I like high speed photography, but I am limited to what I
can do within my studio space and with the equipment I have. So I usually focus on dropping things, this
weekend it was gelatinous cubes and colored water.
The gelatinous cubes were a new for me, and still require
refinement to the gel composition. I
bought clear Knox gelatin and made two batches. (I did add food coloring to the mix for
contrast.) The first batch was a little mushy while the second batch was firmer
like a Jell-O giggler. The softer batch
worked better, providing more deformity while tumbling and a better splat upon
impact. As I dropped the cubes and
sphere I hit the shutter release button.
The squishy cubes lasted for about 10 drops depending on the height of
the drop. While the very firm sphere appeared
indestructible. I may try this again, possibly throwing the
cubes against a wall instead of dropping them.
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| Firm Sphere Impact |
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| Squishy Cube Impact |
I have worked with water drops before. When I usually do
these I fill a dish with water. Then hold a plastic Ziploc bag filled with
water and food coloring with a hole over the dish and hit the shutter release.
This is hugely a trial and error process. Besides my usual process, I also tried just
having the water drip directly onto a hard surface, this appeared to work nicely. I then modified my drop mixture. I added corn starch to the water in the
baggie, this thickened the mixture. However, this also reduced the translucence
of the drops. The mixture appeared to
produce better patterns, so I may try this with a gelatin mixture so I can keep
the translucence of straight water.
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| Cornstarch Mix on hard surface |
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| Water drop into pool of water |
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| Water on hard surface |
The set up for both shoots were as follows. I placed a clear
sheet down on the table to protect it. I then stood white foam board on top of
the table for the background. I
connected the plastic to white foam board sides to create side walls and to two
stands to create a catch basin of sorts.
I then placed my camera with flash, macro lens and shutter release
trigger on a tripod angled down towards the drop surface. I used bounce flash technique for most of the
shots.
Overall this was productive time in the studio. I like the water drop results but think the gelatinous cube shots need work.
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