Will My Camera Work for Drop Pictures?

This is a question I frequently get. The short answer is, “Most likely it will.”

Most any camera will do. I use a an electronic circuit to trigger the camera, so I need one that has an electronic shutter release (most do). I use a variety of methods to create my Liquid Sculpture images, but in general, the technique is as follows:

    1. Create the drop(s), somehow, knowing just when it is released, somehow.
    2. Wait a specific amount of time.
    3. Open the shutter.
    4. Wait a bit more.
    5. Trigger the flash.
    6. Close the shutter.
    7. Repeat ad nauseum.

I use a flash for all my lighting, and the high speed of the flash is what stops the motion. The shutter speed is not important – I usually use 1/100th second.

A person can instead use a fast shutter for some of this work, but I haven’t played with it much. Most modern cameras have a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000th or 1/8000th second. That is fast enough to stop many types of motion like single drop splashing. It won’t work very well for a popping balloon, or for the tiny droplets flying off from a splash. The fast moving parts will be blurred (which could be a desirable effect.)

One problem with using the shutter is the lag between triggering the shutter and the moment it opens – it isn’t truly deterministic. It may be 53 milliseconds on one shot and 54 on the next. That millisecond can be a large amount of time for some types of shots. My set up allows for 1/1,000,000 second accuracy, though I usually only work in 1/10,000 second increments.

Another problem is that focal plane shutters use a sliding window – a small slit moves across the film (CCD) surface. While each part of the film is exposed for only 1/8000th second, it actually takes 1/250th second for the slit to make its journey, so each part is exposed at a slightly different time. There are some clever ways to put this characteristic to use. In fact, Andrew Davidhazy at RIT has taken this to the extreme with his “strip camera”.

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22 Responses to Will My Camera Work for Drop Pictures?

  1. Najla says:

    oh my !!!
    im a big fan of yours ..
    congrats on the lovely images you got there, your so talented and we all learn from you 🙂 ..
    thanx for sharing Martin

  2. Monica True says:

    I’m speechless.. researching about Harold Edgerton for a college presentation, I found your site and your pictures and I have no words to describe your work.. it’s more than brilliant.

    I certainly would love to include some of your work at the presentation.. with your permission of course !

    Sincerely

    your most recent admirer

    Monica True

  3. martinw says:

    Monica,

    I would be honored to be mentioned in the same discussion as Doc Edgerton. Thanks for asking permission. I’ll email you with the details.

    Martin Waugh

  4. Rose says:

    I’ve been facinated by waterdrop shooting for years, but always try to do it in my sink, or with the faucet dripping onto a dish, or just throwing a berry in some milk. I have a Nikon D50, and usually just pop the flash to a 1/16th speed, the f-stop at f/32, and the shutter speed at 1/500; start the water dripping, lower the light in the room, and then shoot till my back breaks. I may take 200 shots in an hour and still not be satisfied, or I may get one I “like” out of a weeks worth of tries. LOL… I have no fancy flash equipment, unfortunately, and wouldn’t know how to go about doing as you do. BUT, can you give me any pointers on how to get one where I may be doing something wrong? Also, I would like to know how you got the red, white, blue in the milk composition to be so displaced symetrically rather than one big blob of mixed food coloring. Thanks! Rose

  5. Rose says:

    Whoops, one more thing. A lot of your images have super flat surfaces that are not opaque as the liquid. What are you using for a base for the water to drip on? Is it a mirror or glass? Thanks! Rose

  6. martinw says:

    Rose,

    I think it is very hard to work with liquids without special equipment to help out. Well, it’s hard anyway, but the equipment can help reduce the number of expletives. Some people have managed to get some great shots entirely by hand, but I’m not one of them.

    The red-white-and-blue milk composition you ask about was done by very carefully placing small beads of food coloring on a flat surface and then landing a drop of milk in the middle of them. As the bowl forms, it picks up the food color.

    I’m not sure which images you’re referring to in you second question. Sometimes I use a pool of water, sometimes a dry, flat, shiny surface. (Given the slight camera angle, almost any shiny surface will appear to be a mirror.)

    Martin

  7. Ark Biel says:

    High speed photography always fascinated me. I soon realized that shooting by hand will not get me anywhere.

    I constructed a timer for high speed photography that allows me to trigger a flash or or a camera shutter. I was able to capture water drops, popping balloons and shuttering light bulbs without much trouble. Well, making it look good is another problem.

