I had been hoping to get some crowns with my water splash shots but hadn’t had much luck making any. But I asked around on the High Speed Flash group on Flickr and got some good tips, so thought I would have another go.
Setup shot from the front
This time, I was using skimmed milk with red, green or blue food colouring. It was dropped from 40-60cm with the pippette, onto a sheet of opaque perspex. I used one YN560 @ 1/64 with my new DIY gridded snoot to throw light onto the droplet landing zone.
Setup shot from side/behind
This was lit from behind with one YN560 @ 1/16 through my DIY softbox and opaque perspex sheet, which gave a nice even illumination. As before, I was using ISO 200, 1/200 and f/16 which gave a blank frame without firing the flash.
Crowns weren’t evident with every drop, but I was getting them reasonably regularly. Still there was a lot of patience required though! Here are some of the best images from the session:
Almost A Double Crown
Mini Crown And Reflection
Beginnings Of A Crown
Low Profile
Blue Crown
Into the drop zone
I’m pleased with these considering they were timed by hand, but I still need to be able to hold the pippette in place – I’ve just ordered a retort stand and some clamps from eBay which should help.
My favourite was one of the red images for Day #1286.