Since I just now decided to start this blog I don't have a picture of my setup for this first post but this one is all about your setup and timing. I sketched out what the basic setup was in Photoshop so hopefully you can understand what I did.
So to start you will need:
-A pale or something to have the water in (I used a paint liner that was painted black)
-A flash (Nikon SB 900, I used the SB because it has a higher sync speed than a strobe so you can used a faster shutter)
-Camera (duh!)
-A paper with different colors printed on it (make it in Photoshop or paint, 2 colors preferred)
-Something to drop water into the pale (for this I rigged up a bag to continuously drop, but if you have a helper you can have them drop the water for you)
-A tripod (optional)
-A stand for the flash (or a helper)
-A Table to setup on
-An off camera flash system (you can use a corded system, pocket wizard, Yongnuo, whatever your heart desires it just has to be off of the camera)
So to start I got the paint liner and filled it with water and placed it on the table. For the water droplets I filled up a bag and rubber-banded (you can tape or just hold it) it to a backdrop stand so that I could have a constant water drop and I didn't have to time it just right with someone else. The I taped the paper to the back side of the paint liner and taped to top of the paper to where the bag was connected. For the flash I had a helper and he would hold it and tilt it as I needed. but the key thing is to have the flash pointed at the paper across the water so the colors reflect across the water. This is what it should look like with no water droplets:
Now for shooting it I recommend using a macro lens so you can get closer to the droplet without having to crop in and reduce the ability to print on a larger canvas. Now with a macro lens you are going to have to clean off the lens because when the water drops it does splash a little. The other option is to use a longer lens but even those have limitations on how close you can really get to the droplet.
Next for the settings in my camera I had my ISO at 250, my shutter at 1/2500, and my aperture at 14.0. you can mess with these settings as much as you want but the high shutter is a must if you are wanting to "freeze time". My ISO is usually at 250 when shooting indoors with a flash, its pretty much my golden ISO. For my aperture I wanted pretty much all of the image in focus so I went with a higher f stop. The camera I was using was a Nikon D7000, that really doesn't matter in this or anything else because you can get this image with any camera that has a fully manual mode or even a partially manual mode, you just need to control the shutter.
For focusing it will be hard since you are basically focusing on a plain black surface so what I did was figure out where the drops were landing and used a straw to focus on that then turned the focus to manual. At this point you only have to refocus if you move, and I do recommend moving, try different angles its what makes the image better. You can as I mentioned before move the flash around at certain angles it reflects better in the droplets that are in the air making them stand out more.
Pretty much every image that you capture will be different and don't be afraid to take too many, its all digital now so you aren't wasting film. Do keep in mind your flash can only take so much, don't over heat it, especially if you are using the SB 900 that one overheats really quickly but it did me just fine for this shoot. Now I don't know exactly what the flash was set at but I usually start it at its regular default power and just turn it up and down as I feel it needs. For shoots like this I usually don't change the flash settings I mostly change the camera settings.
Here are a couple more from this shoot:
-A pale or something to have the water in (I used a paint liner that was painted black)
-A flash (Nikon SB 900, I used the SB because it has a higher sync speed than a strobe so you can used a faster shutter)
-Camera (duh!)
-A paper with different colors printed on it (make it in Photoshop or paint, 2 colors preferred)
-Something to drop water into the pale (for this I rigged up a bag to continuously drop, but if you have a helper you can have them drop the water for you)
-A tripod (optional)
-A stand for the flash (or a helper)
-A Table to setup on
-An off camera flash system (you can use a corded system, pocket wizard, Yongnuo, whatever your heart desires it just has to be off of the camera)
So to start I got the paint liner and filled it with water and placed it on the table. For the water droplets I filled up a bag and rubber-banded (you can tape or just hold it) it to a backdrop stand so that I could have a constant water drop and I didn't have to time it just right with someone else. The I taped the paper to the back side of the paint liner and taped to top of the paper to where the bag was connected. For the flash I had a helper and he would hold it and tilt it as I needed. but the key thing is to have the flash pointed at the paper across the water so the colors reflect across the water. This is what it should look like with no water droplets:
Now for shooting it I recommend using a macro lens so you can get closer to the droplet without having to crop in and reduce the ability to print on a larger canvas. Now with a macro lens you are going to have to clean off the lens because when the water drops it does splash a little. The other option is to use a longer lens but even those have limitations on how close you can really get to the droplet.
Next for the settings in my camera I had my ISO at 250, my shutter at 1/2500, and my aperture at 14.0. you can mess with these settings as much as you want but the high shutter is a must if you are wanting to "freeze time". My ISO is usually at 250 when shooting indoors with a flash, its pretty much my golden ISO. For my aperture I wanted pretty much all of the image in focus so I went with a higher f stop. The camera I was using was a Nikon D7000, that really doesn't matter in this or anything else because you can get this image with any camera that has a fully manual mode or even a partially manual mode, you just need to control the shutter.
For focusing it will be hard since you are basically focusing on a plain black surface so what I did was figure out where the drops were landing and used a straw to focus on that then turned the focus to manual. At this point you only have to refocus if you move, and I do recommend moving, try different angles its what makes the image better. You can as I mentioned before move the flash around at certain angles it reflects better in the droplets that are in the air making them stand out more.
Pretty much every image that you capture will be different and don't be afraid to take too many, its all digital now so you aren't wasting film. Do keep in mind your flash can only take so much, don't over heat it, especially if you are using the SB 900 that one overheats really quickly but it did me just fine for this shoot. Now I don't know exactly what the flash was set at but I usually start it at its regular default power and just turn it up and down as I feel it needs. For shoots like this I usually don't change the flash settings I mostly change the camera settings.
Here are a couple more from this shoot:
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