    Please check http://www.universaltimer.com

    Ark

  8. Don Cox says:

    I have taken a couple drop shots with a caveman set-up. NOTHING compared to yours.A drip bottle made from a 20 ounce plastic pop bottle with a 2 straw configuration, and a canon rebel XTi..It is very hard to get the whole “umbrella” of an impact in focus,if someday you have the time to browse through my photos. I would be honored to have your critique on my work.Thank You in advance….Don

  9. bill cousins says:

    im still in school and i am interested in working in water drop photography. Your work is the best i have found and was wondering if you could give me some pointers besides the ones included on this page. i do have access to some flash equipment but im not sure how to set up a flash trigger

    yours sincerly

    Bill cousins

  10. Tom says:

    AMAZING shots !! I’m really stunned! I’m trying to build a setup myself, but I can’t figure out how to get just two drops and with the right time spacing (without spending a lot of money :-)). How do you do it? If I might ask.

    Cheers, and keep up the great work!!

    Tom

  11. Eri says:

    Wow! I was simply searching water on google images (i do things like that) and i found these water droplet photos. They are very aesthetic, i love looking at them. Its a cool idea and thanks for answering that question!

  12. Vesi says:

    Dear, Martin

    What can I say that has not been said already? =)
    Your work is brilliant and I haven’t managed to achieve anything close. =) And I probably will not for a long time, as I do not have the right equipment… No special flashes, no electronic circuits to triggers anything, and no good camera really… =) I just hope that one day I’ll be able to do at least one hundredth as good as you. =)
    I hope you don’t mind that I have used your work in my work book for my course at college, as I just couldn’t resist putting it next to Edgerton’s “Milk Drop Coronet” (and I did need to show where I got my inspiration from…). =)
    If you do mind, please do tell me and I’ll take it off my book.

    Kindest regards
    Vesi

  13. Nico says:

    Hi, got a link to your site from Richard Labarbera when I told him I was messing around with water droplets. I just got the Canon 580 EXII flash, and I was wondering what sort of capabilities it would have in this genre of photography?

  14. martinw says:

    Nico,

    I haven’t yet experimented with it very much, but at a low power setting (1/128th) it has a pretty short duration (I haven’t yet measured it.) Ted Kinsman has an article about using one for bird photography: Ted’s article

  15. seo blog says:

    This is a really interesting blog post,I have added your blog to my bookmarks I really like it,keep up the good work!

  16. Edd Pearson says:

    Hi Martin,

    thanks for replying to my mail the other day.
    Ive taken what you said on board, and am looking forward to experimenting next week some more.

    I was just wondering if you did any editing of the photos after? like photoshop maybe?
    I know my camera isnt the best, so it always comes back slightly grainy, but yours are so perfectly crystal clear!
    heres another of my recent ones 🙂
    http://www.chinchillanet.co.uk/1.jpg

  17. martinw says:

    Edd,

    I do use NeatImage for noise reduction after the fact. It doesn’t usually make a *big* difference, though. Different cameras will have different responses to the short duration of the flash, I suspect.

  18. I usually don’t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful …

  19. Pingback: Foto Ultra RAPIDA. como captar lo que no congelamos con un flash normal - Página 19 - Canonistas.com

  20. AMAZING shots !! I’m really stunned! I’m trying to build a setup myself, but I can’t figure out how to get just two drops and with the right time spacing (without spending a lot of money :-)). How do you do it? If I might ask.

    Cheers, and keep up the great work!!

    Tom

  21. martinw says:

    Tom,

    If you already have a photogate and timer, getting two drops can be as simple as setting up a siphon to drip at about 10 drops per second, holding a cup under it to catch the stream, and then snatching it out of the way to capture the first two drops colliding. You can see me using this technique on Time Warp.

    Best of luck!

  22. Dear, Martin

    What can I say that has not been said already? =)
    Your work is brilliant and I haven’t managed to achieve anything close. =) And I probably will not for a long time, as I do not have the right equipment… No special flashes, no electronic circuits to triggers anything, and no good camera really… =) I just hope that one day I’ll be able to do at least one hundredth as good as you. =)
    I hope you don’t mind that I have used your work in my work book for my course at college, as I just couldn’t resist putting it next to Edgerton’s “Milk Drop Coronet” (and I did need to show where I got my inspiration from…). =)
    If you do mind, please do tell me and I’ll take it off my book.

    Kindest regards
    Vesi

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