Poor Mans Method to Take Photos of Water Droplets

Supplies:

• DSLR
• 55-200mm lens (can be swapped for any lens you wish to use, macro or telescopic.)
• Appropriate cable to connect DSLR to PC (Or can be replaced by camera auto-timer capture)
• Computer with digiCamControl (not needed if camera has auto capture timer)
• Tripod
• Lots of lights
• Light gel or any colored plastic
• Large bowl
• Extra containers
• Syringe/Dropper
• Black paper and Black backdrop
• Water
• Milk
• Tattoo ink/India ink/Any food dye
• Tape
• Colored paper

The first step is to get all your equipment setup in the right positions. Start off with laying a piece of sacrificial black paper or black towel on your table. Mark a small white dot as your focal point. Next setup your camera on the tripod and choose a position and angle. I used a Nikon 55-200mm lens and had it zoomed in on 135mm from a meter away. Parallel with the surface or birds eye view, you can choose what you like. Put an object on your white dot and adjust your focus.

Next you can start setting up your lights. I went with three lights and used my monitors behind as ambient lighting. Two lights were white and were setup facing directly in front of the bowl from the camera, and another 45 degrees off. I setup a bendable work light next to the bowl pointing to the middle of the bowl and attached a red piece of plastic. I used my monitors and set my desktop color to create an ambient color.

Lastly you can put the bowl in the middle of the dot, place your extra containers in convenient locations for you to use without obstructing the camera. You should have your mouse or shutter control nearby to trigger the automatic time capture. You can finally place another piece of black paper behind the bowl for the backdrop.

Now you have to prepare your medium. I chose to go fairly simple with colors but you can choose any colors to add to your dropper and bowl.

Start off by filling the main bowl halfway with water and adding some drops of milk until the water becomes cloudy. Now you can add more water slowly until you reach the top of the bowl. You want to add enough water that is creates a meniscus slightly above the lip of the bowl without flowing over. Do not add too much as you will be dropping in a lot during the photography step.

Next we prepare the dropper solution. I went with 250ml of water to 3ml milk. Later on I added 4 drops of tattoo ink to this solution for a black water drop.

Make sure your camera is focus for the photos. I did this by taping a piece of paper to my light and bending it to the middle and taking test photos. Make sure your lights are all on, the right color and at the right position.

If you are using digiCamControl, plug your camera into your computer and open the software up. Wait until the camera shows up on the left and head to the time lapse button (circle with black and white inside, circled in blue)

Here you can control the rate at which you take photos and how many to take. I went with the shortest delay and 50 photos per time lapse, but I only ended up needing 15 in the end per take.

Lastly, attach your colored or plain diffuser to your camera flash. take a test photo and make sure all your values are correct. It is best to have the most light possible but I had to take photos during the night and went with a 1/200 exposure at f4.

Your syringe can be replaced with a ziploc bags filled 1/2 with water, hung above the bowl securely to create more predictable water drop locations at a more fixed interval

Your key light can be adjusted to be 45 degrees downwards to the water surface, from behind and just outside the frame. Your light will have extra contrast this way. Thank you to user HenningP2 for the tip

When you are ready to shoot, fill your dropper/syringe with your dropper solution and start your time lapse or shutter control. Start dropping water droplets from 30-60cm above the water. Play around with the interval to create interesting splash patterns. I did 15 pictures at a time and if I didnt like the composition of the shot I would play around with the setup of lights and colors. For every 15 pictures I could manage 2-4 good photos but this will vary.

You can repeat this until you have your ideal photo

If your images came out as you desire, this is where you can do a quick crop and rotation, but I would like to alter the photos to make them pop out more. I open up my pictures into lightroom and adjust to desire.

This is where you can let your creative juices flow, adjust colors and more. Lightroom allows a lot of flexibility and adjustments to colors and exposure.