Water macro

thepancakeman said:
Is this image inverted? It looks to my highly untrained eye like the pencil is actually underwater and the surface is at the bottom of the image.

No. The image is not inverted. Below is just the reflection.

Here are two more I took recently.
4.jpg

http://500px.com/photo/4506025

4.jpg

http://500px.com/photo/4397702
 
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thepancakeman

If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving
Aug 18, 2011
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kirispupis said:
thepancakeman said:
Is this image inverted? It looks to my highly untrained eye like the pencil is actually underwater and the surface is at the bottom of the image.

No. The image is not inverted. Below is just the reflection.

Here are two more I took recently.

BTW, I love your work! I guess the reason that my eye seems to think the one with the pencil is inverted is that coloring and lighting on the pencil has an underwater look to it. Do you add the color in post, or is your lighting set up that way?
 
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Great job to everyone posting pictures. These are amazing. I'm fairly new to the forums but am finding this a great place to learn. I shot a lot of macro on a Minolta film camera as a kid--you've all inspired me to dive into it again (as soon as I can convince my wife to let me buy some macro equipment... ;D)
 
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thepancakeman said:
BTW, I love your work! I guess the reason that my eye seems to think the one with the pencil is inverted is that coloring and lighting on the pencil has an underwater look to it. Do you add the color in post, or is your lighting set up that way?
Thanks! I do not add color in post, though I often play around with saturation and contrast. In the pencil shot the color came from a geled flash (you can see it a bit on the pencil). Recently I have moved to a setup where I use food coloring on the water in the pan, a different food coloring in the water being dropped, and a different color gel on the background flash.
 
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MazV-L said:
Think it was close to 800 LOL, and I wittled that down to abt 20

I thought so :) ... thus I'm always hesitant to do these kind of shots because I'd reach the shutter breaking point in no time - it's not just a matter of photographic ability (but your shots are great!) but of pure brute force, too. Using live view shooting at least saves the mirror flips...
 
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MazV-L

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Marsu42 said:
MazV-L said:
Took these shots awhile ago to enter a small photo contest- theme of the month was: "water".

I'm shooting macro, too, and I am wondering: How many shots did you do to get these good ones?
Think it was close to 800 LOL, and I wittled that down to abt 20. The biggest problem was the 550ex wasn't firing everytime. If I was to attempt to take the same shots again I'd use one of my 580exii with Cp-E4, that 'd definitely fix that, but the 550ex was the best speedlite I had at the time. Also the bottle I had rigged to drip the water wouldn't cooperate, so I had to squeeze the water drops out of it with one hand and trigger the shutter(cable) with the other, so alot of the drops fell wide of the field of focus.
 
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Actually, for the shot I just posted I did not need to take too many shots. When you get to this speed the shutter is not enough to freeze the action. You need to freeze it with flash. I set my flash manually to 1/128th. I use Yongnuo 565EX flashes. I have a 580EX II and 580EX as well but the 580EX does not have a miniport and the one on my 580EX II no longer works. I find it pitiful that I find my Chinese knockoff flashes more reliable than the real things.

To fire the camera and flash at the right moment I use two Stopshots from Cognisys. Even with this there is a tremendous amount of work to do. Everything takes time to setup and then I spend a lot of time trying different things to get what I am aiming for.

In this particular case I started with the column. Once I understood the # of milliseconds at which the drop hits a particular point and I know at what time the water column reaches the point I want, I know how many milliseconds I have to collide another drop with the top. I then fired another drop from a different siphon at a few milliseconds after the drop the forms the umbrella. This was the tricky part as originally my goal was to have this drop fall through the umbrella. I played with the timing a bit to get this happen and then noticed it wasn't as interesting as I thought so I then strove to get the drop just above, which proved a bit challenging. Ironically I kept getting the drop falling through the umbrella - which I was trying to do before but now didn't want.

I really enjoy water drop shots and I am slowly learning different tricks. It's not easy to take these shots but it is very rewarding when you get a good one.
 
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Wideopen said:
These pictures are very inspirational. What do most of you recommend as a good macro starter lens?

You should have written how much a "starter" price tag is to you - but as my first macro lens I got a used Canon 100mm non-L which sell cheap because there are so many floating around and many people seem to upgrade to the L or 70-200. IQ-wise it's almost like the newer L version, but that sells at almost 100% of the original price.
 
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MazV-L

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Wideopen said:
These pictures are very inspirational. What do most of you recommend as a good macro starter lens?
For my first (and only) macro lens, I went straight to the 100mm HIS 2.8L and have no regrets. It also doubles as a great portrait lens and the Hybrid Image Stabilisation comes in handy when for some reason you can't set up a tripod for the shot.
You didn't state if you had an APS-C or Full-frame? I also prefer to use this lens on my APS-C body for macro because the subject is larger in the frame and Depth of Field slightly deeper.
 
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