How can I freeze spray-bottle water droplets in mid-air?
Asked 11/3/2014
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2 answers
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I want to photograph water droplets from a spray bottle while they are still in the air around a subject’s face. My current setup is a low-key scene with a Canon 70D, 18-135mm kit lens, ISO 200, f/22, 1/200s, a study lamp as ambient light, and a flash at 1/128 power. The results are not sharp or dramatic enough. What camera settings and lighting setup work best for freezing fine water spray like this?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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Freezing motion is about controlling the light, more importantly it's about controlling the amount of time the light will strike the sensor. To do that, you have two basic options:
- Shutter speed
- Flash duration
Shutter speed with ambient light is pretty tricky unless you have a lot of really bright light. The better way to go about this is to control the flash duration with no ambient light. I wrote up a tutorial on this approach a few years ago, but basically you need a sturdy tripod, a cable release or remote, and a properly configured flash. In the latter case, the lower powers typically have shorter durations and short duration is what you really need.
So, set the camera up on a tripod and aim at subject. Set the shutter speed to a long one (a second or two) at low ISO. Set your flash to aim at the subject, trip the shutter, squeeze the water, fire the flash (I use the test button for this).
Long story short: if the only light source is the flash then you freeze the motion.
Originally by user472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user472
11y ago
0
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The key is to freeze the droplets with light, not mainly with shutter speed. For fine spray, the easiest method is:
- Use flash as the main light on the water.
- Shoot in a very dark room so ambient light doesn’t record much motion blur.
- Keep the flash at low power, since lower flash power usually means a shorter flash duration, which freezes motion better.
- Put the camera on a tripod and pre-focus manually where the spray will pass.
- Start around ISO 100–200, f/8, and about 1/125–1/200s. The shutter speed matters less if the room is dark; the flash duration does the freezing.
Your f/22 is likely hurting image quality and forcing too much light loss. Open up to around f/8 and only stop down more if you need extra depth of field.
If you must rely more on ambient light, then you need a much faster shutter speed and much more light, but flash-only is usually the more practical approach for water droplets.
In short: darken the room, reduce ambient light, use low-power flash to light the spray, and use a wider aperture than f/22.
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