Week 26 - June 30, 2013
When the thermometer tops 100-degrees and the forecast calls for a week or more of such baking heat, whatja gonna do? Time for a cool dip, yes? That's what I thought, especially since I've been admiring and studying the techniques needed to make these kinds of "splash" photos. Doing this indoors with flash sounded more difficult, (and likely messy too with splashing water in the house), so I decided the technique I learned about from this YouTube clip was what I'd try.
I did pretty much what the clip shows; laid my reflector on a table, put a 10-gallon fish tank on top of that, and filled it with water about half-way. Behind that I put a sheet of black paper. I found the direct sun hitting the paper made it brighter than I wanted, so I used another reflector, black side down, to shade it. Since the noonday sun was overhead and the reflector below, I now had both top and bottom lighting for objects in the tank. Perfect!
I mounted my new birthday present, a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens (the "nifty-50") on my Canon 50D camera and put that on the tripod. I rigged my Yongnuo radio trigger to the camera so I could remotely fire the camera. Settings were manual mode, ISO 400, apertures between f/4 and 6.3 and the key - shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 1/3200 of a second. The blazing sun easily outshone any flash I might have and the high shutter speeds easily froze the action. The shutter was also set to high-speed continuous mode so that for each drop I'd get a burst of about 5 shots.
So, good to go, I dropped the peppers, strawberries, and limes, trying to fire the bursts in synchronization with my drop. My wife Kathy came out to join in the fun and did some of the drops. Drop, shoot, clean the glass and repeat. For each drop, one shot of the burst might be good, but often not. Lots of shooting to get the keepers.
After that, another key was the capabilities of Lightroom, (I'm testing the new version 5), to get the good rich blacks I wanted, clone out spots and drops not wanted, and tune everything just right.
I was delighted with the sharpness of the 50mm lens, it living up to everything I'd heard about it. Overall, I was really happy with the results. This is Week 26 of the Project 52, the halfway point, and a nice way to mark it. Too bad the 10-gallon tank isn't big enough for me to get into... it's gonna be a sizzling week!
Click a photo below to see it larger and read the notes.
I did pretty much what the clip shows; laid my reflector on a table, put a 10-gallon fish tank on top of that, and filled it with water about half-way. Behind that I put a sheet of black paper. I found the direct sun hitting the paper made it brighter than I wanted, so I used another reflector, black side down, to shade it. Since the noonday sun was overhead and the reflector below, I now had both top and bottom lighting for objects in the tank. Perfect!
I mounted my new birthday present, a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens (the "nifty-50") on my Canon 50D camera and put that on the tripod. I rigged my Yongnuo radio trigger to the camera so I could remotely fire the camera. Settings were manual mode, ISO 400, apertures between f/4 and 6.3 and the key - shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 1/3200 of a second. The blazing sun easily outshone any flash I might have and the high shutter speeds easily froze the action. The shutter was also set to high-speed continuous mode so that for each drop I'd get a burst of about 5 shots.
So, good to go, I dropped the peppers, strawberries, and limes, trying to fire the bursts in synchronization with my drop. My wife Kathy came out to join in the fun and did some of the drops. Drop, shoot, clean the glass and repeat. For each drop, one shot of the burst might be good, but often not. Lots of shooting to get the keepers.
After that, another key was the capabilities of Lightroom, (I'm testing the new version 5), to get the good rich blacks I wanted, clone out spots and drops not wanted, and tune everything just right.
I was delighted with the sharpness of the 50mm lens, it living up to everything I'd heard about it. Overall, I was really happy with the results. This is Week 26 of the Project 52, the halfway point, and a nice way to mark it. Too bad the 10-gallon tank isn't big enough for me to get into... it's gonna be a sizzling week!
Click a photo below to see it larger and read the notes.
Here's a YouTube slideshow with more of the shots. For best viewing, use 1080 HD quality and full-screen options.
Technical Notes
Camera - Canon 50D
Lens - Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime
Exposure - ISO 400, apertures between f/4-6.3, shutter speeds 1/2000 to 1/3200
Shutter triggered with Yongnuo RF-602 radio trigger.
Photos of the setup as described above.
Lens - Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime
Exposure - ISO 400, apertures between f/4-6.3, shutter speeds 1/2000 to 1/3200
Shutter triggered with Yongnuo RF-602 radio trigger.
Photos of the setup as described above.