I'm sorry... I had to try the Oil & Water thing

Daysleeper40

Daysleeper40

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Fi
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I've been a bit lax with the photography recently so today I thought I'd try something I havn't done before... everyone else has, but not me :D

First attempt at oil & water is below - C&C is welcome as always. I think my main issue was bloody cat hair getting everywhere and just my general lack of macro(ish) practice - my focusing wasn't the best! Took this using my 55-200 lens and Raynox 250.


DSC_0383 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Thanks for looking (y)
 
WOW Fi, sci-fi immediately springs to mind. You have now motivated me to have a go too :)

:clap:
 
CGeezer said:
WOW Fi, sci-fi immediately springs to mind. You have now motivated me to have a go too :)

:clap:
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Thanks John - look forward to seeing your attempts (y)
 
That is good! Love the colour and clarity of it. It reminded me of one of those "Juilet" type fractal patterns.
 
Great effort Fi, I like that way you have used a larger blob on the base as it sets the shot up really well. ;)
 
Firstly, take the apology out of your title. It might be a tried and tested subject but everyone hasn't attempted it yet ;)
(including me and this thread has reminded me that I need to add it to the long list)

As for the image, I like it a lot. The colours are really complementary, the detail in the bubbles is great and like has been said before, that mini solar system appearance is a great effect.

My one gripe is that it seems to loose some sharpness at the bottom and I'm distracted by the dark shadow in the bottom left. They could very easily be cloned out, but then that's just my opinion. :)
 
hi fi looks like sci fi [sorry for the pun ] picture
very good pic, will have to try this some time
 
Ian D J said:
That is good! Love the colour and clarity of it. It reminded me of one of those "Juilet" type fractal patterns.
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Thanks Ian - I'd love to say that's what I was aiming for but I had to google Juliet fractal pattern to see what you meant! :bonk:

Ajophotog said:
Great effort Fi, I like that way you have used a larger blob on the base as it sets the shot up really well. ;)
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Thanks Alby - I did spend quite a lot of time poking blobs around with a pipette so I'm glad it was worth the effort (y)

ShawWellPete said:
I love this, great colour and lovely composition, how do you do it?
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Thanks Pete - firstly I did a "Oil & Water" search on TP and essentially copied what everyone else had done. Got a little glass bowl, put about 2 inches of water in followed by a few drops of olive oil (I used sun dried tomato flavoured which is an orange colour... and now has a pipette in the bottle because I dropped it in by mistake). Stirred the oil a bit and then waited for it to settle. I tried various backgrounds but this one was sat on a CD. For lighting I started off with off camera flash which didn't work very well so I resorted to my tried and tested ghetto method of waving a table lamp around until I thought it looked good.

Camera-wise I was using my D60, 55-200 lens and Raynox 250. I had the camera on a tripod pointing straight down and raised the bowl up on books until I could focus with the Raynox. Exif can be seen here.
 
Loopy said:
Firstly, take the apology out of your title. It might be a tried and tested subject but everyone hasn't attempted it yet ;)
(including me and this thread has reminded me that I need to add it to the long list)

As for the image, I like it a lot. The colours are really complementary, the detail in the bubbles is great and like has been said before, that mini solar system appearance is a great effect.

My one gripe is that it seems to loose some sharpness at the bottom and I'm distracted by the dark shadow in the bottom left. They could very easily be cloned out, but then that's just my opinion. :)
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Thanks for the feedback - I did try to have the camera pointing straight down to try to mitigate any softness but the Raynox's DOF is so shallow it was difficult. I actually quite like the darkness in the corner - and I'm not sure my cloning skills would be up to the task of getting rid of it tbh!

holty said:
hi fi looks like sci fi [sorry for the pun ] picture
very good pic, will have to try this some time
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Thanks - you should definately give it a go... good little project for when the weather is bad.
 
very nice effect - may have to give this another go sometime soon....
 
"For lighting I started off with off camera flash which didn't work very well so I resorted to my tried and tested ghetto method of waving a table lamp around until I thought it looked good"

For goodness sake FI, don’t be giving away all the trade secrets or everyone will be at it (y)
 
iPhoto said:
"For lighting I started off with off camera flash which didn't work very well so I resorted to my tried and tested ghetto method of waving a table lamp around until I thought it looked good"

For goodness sake FI, don’t be giving away all the trade secrets or everyone will be at it (y)
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Ahem, sorry, what I mean to say is that I employed a cutting edge creative lighting solution in fully manual mode... VERY complex and HIGHLY expensive don't you know :D:p
 
Azure said:
oh oh oh... i wanna try this too

oh wait, i gotta get a macro lens too :bang:
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Have a look around for a Raynox 250 on t'bay or classifieds. Surprisingly reasonable and IMHO the best option for the "casual" Macro photographer who doesn't want to splash on a dedicated lens (y)
 
RJL2005 said:
There's an almost 3D effect going on there(y)
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Dave in Wales said:
:clap: I doooooo like that.

