Practical Photography - UK (2019-09)

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 83

I lo vewaterdrop

photographyand

gotmyselfa

SplashArtKit to

tr y out. I used

two off-camera

flashguns, black card, milk

and food colouring. Water and

milk drop shots are always

trial and error, but the kit

helps capture drops more

accurately. I darkened the

background and cloned out

unattractive artefacts.

youpic.com/photographer/

sandie_burns

Ben says: Water drop

photography can be truly

spectacular. With its amazing

colours and surreal droplet

fo rmations, it’s not hard to

see why so many creative

types are drawn like mothsto

the flame. Great results can

be achieved with pretty basic

gear, but after investing

in a SplashArt kit (£179,

phototrigger.co.uk), it’s

obviousthatSandiehasreally

caughtthewaterdropbug.

Thisis a verygoodwater

dropexample.Themixof

milk and food colouring has

resulted in an attractive

white/pink liquid blend, and

the ‘fronds’ emanating from

the central umbrella look

quite otherworldly. The

colours are bright and punchy

andtheexposureis almost

perfect,withtwooff-camera

flashgunscreatingsometiny

catchlights.If anything,I’d

li ke to see the colours and

contrast pushed even further,

as even a simple Levels or

Curves boost would make a

difference here and it’d take

seconds at the editing stage.

Also, applying a horizontal

flipmeansthatthe‘umbrella’

runsfromthetop-leftof the

fr ameto thebottom-right.

Westerneyesaretrainedto

readin thiswayandviewers

will instinctivelylookforan

obviousstartingpoint.

The onlyothertweakI’d

makeis to tiltthecamera

downslightly.There’sa lotof

emptyspaceatthetopof the

fr ame, while the curvature

of the milk is cut off at the

bottom. A more balanced

composition would make for

an even more beguiling shot.

Keep photographing those

water drops, Sandie!

Imagesandwordsdifferin thatoneis spacial while

theotheris linear,andyet we naturally‘scan’ both

fromleftto right.That’snotto saythatall images

shouldbe composedwiththis conventionin mind,

but it’s certainly worth thinking about if immediacy

and accessibility are key factors. We flipped

Sandie’s image (Image>Image Rotation>Flip

Canvas Horizontal) as we felt that its composition

could be improved. What do you think? Try it next

time you shoot a still life – it’s a simple change,

but one that could make a huge difference to the

impact of your image.

It’s not hard to see why creative

types are drawn to water drops

Splash attack by Sandie Burns

Nikon D7000 | 90mm | 1/200sec | f/20 | ISO 100

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Consider composition