Light trails and waterdrops....

Ok I decided to have a play other night/tday with light trails and water drop shots Heres my first attempts of both. Any CC Welcome!

Light trails aint really all that intresting (hard to get lots of trafic in middle of nowhere!) But I thought they came out well.
The first 1 is actually a train which was ment to be 6 cariages but instead was 2 (typical BR) so the speed was overtimed a tadge!







I had to do these water drops with a small jam jar lid as I cant find anything squirty!!

Come on people, 35 views and no comments? They cant be that good surely!?

Lil Andy
light trails I can't say much on them as I have no clue about those images. I have seen them and when they are spot on they look great. Yours seem to be full of light instead of being dark overall except the light trails, so may be you could work on that.

Now about water drops, sorry but they are all out of focus. Best is for you to restart the whole process from the basics including aperture settings also as you have to control the DOF really well, otherwise they will come up with the images of things that you might not want to include like that table cloth or whatever is on the bottom of the jar. Unless of course that was your idea to begin with, to include that in the shot and make it visible.

But from what I see focusing is really your main problem. They are way out of focus unfortunately. You might also have to read and check about lighting and the angles, although I know that it is possible for certain shots to use the onboard flash, but general consensus including some of the best shots of water drops I have seen, all agree that you have to bounce the light in order to get the best images. But these rules are not cast in stone, as with all these type of photography, in my modest opinion and mind you from a newbie's point of view like mine, experimentation is the best.

Hope this helps, and keep trying

For these type of shots you should either:
1) Switch to manual focus
2) Turn off the "AF on half press" option in the custom menu and use the "AF button"

What you need is the camera, on a tripod, already focused so that when you press the shutter the camera just takes the shot (and doesn't try to autofocus again!)

HTH!
Matt

I endorse what MattMatic has said and reiterate the use of a tripod is essential.

Thanks Guys, These were taken with a tri-pod and a remote. My main prob was with the lighting but hopefully gana knock sumat together to help with that

I floated a lid in the water to focus on to start with and then left it focused at that has anyone got any beter methods to try and get more in focus?

I was useing my 70-300mm Tamron on macro mode.

I agree DOF needs to be shallower and yes I did want to get a bit of the cloth underneath in focus but obv more of the drop itself!

Thanks for comments guys

Oh and as for the light trails, what can I say? Its these summer nights!! lol

They were taken around 11pm :-s

Even during what you call "summer nights" if you get the settings correctly you get the darkness required around the trailing lights.

Lil Andy

I can't see the EXIF on the water drops images but one thing I can assure you, you were way way out of focus. You were nowhere near the focus on what you said a floating lid. Hmmm hold on, how big was the lid? Was the lid same diameter as the jar? If that's the case then no wonder you were thrown so out of focus.

For water drops you need to put something of the diameter of the intended water drop precisely on the surface of the fluid where you are expecting the drop to fall. Welcome to macro focusing

If you put things bigger than the spot you intend to get the focus on then its almost like aiming to reach Birmingham but taking the M4 and ending in Bristol instead

Ahhhh right thats prob where I went wrong.
Jar lid was about 1" 1/2 diameter!

Never thought of that

Right Ile try with something a lil different next time! Now whats small n floats?? :

Thanks Amin!

Andy, just hold a pencil or similar at the height & position you think the drop will be & focus on that. Then turn to MF, it's trial and error from here on. There's no point focusing on the floating object as the drop will be 10-20mm above the surface when the splashes occur.

Flash will also help freeze the motion, a load of white card around the subject will reflect light to improve the overall lighting.

I've only tried it a couple of times to get the technique in my head. It's hard to get an original shot as it's been done many times over, but it's always nice to do it yourself

Ahh of course, set my sights higher!! LOL

Thanks RR really appreciate the tips Ile maby give it anouther go over the weekend when I have more time to experiment, Maby see if I can Get a dropper thing as well!

Very nice shots btw, Ile see if I can beet them next time