http://www.digitalcameraworld.com MARCH 2021 DIGITAL CAMERA^75
Add a splash of colour
Experiment with liquid food colouring and other dyes to make your shots stand out
Missed focus
If your drop shots are looking
soft, place a pencil in their path
and manually focus on the
lettering on that. You may need to
fine-tune the focus several times
over the course of a session,
especially if you’re using
a home-made rig.Wet gear
Water and electronic camera
gear do not mix well! If your
flashgun is within the splash
zone, place a plastic bag loosely
over your flash to protect it. You’ll
need to take regular breaks so
that the your flashgun
doesn’t get too hot.Water marks
If your lens is close to the
water surface, there’s a risk that
you’ll end up with small water
marks on the lens. These can be
irritating to remove, so fit a lens
hood and drop a cloth across
the front of it to protect your
glass between shots.Background
Choose a shooting angle
that doesn’t reveal the edge of
the glass or tray, and keep the
water level topped up so that the
rim isn’t exposed when a drop
hits the surface. Check the
edges of the backdrop aren’t
visible in the drop itself.Camera skills Solve water-drop photography problems
Choosing the right camera settings is the easy part – it’s the other details that make a big difference
As well as using different
backdrops or adding lighting gels
to the flashgun to introduce colour to
your drop shots, you can, of course,
use coloured liquid – although this
does mean you’ll have to take extra
precautions to protect everything
nearby from splashes.
Fruit cordial, food colouring and
even paint can be used to good effect.
Milk can provide a good base for the
colour, but clear liquids offer a more
subtle rendering. Once you’re happy
with your set-up, try mixing the
colours, using drops that are a
different colour to the liquid they
are falling into. Milkshake flavouring
was used to create this shot. A little
milk was added to the water in the
jug to turn it cloudy and make the
colour stand out more.Unlike water, which looks better lit from behind, it’s more effective to light milk from the side
or above. The pale backdrop is made darker simply by changing the angle of the two flashguns.CAMERA COLLEGE