By eon/Eon (3,193) 
on December 5, 2005 1:31:02 AM CST
Background
A few basic things are needed for this photo. Firstly, we want a black background; I used an old black shirt and draped it over some books in the background. Remember to have the black cloth at an angle otherwise the flash will just reflect against it and you will have a white background ;)
Setup for different types of drops
For the “crown” type of photo you can use any bowl with a flat surface, turn it upside down and put a thin layer of fluid on the surface (milk works better than water…) Then just let the drop fall onto the bowl. Check out Timing or The Rise and Fall for the different stages that you will find the crown in.
For the “drop going up” type of photo just put some fluid in a cup and let the drop fall in it. Example: The milk drop
Camera settings & Technique
The camera was on burst mode. I used a brush to drip a few drops on the surface while holding in the shutter with my other hand. I shoot in RAW so while my buffer clears I reload on the milk for the next dripping session.
I used my Canon 300D on a tripod with my 50mm prime lens. I used manual focus and moved the camera as close as possible to the object. (My next buy will be some extenders to get closer).
I’ve tried a few lighting setups (even with a spotlight from the side) but the flash on-camera worked best. I’m sure you will get better photos with an off-camera flash but I just recently bought a flash and haven’t had time to experiment.
I found that the best aperture to use is the smallest for your lens (for my 50mm it is F22). I tried it at about F8 but the DOF was very shallow. You can get a sharp drop at 1/200 seconds shutter speed.
Out of the 70 photos I took, there were about five I could use.
Hope this helps!
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From beammc/Mary (4,414)
on December 14, 2005 9:30:14 PM CST
A good article. Thanks for sharing these tips. I have always wondered how this was done. I am amazed that 1/200 will do it. I'll have to try it some time.
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From dprice/Douglas (52)
on January 30, 2006 1:12:21 PM CST
The shutter may fire at 1/200 but the flash duration is much, much shorter.
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From werd5150/Ryan (254)
on December 15, 2005 8:33:00 AM CST
very nice. The good thing about these articles is that alot of people will probably go "yeah we know, thats great, woooo!" but it really makes people feel confident when they have something explain and show them at the same time. Even if the articles can be "obvious" to some. Thanks for the article.
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From werd5150/Ryan (254)
on December 15, 2005 8:56:33 AM CST
very nice. The good thing about these articles is that alot of people will probably go "yeah we know, thats great, woooo!" but it really makes people feel confident when they have something explain and show them at the same time. Even if the articles can be "obvious" to some. Thanks for the article.
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From eon/Eon (3,193)
on December 19, 2005 2:32:30 AM CST
Yes, the thin layer is the key to get the crown type of shots.
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From palmvig/Karsten (0)
on January 22, 2006 5:11:25 AM CST
Excellent article! I have to try this myself! Always wondered how to do it...
Later same day: Tried it - out of 135 pictures, about 10 were timed right but they were too underexposed to be used (using a 70mm 2.8 lens + 2x Extender) will try another day without the extender.
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From martynb/Martyn (3,318)
on January 29, 2006 10:17:45 AM CST
very interesting article, i have done a few water droplets with pleasing results so i will add a few more tips
1) if your using water as the fluid its a nice idea to add colour by using food dye, (blue works really well)
2) use a pippette or similar so you can control the droplet,
3) i find a shallowish dinner plate is ideal for droplets (not crowned) where the ripples are as important as the splash.
4) for best results always use the flash and if your camera has it use continuous frame burst,
5) you dont need to drop the water from a great height to get the desired effect, just make sure your reflection is not seen.
6) to get a good effect you could try positioning the camera about 12 inches away from the vessel and about 8-12 inches above, what i try and do is manually focus on the pipette placed in the water at roughly the point i want the drop to hit the water, by using a low F stop (say 12-20) the depth of field should be great enough to keep everything in focus even if you dont hit target.
hope this has been some help. cheers martyn ps must put some of my pics on photosig
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From martynb/Martyn (3,318)
on January 29, 2006 5:50:55 PM CST
ok i put one up
http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1691125 this was a white dinner plate filled with coloured water. i was close enough to get everything in frame and was still able to crop the edges of the plate out in PS. cheers martyn ps must learn to hyperlink
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From lmb/Lex (941)
on June 14, 2006 2:37:26 PM CDT
It was fun reading you're tutorial and viewing you're images.
I have done in the past some experiments with high-speed photograpy, so I would like to invite you to take a look at my photo "Milk" :
http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=450482
I have described the process of how I took the pictures.
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From deleted194386/deleted (57,295) 
on July 12, 2006 6:22:34 PM CDT
Eon i am a big drop fan and have followed drops for years by such famous drop artists as PN's Billiana etc. Considering entering the field and thanks for the info here.
Could get costly using film and curious how u get a winner with one shot hehe. Well shutter timing seems a real problem and using burst mode on digital u suppose is the answer but is there a more definitive way to do the shoot besides a zillion frames?
One suggest for you and this article is measure projected drop area floating an object and use dof preview to guestamate. F22 seems too radicial and slow on shutter. Forget flash use continuous high intencity halite lights if you have them or some other sourse like diffused sunshine. Use manual settings on expose under a stable light scenerio to max speed. All in theory of course but going to try some, its about time. Thanks for the contribution and motivation Eon!
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From konsol/Andy (289)
on July 31, 2006 6:09:19 PM CDT
You do not have to fire hundreds of shots necessarily. I cannot remember the name of the man, but decades ago he used strobes that were controlled by sound. For example the sound of the drop hitting the liquid would fire the strobe at just the right time. To my understanding this is also the technique used in photographs of bullets passing through fruit / balloons and the like.
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From mattman944/Matt (1,413)
on August 6, 2006 11:21:44 AM CDT
Many people use a setup where the falling drop interrupts a light beam and triggers the flash after a delay. I did this 20 years ago but got mediocre results because I didn't have a good macro lens. I have better equipment now and am going to try again.
A light beam interrupter box used to be sold under the name of "Dale Beam". I do not know if they are still in business.
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From miggedy/Maik (3)
on July 13, 2006 1:03:07 PM CDT
Thanks for the article!
I had to try it and made (in my optinion) some realy nice pictures. I used normal water and with the white correction of the RAW-format I could turn it into a realy nice blue as if the water was colored. See my photo (and my first one on PhotoSig): http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1786792
Thank you again for the nice tutorial...
Greetings
Maik
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From arnis/Arnoldas (48)
on September 8, 2006 6:03:27 PM CDT
Good article, explains you how things work and shows the pictures to demonstrate the process. My first expression after reading the article was 'so that how this works :)'. Thank you for your explanations, time and effort.
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From technogal/Techno (0)
on April 21, 2008 10:06:47 AM CDT
Very interesting article :) love the milk drops! I'd always want to take a decent shot for the water drops but never get the right shot! :(
I am new to prof stuff when it comes to photography.
I am using the sony DSC-W1, is it possible taking a shot for the water drop by this cam? i tried all the option but it does not works!!!
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