Water Droplets

Hey there.

I was recently asked how to photograph water droplets, so I made a BTS (behind the scenes) on my setup.

I usually use a clip instead of skewers, but it's all I had available during this session.

Once you get set up, put a hole in the corner of the bag, small enough to allow the water to drip at a decent speed. I found an excellent way to focus by placing a pen where the water is splashing and manually focusing through the eyepiece or if you have a DSLR camera that has a live view, that can help out.

After the focusing is done, it is time to set up the camera with the aperture, shutter speed, and external flash. The aperture should be F/5.6 - 8.0 for the images below. I shot them mostly in an f/6.3 to the depth of field in control.

Off-camera flash, a receiver, and trigger are needed most of the cameras the sync is1/200 to 1/250 secs. Anything higher than that will cause a black streak.

 

 

Don't be afraid to play around. Get creative with colors & the splashes themselves. I've seen so many amazing shots done with water. Doing a shoot like this takes patience, so don't give up because you feel like you can't get it on the first try. This is a learning experiment.