78 DIGITAL CAMERA^ MARCH 2021 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Water-drop photography tips
You won’t go wrong if you...
1
Be prepared Have plenty of camera
consumables to hand: this type of
photography eats up memory card space
in no time. Shooting at home does mean your
computer is likely to be close by for copying the
files when your cards are full, though. Having
an extra set of batteries around for your
flashgun may also come in handy.4
Light makes right Work on your lighting.
Bouncing the light from your flashgun off
a piece of card in the background will both
soften the light and make the drop visible. You may
see the background being refracted in the water
drop, too, so make sure that the edge of the card
or any unwanted objects aren’t visible.5
Keep the water clear Make sure the water
is clean when you’re shooting fruit-splash
shots. The liquid can end up a little cloudy
with particles in it, especially if you’re working with
soft fruit or segments. Cut down the amount of
touching up you need to do in software by
changing the water regularly.2
Protect your stuff Set up near a sink, and
protect nearby objects and surfaces with
plastic or similar waterproof coverings.
Check the front element of your lens regularly,
too, as any drops that make it that far will leave
marks that can be tricky to remove.3
Take yo ur tim e Spend some time studying
the behaviour and timing of your drops and
splashes. Take some test shots so you can
work out if you need to adjust the camera position
before settling on the final composition. Avoid
framing your shots too tightly, as some splashes
will inevitably be larger than others.If you need to make the exposure brighter
or darker, adjust the aperture and ISO
settings. You can also increase the power
of the flash a little – to 1/32 power, say –
but this will have an impact on the number
of shots you’ll be able to fire off in a rapid
burst sequence. Alternatively, you can
move your light source closer to or
further from your container.
You can use a similar home studio set-up
to record splash shots on a larger scale,
by dropping fruit into a flat-sided glass
container. Here, you’re looking to capture
the fruit and the shape of the splash, soyou’ll need to line up your camera with the
water line so that you are able to record
both. You’ll need to change your lighting
arrangement, so that the flash comes
from the side and slightly behind the
subject and the splash is backlit.
Consider softening the flash with a
diffuser or a piece of folded tracing paper,
although the sharper light of a bare flash
can add a sparkling quality to fizzing
bubbles. Check that the flash isn’t creating
lens flare, and use some crumpled kitchen
foil on the opposite side of the tank to fill
in any shadows on the fruit.ÁȸɵɖɀǣȇǕɵȒɖȸǝȒȅƺ
ɀɎɖƳǣȒɀƺɎٮɖȵɎȒ
ƬƏȵɎɖȸƺɀȵǼƏɀǝɀǝȒɎɀ
ȒȇƏȅɖƬǝǼƏȸǕƺȸɀƬƏǼƺLeave space around
the edge of the frame- you can always
crop tighter later.
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