Playing with water

Well, life has got in the way recently. All my plans for capturing Autumn's colours went out of the window. So, tonight I decided I just had to photograph something. So, I got a bowl of water and had a play for an hour.
Here are my favourites. C&C welcome.

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/PHOTOS/Splash3upload.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/PHOTOS/Splash1upload.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/PHOTOS/Splash2upload.jpg[/IMG]

second one gets my vote of the 3, nice colour, shame the droplet was not a tad sharper

Sharpness was a major issue. Having to use macro settings with wide aperture and tiny DoF, but not being able to control exactly where the drop fell was, well, interesting (frustrating!).

Did you try multi exposures?I often use it for fast action sports.

No, wasn't sure if the multi shot would be fast enough and the flash wouldn't recharge in time anyway. So each shot was a single, trying to time the shutter for when the drop hit.

Good effort Ted. I really like No. 2 but sharpenss is a slight issue. As in all forms of photography you can only get better at this with practise.
David

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

Number 2 gets my vote as well

Nice attempts, gives me something to compare to when I try this

Yep, I've already got plans for my next go. Stronger lighting, so less reliance on flash and smaller aperture.

Do you not want more reliance on flash Ted to freeze the action?

I was thinking that, but with enough light then shutter speed may do that for me
Or maybe a combination of both?

You'll need a ridiculous amount, well nigh impossibly ridiculous amount of light, to approach anything like the length of exposure flash can give you.

Oh!
Well that's that plan out of the window then

You could try using an off camera flash, quite close in on one side, with a white card(?) reflector on the opposite side.
The reflector will give good fill light to the splash, at the same time "fooling"" the flash into giving a very short flash duration whilst reducing re-charge times as well. Win/win!
It worked for me.

Good luck!

Roger.

there are some excellent tutorials on youtube on doing water drops with and without flash that may help, also smoke photography as the requirements are similar. did both about 18months ago for a college project, having seen this may have to have another go.