Introduction: Photography: Water Droplets
Capturing water droplets is a fun and easy thing to do. Here I will show you how to capture a droplet, along with how to change it's color without using any editing software!
Step 1: What You Will Need:
1. Camera with a flash
2. Len capable of capturing small objects(A zoom lens or any lens on a bellow will work)
3. Tripod
4. A plastic bag
5. A large container
6. Water
7. Color paper or folders
Step 2: Catching the Water
Fill your large container with water, make sure not to fill it to much as the water dropping in could overflow it. Place a color of choice underneath your container(if it's a translucent container). Then place a second color behind the container.
You can use different colors for underneath and behind or the same ones. Depending on the colored papers placement it will reflect on different parts of the droplet. Using different colors gives a nice duel tone shot.
Step 3: Water Falling
Fill your plastic bag to about 1/3rd full and hang it above your container.
Then use a pin, needle or some form of sharp object to poke a Small hole on the bottom of the bag. One water drop a second is a good speed, but faster or slower will work as well.
Step 4: Set Up Your Camera
Set up your tripod and camera, make sure your far enough way that you can focus on the water and not get the camera wet! A low angle if preferable when trying to capture the droplet, but try different positions and see what you get!
Step 5: Focusing
A lot of times cameras have a hard time focusing on water. We get past this by using a place marker.
Put a place marker(I used a bolt, anything that doesn't float away will work though) right underneath where the water droplets are hitting the water.
Focus the shot on the place marker, then turn your Auto Focus off. Now we are focused on the spot where the water hits.
Step 6: Getting the Shot
Water falling is not a slow motion, so to help capture it you need to make sure to have settings that will get the shot.
I used 1/250sec for the shutter speed to get a nice clear shot. You can use a slower shutter speed, but the slower you go the more blurry the shot will become.
You will want to be in a somewhat dark area, as external light can reflect undesirably.
Make sure you have the flash on and shoot away!
It make take a few shots to get that perfect moment, so keep clicking till you find your perfect shot.
Try different colors to change the color of the droplet!