Milk Splash

All K7, 100mm D FA Macro.
AF240FT off-camera flash.

































Hope you like them, C&C most welcome.


Roger.

I've no idea how I would start to achieve anything like these. So may have no right to pass comment. However I'm not keen on the first three. I don't think the shutter speed has been fast enough to freeze the movement of the small droplets. I do like four and five, especially four, it has the look of another world being viewed from the surface of an alien planet

Well done, a cracking set of shots Mate.

3 and 5 for me

Thanks for the feedback, all.

I think that any softness in the first three may be the size of the droplets showing-up shortcomings in focusing, with the crop size coming into play as well.
It's possible, also, that with the "corona" shots, depth of field is insufficient to hold the whole structure in focus.

The shutter speed is irrelevant in these images. It's the speed (brevity) of the flash that's the deciding factor.

Next batch, I'll try a closer flash/subject distance to decrease the duration of the exposure, which may enable a smaller aperture (more d-o-f).

Again, thanks for the comments.

Roger.

A few more, last for this evening!
























Thankyou & goodnight!

Roger.

Hi Roger, they are just Crackers, bang on mate........Well captured

Paul

Well done Roger, I can imagine it's quite difficult to get shots like this right and I think you've done a great job.

Regards
David

Nice one Roger. Always pushing your boundaries

I do see Barrie's point. Was flash the only illumination, or was there some ambient light?

Thanks, Alan.

Flash was the only illumination, there being the vestiges of daylight from the window, but it wasn't the sunniest evening ever!
I would not have thought the ambient light would have registered at iso200,1/180th at f16...?

I thought about this quite a lot & I think it's a combination of lack of d-o-f, slightly missing full focus & sometimes the flash simply being not short/quick enough.
The last image seems to show a fast enough speed, at the left, to freeze the droplets but the central/front ones have come out of the d-o-f.

The "worst" one looks to be no3, where, I think, the droplets are simply travelling too quickly to be stopped by the, presumably, high flash speed
which has been sufficient for the sphere & column ones which, generally are as sharp as a sharp thing, particularly, no.2 in the second set.

Thanks, all, for looking & the interest shown,

Roger.

P.S., does anyone know if the flash duration is get-at-able from anywhere?

Hello Roger,

as a non-native English speaker I'm not 100% sure if I understand your last question correctly, but I'll be hoping I got you right. I don't know if the AF240 FT is the only flash available to you, and if it is, I can't help you with that. But if you could get a Metz flash, for example Metz 58 AF-1, at the end of the user manual you would find a table with "Flash durations at the individual partial light output levels", in which you would find that, for example, at full power (1/1) the flash duration is 1/125 second, and at the lowest power (1/256) the duration is 1/33000 second. All of the other values in between are listed, too. The less powerful models, like AF48 or AF50, have these tables in their user manuals as well.

Great shots anyway I hope one day I'll have the skill, patience and time to try something similar.

Thanks, Juraj, but the Pentax AF240Ft is the most powerful gun I have. No Metz, I'm afraid.
But hey, Christmas is coming.......
(Sorry about that!)

Roger.

And look, this is what I found in the Pentax AF240 FT User Manual: "Flash duration (at 1/2 peak): About 1/2000 sec., at Manual H discharge: about 1/20000 sec., at Manual L discharge: about 1/30000 sec. Auto shortest discharge". I don't know anything about the flash or its controls, but it might make sense to you. My understanding of "Auto shortest discharge" is that in Auto mode you get the shortest possible discharge required for correct exposure, but since it is automatic, you'll never know what it was.
Glad I could help

Juraj

Thanks, Juraj.

At manual L, duration of 1/30,000th. then!
I would have thought that would stop even the fastest droplet....?

Roger.

Nice shots, Roger, keep meaning to have a try at this myself.