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How to Photograph a Water Droplet without Flash

Watch this photography tutorial video to learn how to photograph a drop of water using continuous light.
Article By Sasha Gitin Video By Robert Grant

201

Looking to master Liquid Splash Photography? we highly recommend: Mastering Splash Masterclass video / eBook by Alex Koloskov. Highly detailed textual info and 4-hour step by step video. Intended for commercial, advertising and fine art photographers as well as advanced amateurs. Click here for more info.


Photographs of a water drops always captivate viewers. These images possess the magic which is not seen by the naked eye. Water is the most familiar substance in our environment, but the drop falls so fast that we only notice the ripples on the surface. The camera is wonderful device at freezing such a quick motion that it allows us to capture the movement of a drop at any moment in time.

water droplet photography

Recently, we demonstrated how to photograph liquid pour and splash using a clamp lamp as a light source. We received some challenging emails and comments across the forums which stated that shooting a water drop would be not possible with continuous clamp light. So we took the challenge. Well it was not easy, and it took six clamp lamps with a 120w halogen spot light bulbs to make it happened. So after some days of experimenting, we came out with this technique… (Actually Robert did, I was mostly critiquing…)

Photographing a water droplet splash:

As you already know, the shutter speed controls the time of the exposure. From experimenting we found that 1/1000 sec is the minimal speed required to freeze the motion.

Reflective light:

When you photograph a drop of water, the light is reflective, as oppose to directly back-lit (as we did in our water pour tutorial). in the article on how to photograph reflective objects we explained the concept behind the angle of reflection. So in this can case, we are not lighting the water itself, but what is reflected in the water (diffusion paper + gels).

Since reflective light loses a lot of intensity, more light is required to get the desired exposure while keeping the shutter speed at 1/1000 second or above.

Get the water drop in focus:

To get the shot in focus, observe carefully where the drop is falling and temporally hold some object in that same spot to focus your camera. Then set the camera to manual focus.

The height of a fall:

The longer the distance between the dropper and the surface of the water, the higher the bounce of the drop. Experiment with distance. Photographing the water splash that is created by a drop will require a lot of takes. The results could be very rewarding and unexpected.

Color:

Experiment with different colored water (using food coloring) and use different color gels for vibrant effect.

Gels: Rosco is a top manufacture of gels. This is a great kit to start.


Challenge: Create an image of a “water drop splash” post your results here using “share your shot” feature in comments. If you have shot water drop previously, using a different technique, feel free to post it, and please share the technique that you used with us.

Note: if you are in Atlanta, Georgia area, our friend Alex Koloskov is teaching a Master Class on Liquid Splash photography (which is designed toward advanced photographers). If this is of your interest: The next class is being held on June 11, 2011 check it out.

Related Tutorials:

  • How to Photograph Liquid Pour and Splash with Clamp Lamp
  • How to Photograph Water In Motion

Related Posts


Light Diffusion Tutorial: Soft Light Vs. Hard Light
October 2, 2013

How to Create Motion using Zoom Blur Photography Technique
March 15, 2013

How To Photograph Steam
June 29, 2012

Sasha Gitin
This Article was produced by Sasha Gitin and Robert Grant: co-founders of LearnMyShot.com.  Sasha is a fabulous food Photographer shooting for advertising and editorial industries. Robert Grant is a very creative Commercial Photographer shooting advertising and editorial, based in Connecticut. Two humble guys trying to keep you educated and entertained.

Tags: clamp lamp, color, gels, light, liquid, splash, water

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201 Comments

Propella
Fenella Ross-Elmer
5 years ago

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Hi, Im not able to view the video for water droplet – photography tutorial, just a grey screen with continous diasy styled dial …fenella

    Sasha Gitin
    Sasha Gitin
    5 years ago



    try updating your flash. http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Chris Fenton
6 years ago

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Have tried this today for one of my students at school, with great results. Will post them once I have had a look through. Many thanks!

David Ramirez
6 years ago

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Do you know Corrie White? She has mastered this technique for over 4 years. You can see her work in her website http://www.liquiddropart.comShe has also an e-book to explain her technique. It can be bought in her website for only $20.00 CAD. It is in PDF format, in english language and now it is also available in spanish language for the same price. It is a very interesting e-book and you can see a lot of beautiful pictures. Hope you enjoy it.

jim hy
6 years ago

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Red into Purple

hope you like it

jim hy
6 years ago

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Red planet

Hope you like this one

jim hy
6 years ago

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no title

one more

jim hy
6 years ago

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drips and drops

lasr one pretty goof for a blind guy huh?

Claudia Samples
6 years ago

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Water Drops

Just started getting a little into this and thought I’d share the Result…

Claudia Samples
6 years ago

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Water Drops

For some Reason it didn’t show it the first time…

    SASHA GiTiN
    SASHA GiTiN
    6 years ago



    very nice, the composition is very well balanced and the image is really well executed technically , great work.

    Claudia Samples
    6 years ago



    thank you :)

Siva Deevi
6 years ago

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My water crown

Used one Halogen light 62, Dosa Kadai and 50 mm lens. Thank you very much for sharing vedio and photos

Siva Deevi
6 years ago

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Another Water Splash

Thank you

Siva Deevi
6 years ago

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My Water crown

Used one Halogen light 6oW bulb, Dosa Kadai and 50 mm lens. Thank you very much Robert for sharing vedio and photos

Siva Deevi
6 years ago

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Another water splash

I used food color (Safforn color), 50 mm lens and one Halogen bulb ..

Siva Deevi
6 years ago

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Experiment with Plane water

Plane water splashes

Abdul Rahman
6 years ago

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Crown Splash

Fun with water clicks

WILLIAM PERRELLI
WILLIAM PERRELLI
6 years ago

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Icy

2010Canon 7d

Harish kumar.N
6 years ago

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Droplet

i could capture few Drops crating a crown on the surface ……

Malcolm Price
6 years ago

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A drop of blackcurrant cordial

Hi Folks,After watching your superb video. I had a go, I did everything as close to set up in the video as I could but because of arthritis in the hands I found using the dropper difficult so what I did was: I took a 1 litre plastic bottle and using a hot nail put a small hole in the base, I filled it with water and fastened the top tight and fixed it on the rig. I then released the top slowly to achieve a steady flow of drops. This is the beginning not the end. Thanks.

bryan reed
7 years ago

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water drop

Hello guy’s , this water drop thing is a little harder then it seems. After about 60 try’s I finally got this one. I will try again with some color next time. Thanks for the lesson I’ve learned a lot doing this tutorial .

Mishari al3jran
7 years ago

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_al3jran/6590242049/

Joao Ventura
7 years ago

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Water drop

Had lots of fun doing this! :)

Joao Ventura
7 years ago

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water drop 2

Thank you for the video guys. Very helpfull ! :)


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