More experimentation with water drops

[kirispupis]

Now that I am spending less time building my water drop setup and more time playing with it I thought I would share some more progress.

Recently I played around with cross polarization - which is placing polarizing gels on the speedlights and a polarizer over the lens.  When aligned correctly the technique removes most reflections.  I decided to try it on a black liquid to best see the effect.

This is with cross polarization

The River Styx by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

And this is without. Note that I changed the gel for the background between shoots.

Rain Cap by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

Personally I found X-polarization useful but it is a technique that really requires more lights.  The polarizer gel and filter took too much light away and required me to go higher in ISO than I preferred.  I also think in retrospect black liquid was a very poor choice for the test.  In the future I plan to  try this again with a lighter liquid and more lights.

In this shot I started trying something much different but didn't meet much luck there.  I wound up playing with the reflections on the drops.  This is caused by the color of the drops themselves combined with the geled speedlight behind them and the effectively geled (through the water) speedlight below.  I like the effect but need to play with this more to better understand it.

Bowling for Bubbles by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

This is another failure.  I started by trying to collide drops in midair - similar to what I did in my 2nd shot above - but I had difficulties getting it to work again.  I then collided drops with the splatter of the first drop, where I succeeded but found the effect not so interesting.  I ended up with this shot.

Into the Wishing Well by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

[serendipidy]

Very cool   Keep posting.

[yogi]

I dont know why you call some of them failures. I like them all, and find water drop photos intriquing. Have been wanting to play with them for awhile but need to find the time for the setup. Maybe if i didnt spend so much time on canon rumors.

[yogi]

liked your water droplets photos so much that i decided to go to your web site. Interesting thoughts on forum etiquette. Though i have been visiting canon rumors for awhile, i just recently decided to become a member. Like you, i think about the psychology/ego/nature of forums. I personally enjoy many of the sometimes fantastic photos that some members post, including yours & try not to be critical unless a poster asks for constructive criticisms. I just dont respond if i dont like someones photos, and respond in a positive way if i do(dont know if anyone cares about my opinion anyway). But also, i am learning much about the technical aspects of potography from some of the more experienced/technically proficient photographers and enjoy the debates about various subjects. Anyway, i am more interested in the artform aspects of photography, and think your waterdroplets photos are fantastic. There are probably other threads on this subject--i remember one photo by Neuro of a waterdroplet that was great, but cant remember what it was. I wouldnt  get too upset if i were you, and enjoy the fun of photography & think of the forum as another sharing/learning source.

[Ryan708]

Very nice shots, Id love to see a shot of your set-up. Are you using high speed synch, or just using the stobe to over-power ambient? nice nice work

[shutterwideshut]

Very nice shots, Id love to see a shot of your set-up. Are you using high speed synch, or just using the stobe to over-power ambient? nice nice work

+1 on that! 

[kirispupis]

I apologize for the quality of the shots, but here is my setup.

An overview of my setup.  Originally I started with the table and a large sheet of white background held up by a refrigerator box.  I later built the DIY light table.  Two light stands hold up a bar with the siphons and valves (not shown) and I have flexible arms and a magic arm  attached to them for speedlights.  Next to it is a stand I recently added to protect my equipment from the drops.  On the bottom are my liquid additives.  Above that are premixed colors and above that are my two Stopshots.

Drop Setup by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

This is a closer look at the setup.  At the top you can see my valve setup and trigger.  When the drops go through the two bars it triggers the other Stopshot.  You can also see my speedlight underneath the light box and a bit of another one behind.

Drop Setup by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

This is my valve setup.  I drilled holes in a sheet of metal and use screws to precisely position the valves.  I plan to redo this setup in the near future, but it is an improvement over the previous design.  The siphons themselves are anchored to a piece of wood above it and the whole contraption is attached to the cross bar.  I am able to relatively easily raise and lower the bar from the two light stands holding it.

Drop Setup by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

I use these gels for different backgrounds.  I have cut out more since taking this photo.

Gels by CalevPhoto, on Flickr

[miah]

Like many others, I want to thank you for posting and revealing your set-up, kirispupis. Fantastic stuff!

I just posted this to the older thread, but then saw this newer one, so thought I'd post it here, too. The American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics Gallery of Fluid Motion was posted to Yahoo, today. There are some stunning shots that I thought everyone here would appreciate. Here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/dreamy-images-reveal-beauty-physics-185551932.html

[Ryan708]

That is quite the set-up you have! Hard work has paid off!