Dancing Paint

artographywales

artographywales

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Andrew
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My first attempt at this type of project and found it lots of fun even though I ended up with lots of unusable shots, apologies if they are too big. I will be trying again using a different technique to try and reduce the amount of DOF, What are your thoughts?

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That does look like a lot of fun actually. I like the concept, I think as you say, it's a bit hit and miss. It looks like the focus is slightly out on these, did you use AF or MF for it? I know when I was trying with the water drops at the Mega Meet I struggled with focussing. I found it was best to start with a higher apeture so I would get more hits than misses and used manual focussing.
 
I actually put my hand in the area that the blobs would generally form and AF'd on my hand then switched to MF for the shooting part. The idea was to use three different paints (Red, blue and white.) and try to catch the different colours merging into each other. It was tricky finding the right consistency of the paint and right type of music so that it would "jump", for the paint I found 2 parts paint to 1 part water worked best and as for the music what you actually see is The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up :D.

I found myself shooting at around f/2.8 and 1/640 and was shooting outdoors but next I will attempt to use my studio strobe setup to see if that produces any better results.
 
Ok, that sounds like you did what I would have done also. Thanks for the explanation though. And the music choices, have a look at what music they used in Flubber and Big Bang Theory, they did jumpy blobs on speakers in those as well iirc. We could compile a playlist of best tracks :LOL:

I do like the marbling effect you are getting with the three colours, I suppose it's not long until they all merge though

I wouldn't mind giving this a go so will be following this thread with interest :D
 
Have you tried using cornstarch and water with food colouring?
 
I stuck with paint as I did spend a few pound buying it, then my 4 year old daughter came home from school and that was pretty much the end of that lol I am picking up a larger speaker later today and may try using less paint to save of mess and try to capture all of it in the frame
 
Haha, did she end up covered in it?

I may have to have a look on ebay for a cheap speaker now. What's the best type to use? And did you put cling film on it first?
 
kelack said:
Haha, did she end up covered in it?

I may have to have a look on ebay for a cheap speaker now. What's the best type to use? And did you put cling film on it first?
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I picked up a couple of speakers from a charity shop for £2, i didn't put anything over the speaker but my for my next attempt I will cover the speaker with a bin liner and pull it tight. Should make for a nicer setting for the shot and yes she did end up covered in paint lol
 
Ah that's a good idea, we have a few of them in our nearest town, might have a wander tomorrow to get out of house renovations :D

And brilliant, bet she thought it was fun though
 
Shame you missed the focus on these, Nice idea I personally would maybe set up the focus using a Pencil placed in the centre of the speaker, focus on that as a guide ( obviously you'll need to be using manual focus) and a Plain BG would be an asset also try a fill flash to freeze the action

look forward to seeing your next set

Les ;)
 
Nice first attempt but I find the speaker and the background a bit distracting if I'm honest. When I do this I get a black balloon and stretch it over the speaker and then put the paint on top of the rubber. That way you do not see the speaker and it gives a nice effect as if it's on black acrylic. Also instead of using fast shutter speeds I use flashguns to freeze the motion of the paint. That way you can under expose the background to make it nice and black and have your flashes directed onto the paint to freeze the motion.
 
I have found trying this has given me a better understanding of Depth of Field, especially as I was using my 50mm f/2.8 macro lens. I have realised I need to scale it down a bit in order to improve the results and was considering using a condom as a membrane to go over the speaker, a balloon seems like a better option lol. I did try using a couple of strobe studio lights and a dark backdrop but didn't work as expected, a couple of people/blogs have mentioned using flash to freeze the motion but think I need to understand using my flash a bit more before that happens. Can anyone elaborate on the use of flash for this? Thanks in advance
 
As far as I understand (I could be wrong) you'd be better off with a flashgun rather than big studio lights for freezing motion. I don't have studio lights so I'm just guessing. The flashguns have a shorter flash duration than the bigger flashes and the quicker the flash duration, the more likely you are to freeze the motion of the paint. When I first tried dancing paint I used the settings I do for water drops. 1/200 F16 ISO100 and the power of the flashguns depends on how many I use, probably around 1/62 - 1/32 or even less if I'm using a wider aperture. I was shooting inside a semi dark room in the house and the settings I said above without using a flash was enough to under expose everything to give me a black background. I then just put two flashes either side of the paint with snoots on so I didn't spill any unwanted light around the room.
 
So I decided to revisit my attempt at what I did above, since the last attempt I have acquired a new Canon 430 ex ii flash gun and a smaller speaker. For this attempt I used condom over the top of the speaker and decided to go with The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up again, well it is a class track!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

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*edited as forgot the last one.*
 
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When I did these I found using a tone generator app on the ipad worked really well for producing consistent sounds and results.
I used poster paints, on a black bin bag cut to a panel and taped tight over an old speaker. I then shot against dark backgrounds and used flash guns to light.

Another trick is to use a straw and blow air onto the paint to create bubbles.
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Then turn on the sound and watch the bounces.
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Added advantage is the black plastic bin bag is shiney so you get reflections also :)
 
Mine was an old hifi speaker so approx 12 inches tall, 6-8 inches wide? Unless you've condoms for elephants...

I sliced a couple of bin bags in half and taped them together, which gave me the backdrop and base to put the speaker on.
These were shot on a rainy afternoon on the table in the conservatory, so still light. I use a flash or two for added light.

Too much flash and too much volume gave unpredictable results (and mess), hence the tone generator from the ipad.
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I think thats the advantage to using music over a tone, the first lot i did were on an old hifi speaker. However lots of mess and cleaning up after every try, with a smaller speaker i was able to be a bit more targeted with my shots and I only used a few drops of paint so was quicker to set up the next attempt. Its good fun!
 
I used a 50mm macro lens which allowed me to scale it down this time around. I only had at most 3 pipettes worth of paint at any one time so it was really quick and easy to setup the next shot. It dors take a bit of mastering but its good fun and really rewarding looking back through your attempts :)
 
Great shots. would you mind showing us a picture of the set up the next time you do it?
 
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