D in W
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Thanks both (y)

Azure said:
oh oh oh... i wanna try this too


oh wait, i gotta get a macro lens too :bang:
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SuperAP said:
Have a look around for a Raynox 250 on t'bay or classifieds. Surprisingly reasonable and IMHO the best option for the "casual" Macro photographer who doesn't want to splash on a dedicated lens (y)
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Excellent advice - this was taken with a Raynox 250 - they are only about £50 new and a great little investment :)
 
wicked :D like this a lot..

will have to give it a try!!
Can you explain how you did it? and setting :D
 
That's great Fi, great strong colours, and really good clarity (y)
 
Loopy said:
Firstly, take the apology out of your title.
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No, don't. The apology was the best bit... at least he realised it's just one big bore. If I see one more drop or splash of oil, water, food colouring, milk etc I swear I'm gonna scream.

Loopy said:
this thread has reminded me that I need to add it to the long list
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Why? :shrug:
 
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D.R.D. said:
No, don't. The apology was the best bit... at least he realised it's just one big bore. If I see one more drop or splash of oil, water, food colouring, milk etc I swear I'm gonna scream.



Why? :shrug:
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Unduly harsh methinks, especially tough to be that fed up with a subject after only one month of membership here.

I really like that shot and I think D.R.D. is going to have to get his lungs in shape in the new year as I think I'll have a play at this too.
 
D.R.D. said:
No, don't. The apology was the best bit... at least he realised it's just one big bore. If I see one more drop or splash of oil, water, food colouring, milk etc I swear I'm gonna scream.



Why? :shrug:
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Mmmmmm ..... very interested to see if you post similar comments in "portraits" about the abundance of people shots, and in "landscapes" about having too many trees in them, and why do people photograph sooo many robins at christmas ????????? Each to their own my friend, there are certain subjects within the forum that "at the moment " are not my cup of tea, but would certainly not deride anyone from enjoying that particular skill, example ........ never had the least interest in "studio lighting" or anything remotely connected with it, now different story. facinating, involved and complex, and a real challenge.
And as a matter of interest I do like looking at some of these oil/water and water drop shots, they certainly show a high level of skill and patience, but personally have not felt the urge to "have a go" .......... may do in the future, and know exactly where to look for the information.

Hope this hasnt come across as a bit of a rant, not intended to be (y)



Dave ....
 
Can only second what everyone else is saying. Great shot. Composition is very nice and the colours work really well. Now you've got me interested in trying this.
 
Nice shot, looks computer generated. One question is, what is the dark mark in the bottom left corner, is it another bubble or was there an obstriction in front of the lens?
 
That is amazing, although it does look like CGI. The CD has made some nice colours and the details on the er.. bubbles makes it very interesting to look at.
 
D.R.D. said:
No, don't. The apology was the best bit... at least he realised it's just one big bore. If I see one more drop or splash of oil, water, food colouring, milk etc I swear I'm gonna scream.



Why? :shrug:
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a) I am a she not a he.

b) Maybe you could engage your brain and not click on posts that clearly show they hold a subject that doesn't interest you. Just a thought...
 
Daysleeper40 said:
Maybe you could engage your brain and not click on posts that clearly show they hold a subject that doesn't interest you.
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Maybe one day some folk will engage theirs, and come up with something remotely interesting and original instead of reproducing technical exercises spoon-fed to them by the magazines.
 
D.R.D. said:
Maybe one day some folk will engage theirs, and come up with something remotely interesting and original instead of reproducing technical exercises spoon-fed to them by the magazines.
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I just tried looking at your gallery for something interesting & original but it was empty............. How strange:cautious:
 
Love the colours - and if that's a first attempt .. I'd quit while I was ahead!
 
D.R.D. said:
Maybe one day some folk will engage theirs, and come up with something remotely interesting and original instead of reproducing technical exercises spoon-fed to them by the magazines.
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The spoon-fed exercises can be a great starting point. My 30+ years of teaching secondary school proved that many times over.
 
D.R.D. said:
No, don't. The apology was the best bit... at least he realised it's just one big bore. If I see one more drop or splash of oil, water, food colouring, milk etc I swear I'm gonna scream.



Why? :shrug:
Click to expand...

D.R.D. said:
Maybe one day some folk will engage theirs, and come up with something remotely interesting and original instead of reproducing technical exercises spoon-fed to them by the magazines.
Click to expand...

I look forward to your amazing posts then ;) Could you really come up with something unique? I bet everything has been done before, but it's how you interpret it.

Sometimes you need to realise that there are a wide range of abilities on this forum. Some may have tried these techniques before, some have never seen things like this before or might be outside their area of expertise and they might want to try something different. Either way, this person has got off their backside and away from a computer to actually put into practice what they've seen others do and not only produced a stunning image, but learnt a lot in the meantime.

I've not done this before, but I've a perfect requirement for something like this so I'll be giving it a go also.
 
Well done Fi.
In as much as you can "compose" oil droplets (my one and only attempt at this ended up with one huge central blob) this has worked really well. I like the framing that you've used with the one large circle at the bottom and the colour is lovely. Good clarity, but for me, it would have been nice if you could have tweaked your amazingly expensive and high tech lighting set-up ;) to get consistent lighting across it and eliminate the dark bits top right and bottom left.

When I have the time and the patience to set it up properly I really want to have a proper go at this. I just hope that mine comes out as well as yours.

p.s. If I post them up here I'll be sure to PM D.R.D so that he can share his words of wisdom about mine too :naughty:
 
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