites/drip setup/ tether to large monitor as more than one will be a pain to setup. Then we can experiment to our heart's content... Does anyone want to lock a date/place etc...