Any other Macro junkies tried this shot?

donek

OK I spent most of yesterday on this shot and tried again in the sun this morning. My setup has been refined significantly, but I'm still not getting exactly what I want. That drop suspended mid air with the flower in perfect focus. The final setup I tried this morning seemed to come the closest, but getting things focused perfectly seems to be the trickiest because you're focusing on something you can't see in the view finder. I would stick the pin back in the cup I was using and focus on that to start and then start moving things from there. Let me know if you've seen it done or been successfull at such a thing.

Here's the best shot indoors. I used a bunch of 300 watt light bulbs to get enough light. You can see some of the lights. You can also see in this shot I was delivering drops with a plastic straw.


This is a shot from this morning outdoors. Sunlight makes a big difference in available light, but I kept getting sun flares in the drop.

Dalantech

This is the closest I got, and I'm pretty sure I was doing it the hard way...



The trick is to do it in a room where there is very little light. Set your camera to ISO 100, F11, 1/250 of a second to start. Don't worry about the shutter speed -the flash duration is going to be your actually shutter. If the light is very low, and if the flash didn't fire, you'd take a completely black frame -so the duration of the flash becomes your shutter speed...

Also set the faucet so that it is dripping rapidly and then just fire away until you get a shot you like. There are electronic devices that you can use to trigger the camera and the flash, but trial and error works too. The peeps who do this sort of thing a lot use flashes that have an extremely short duration -the faster the flash fires the faster your shutter speed...

TylerW

Popular Photography did a recent magazine article on this subject. Looks like a ton of fun, something I'm apt to spend more than a few lazy sundays on once I get more macro gear.

http://www.popphoto.com/howto/2508/you-can-do-it-how-to-photograph-water-drops.html

Dalantech

TylerW wrote:

Popular Photography did a recent magazine article on this subject. Looks like a ton of fun, something I'm apt to spend more than a few lazy sundays on once I get more macro gear.

http://www.popphoto.com/howto/2508/you-can-do-it-how-to-photograph-water-drops.html

Yup -I was doing it the hard way

From the article...

I dim the room lights, open the shutter for three to five seconds, squeeze a drop into the receiving dish, and pop one of the flashes manually, which causes all to fire in tandem. I repeat it until I get the result I want.

...the room would have to be very dark if you're going to open the shutter for 3 to 5 seconds...

donek

TylerW wrote:

Popular Photography did a recent magazine article on this subject. Looks like a ton of fun, something I'm apt to spend more than a few lazy sundays on once I get more macro gear.

http://www.popphoto.com/howto/2508/you-can-do-it-how-to-photograph-water-drops.html

Thanks for the reference. I'm very curious to try the bar code focusing technique and long shutter with a flash. I guess it's back to square one, or maybe on to Vitor Shalom's square anyway.

Skippy

Educate Me Please
Ummmmmm at the risk of sounding like a goose........here goes.

I'm failing to understand this...... I see your trying to get the reflection of the flower in the actual drop as it falls right??

But.....where is the flower in the first place?
is it on the bench? being held? is it on an angle? is it below the drop?

I've done water droplets before but not with reflections in them.... Skippy

ziggy53

Skippy wrote:

Ummmmmm at the risk of sounding like a goose........here goes.

I'm failing to understand this...... I see your trying to get the reflection of the flower in the actual drop as it falls right??

But.....where is the flower in the first place?
is it on the bench? being held? is it on an angle? is it below the drop?

I've done water droplets before but not with reflections in them.... Skippy

Skippy,

I think the water drop is acting as a lens. I'm not sure why they use the word "reflecting" in the article indicated.

There are reflections in the drop, but I don't think they are predominant in the image contained within the drop.

Donek, Great idea and I really like the first (indoor) image of the Daisy.

Dalentech, Almost perfect sphere and almost a fantasy image.

Thanks,

ziggy53

donek

Skippy wrote:

Ummmmmm at the risk of sounding like a goose........here goes.

I'm failing to understand this...... I see your trying to get the reflection of the flower in the actual drop as it falls right??

But.....where is the flower in the first place?
is it on the bench? being held? is it on an angle? is it below the drop?

I've done water droplets before but not with reflections in them.... Skippy

Ziggy is correct. It's not a reflection. The water drop is acting as a lens the same way the glass lenses in a camera work.

In my setup, the flower is standing in a bud vase. In the first shot, it's actually in a roll of paper towels (typical engineer approach - find the closest thing that will do the job). The drop is falling past the flower. You'll see a center black spot surrounded by the yellow pettles dramatically out of focus. Dalentech's shot appears to be below the water drop, but I could be wrong.

I'm also shooting at a 1:1 macro focal length. I really want the drop to be as large a possible. This makes it even more difficult to accomplish because your depth of field becomes so narrow and timing becomes even more important.

I think one of the things that attracts me to photography so much is the ability to capture something we wouldn't normally see or recognize. Photos such as this really accomplish that goal. As a result, I'd really like to perfect this particular shot.

Dalantech

Skippy wrote:

Ummmmmm at the risk of sounding like a goose........here goes.

I'm failing to understand this...... I see your trying to get the reflection of the flower in the actual drop as it falls right??

But.....where is the flower in the first place?
is it on the bench? being held? is it on an angle? is it below the drop?

