Water Drops - A rainy day experiment!

[AndyBorzi]

Pretty much rained off here for anything outside so, tried this. Not the best background but I am quite pleased with the results.

They were taken with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro @f11 1/125th sec. A 550EX speedlite pointing at the ceiling was master and a 430EX, as slave, to the left of the drops with the flash head pointing at the subject.

Basically it was me pouring water from a wine glass into a full glass bowl while my other hand tripped the shutter. All very technical! If I spent more time at it I probably would have used a different background and tried different angles.

1)

2) Think this looks like an angel or a dancer maybe?

3) Almost phallic!

 

[Messiah Khan]

Certainly works for me. As you say, the background is a bit meh, but other than that, nice job. Would also be interesting mixing up the liquid. Ie, try coloured liquids etc. Good job.

 

[AndyBorzi]

Thanks! The background is the tiles behind the sink where I had the bowl of water!! A plain background may not have worked? I quite like the effect in the water of the tiles, just a shame about their colour!

Interesting idea about the coloured liquids though.

 

[inophoto]

I love 'em. Especially since they are clear. The clarity is superb. They look like weird ice sculptures.

I agree about the background. Could always convert them to mono though.

 

[whiteflyer]

I like how you can see the tiles in the water on the first shot

 

[JPS]

Cracking shots, number two especially.

 

[Jonnyreb]

Number 2 is a cracker mate. There was an article on this type of work last week (or earlier) with flash and exposure techniques in one of the mags. The guy that did that famous milk splash shot.

 

[AndyBorzi]

Number 2 is a cracker mate. There was an article on this type of work last week (or earlier) with flash and exposure techniques in one of the mags. The guy that did that famous milk splash shot.

Thanks . Do you remember what magazine it was?

 

[AndyBorzi]

I love 'em. Especially since they are clear. The clarity is superb. They look like weird ice sculptures.

I agree about the background. Could always convert them to mono though.

Thank you for your comments.

Does this work?

 

[Dan Leach]

Wow, great shots. Might have to try something like that

 

[Venomator]

Nice work ... ... and some really interesting results you got there Andy ... ... the mono conversion works really well imgo ...

 

[Jonnyreb]

Thanks . Do you remember what magazine it was?

Sorry - has to do a major search then! Page 50 of Amateur Photographer, June 23rd Edition (last weeks). Should be available still for a couple of days

 

[AndyBorzi]

Sorry - has to do a major search then! Page 50 of Amateur Photographer, June 23rd Edition (last weeks). Should be available still for a couple of days

Thanks for that, I shall pop to the newsagents tomorrow and see if they have it.

 

[Les McLean]

Great shots, fantastic results

 

[Jonnyreb]

Thanks for that, I shall pop to the newsagents tomorrow and see if they have it.

If you cant give me a shout and i'll scan it for you. Its featured in a book called "Heaven and Earth" too

 

[Messiah Khan]

If you cant give me a shout and i'll scan it for you. Its featured in a book called "Heaven and Earth" too

If you do scan it Jonny, could I get a copy as well please mate. Looks like something I could amuse myself with on rainy days.

 

[InaGlo]

Seems like forever since Ive been meaning to have a go at this ... if theres a scanned feature being passed around, someone give me a shout too please.

My fave is your angel/dancer in mono, its lovely, looks like glass.
But as soon as I saw the pic open ... I thought Matador!

 

[Jonnyreb]

Anyone wanting a scan; please PM your e-mail address to me. I'm too lazy to check profiles

 

[AndyBorzi]

My fave is your angel/dancer in mono, its lovely, looks like glass.
But as soon as I saw the pic open ... I thought Matador!

I do like the mono one as well. I may have it printed large.

You're right, Matador, maybe I should change the title to Ole!

 

[madmitch]

Wow great result, something else to try

 

[moomike]

2nd shot for me too although I prefer it in colour (don't know what's gotten into me recently, I never normally prefer colour!) Really nice sense of movement - have you thought about just changing the tile colour?
Great shots overall

 

[Lady Pitstop]

excellent shots - have to agree with Moomike - I like the colour ones best

 

[ShootinJack]

Great shots. Using blue water with a white back ground may look rather good too. Hope to see some more shots like this if you decide to experiment with coloured water.

 

[photomad]

i love these shots id like to print them out and have them on my wall

is that ok with you

 

[dod]

good shots, it's remarkably difficult to get something decent. Very much hit or a miss and yours have "hit"

 

[busterboy]

good shots, it's remarkably difficult to get something decent. Very much hit or a miss and yours have "hit"

And for the first time I am going to use this smiley..

 

[AndyBorzi]

i love these shots id like to print them out and have them on my wall

is that ok with you

Feel free, if you want a larger version, let me know and I will host it for you.

 

[oldgit]

ohhh nice

 

[AndyBorzi]

good shots, it's remarkably difficult to get something decent. Very much hit or a miss and yours have "hit"

Hi dod, thanks very much for your "hit"

I know what you mean about miss....I did another set tonight with my Pentacon 135 manual lens with a full set of extension tubes on to see what I get. I don't think I got a single decent one, although I have posted a few on my flickr site as these are the better ones I feel.

I quite like this one:

I was struggling with the dof (or lack of!) abit and I couldn't get my aim right...typical bloke though I guess!

Also this one looks like a freestyle swimmer:

Both of these are uncropped...its too late now but I am itching to try again!

 

[photomad]

sizes are just great just ned to buy some frames

cheers

 

[dunedin]

Excellent, number 2 for me and agree with title, I have glass statue like it.

 

[liam1412]

Amazing shots. can't wait until I can do something like this. Only trouble is until I get a digi it would be a great waste of film. lol

 

[Shorn]

The black and white conversion is excellent. Deffo something I am going to try myself.

 

[kamion]

Very nice! Like the dancer one.

 

[AndyBorzi]

Thankyou all very much for your comments. The first batch certainly came out much better than I imagined!

I plan to do more tonight, quite addictive this!

 

[ron boon]

Brilliant stuff - really really like the idea - must gibe it a try. Love the shapes. Thought a little crop to centre the Angel/Dancer might help. These are so strong they can take even bolder colours tried this for you - hope you don't mind

 

[HIMUPNORTH]

Good stuff. For different colours have you tried gels over your flash?

 

[AndyBorzi]

Brilliant stuff - really really like the idea - must gibe it a try. Love the shapes. Thought a little crop to centre the Angel/Dancer might help. These are so strong they can take even bolder colours tried this for you - hope you don't mind

Thats great, I like the red wish I had thought of the background but had another go last night - with red background! I haven't tried cropping it centrally or anything like that, so could probably do with tidying up abit. I haven't had a real good shot since my first batch but it is fun trying!

I also tried with a baking tray, to see what difference shallow water makes:

The rim of the tray spoils it though but as the title suggests - experiment!

 

[AndyBorzi]

Good stuff. For different colours have you tried gels over your flash?

Thank you

I don't have any gels, but we have some of that coloured tissue paper for my daughter; wonder if that would do any good?