Water Drops – Highspeed Photography

A good friend of mine sent me a link this week to a photography contest and the subject was Water Drops. I hadn’t photographed them before and was inspired to give it a try. Here is the technique I used and a few sample images of the result.

The equipment I used was a Nikon D80, Macro lens, Nikon SB800 Speedlight Flash and a tripod. The technique I used was similar to the one used in a tutorial by Johnah Surkes.

I filled a large black bowl 3/4 full with water. I taped blue construction paper behind it to enhance the water colour. My camera was about 5 inches higher than the bowl pointing on a downward angle. I used ISO 200, f/22 with a 1 second exposure. I found by setting my exposure to “bulb” and triggering it manually, I was able to properly sync with my flash which I was also triggering manually. I pointed the flash at the construction paper to enhance the colour of the water and to avoid as much flash reflection on the waters surface as possible. I tied a ziplock bag with water to my cupboard handle, made a pinhole and let the water drop. I used photoshop to paint out the dust specs that were in the water, since I forgot to wipe the bowl before using it. I also added a vignette to hide the edge of the bowl.

This is the image I submitted to the contest.