I've done water droplets before but not with reflections in them.... Skippy

In a box of high quality printer photographic paper there is one sheet of heavy cardboard that's used to keep the thinner printer paper from bending and creasing. I punched a hole in it with a pencil, placed the stem of the rose through the hole, and I used some tape to secure the stem to the back side of the paper so the rose wouldn't fall out. I then propped the paper in my kitchen sink, set up my tripod, got the faucet to dripping, adjusted the paper until I got what I thought was the right distance between the drip and the rose, and shot a lot of frames...

This type of photography is something that I do in the fall / winter when the bugs are gone so I'll be taking some more shots like the rose later on this year -hopefully better shots than that one...

Dalantech

ziggy53 wrote:

Skippy,

I think the water drop is acting as a lens. I'm not sure why they use the word "reflecting" in the article indicated.

There are reflections in the drop, but I don't think they are predominant in the image contained within the drop.

Donek, Great idea and I really like the first (indoor) image of the Daisy.

Dalentech, Almost perfect sphere and almost a fantasy image.

Thanks,

ziggy53

Yup, the drop is acting as an ultra wide angle lens.

Thanks for the props! :

Lord Vetinari

Neat shots,
Just a thought but you may have better luck with a splash drop rather than one falling vertically. I've posted an example below where the isolated drop was either travelling upwards or was at zero velocity when I took the shot. The crisp packet was behind the glass full of water I was dropping the original drops into.
Brian V.

Dalantech

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Neat shots,
Just a thought but you may have better luck with a splash drop rather than one falling vertically. I've posted an example below where the isolated drop was either travelling upwards or was at zero velocity when I took the shot. The crisp packet was behind the glass full of water I was dropping the original drops into.
Brian V

Excellent shot Brian! I've now got something else to try when the weather turns cold :

How did you have your flash set up? I've got an MT-24 and I'm itching to place it's 2 flash heads off to the side and / or use my 430EX as a slave.

Lord Vetinari

Dalantech wrote:

Excellent shot Brian! I've now got something else to try when the weather turns cold :

How did you have your flash set up? I've got an MT-24 and I'm itching to place it's 2 flash heads off to the side and / or use my 430EX as a slave.

Thanks- had the flash off camera- pic below.
Brian V.

Awais Yaqub

Nice i really loved your second looks blurred
here are my 2 with no closeup lens just 6cm macro mode

Dalantech

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Thanks- had the flash off camera- pic below.
Brian V.

Thanks Brian!

Dalantech

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Nice i really loved your second looks blurred
here are my 2 with no closeup lens just 6cm macro mode

I love that one Awais!

donek

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Neat shots,
Just a thought but you may have better luck with a splash drop rather than one falling vertically. I've posted an example below where the isolated drop was either travelling upwards or was at zero velocity when I took the shot. The crisp packet was behind the glass full of water I was dropping the original drops into.
Brian V.

This is sort of the direction I've been thinking of going. Low velocity is key and so is a well formed and stabilized spherical drop. At the top of flight would be perfect. Maybe as an engineer I'm overthinking it, but I had considered firing a stream of water through an arc. With a small enough nozzle the stream should break into drops relatively quickly, hopefully leaving a slow moving sphere traveling in front of the camera at the top of the arc. Your approach is definitely simpler.

Pezpix

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Neat shots,
Just a thought but you may have better luck with a splash drop rather than one falling vertically. I've posted an example below where the isolated drop was either travelling upwards or was at zero velocity when I took the shot. The crisp packet was behind the glass full of water I was dropping the original drops into.
Brian V.

Fantastic stuff again Lord V! Obviously focus stacking wouldnt work for that image (unless you had two shutter clicks within 1/20,000 of a second , so I gotta know... what apeture and ISO did you use to get such great depth and speed?

Dalantech

Pezpix wrote:

Fantastic stuff again Lord V! Obviously focus stacking wouldnt work for that image (unless you had two shutter clicks within 1/20,000 of a second , so I gotta know... what apeture and ISO did you use to get such great depth and speed?

The shutter speed is irrelevant -the length of time that the flash is "on" becomes the shutter speed (the light from my MT-24 flash lasts for about 1/1400 of a second). You could set the camera on bulb and take that shot provided that the area where you are filming is dark...

Lord Vetinari

Pezpix wrote:

Fantastic stuff again Lord V! Obviously focus stacking wouldnt work for that image (unless you had two shutter clicks within 1/20,000 of a second , so I gotta know... what apeture and ISO did you use to get such great depth and speed?

Hi ,
Dalantech is right - nothing high speed. Camera in manual f8, 1/200, ISO100
flash in ETTL
Brian V.

Pezpix

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Hi ,
Dalantech is right - nothing high speed. Camera in manual f8, 1/200, ISO100
flash in ETTL
Brian V.

(scratches his head, furrows his brow, ponders his thoughts)

Sweet! I never would have imagined that the image would be set to f/8 with that kind of great DOF. But, forgive me, as I have been playing with the MP-E lately and as I'm sure you are aware, the DOF is razor-thin even up to f/11 at 2x magnification so my DOF management is a bit out of whack.

Out of curiousity, I wonder if it would be effective to try and focus stack with water droplets in a static enviroment (no wind or water movement) at f/7 and obtain a good effect. (Using the MT-24ex) Thoughts?