Water Drop Photography

A few weeks ago I decided to try water drop photography. How did I do this? It was fairly simple and fun to do. I filled a clear Pyrex baking dish about half way with water.

I set my camera on a tripod with my trusty 18-270 mm Tameron lens. I actually choose this lense because it provided my enough focal length that I could get my camera out of the "splash zone" and because out of all my lenses it has a close enough focus distance that would allow me to get close enough that I could capture the details of the water drop.

I set 2 external flashes on each side of the dish and adjusted there position as I shot. To produce water drops I used a straw as an eye dropper. In hindsight an eyedropper would be easier that was suspended above the dish.

The first issue I had after I got set up was achieving focus. I put a straw in the water where I expected the water drops to land and focused on that point. Turns out when the water drop splashes it is actually a hair closer because the water is either elevated or splashing away from where the focus point is.

I learned that if my focus point was about a half inch in front of where I anticipated the water drop to land and I increased my f stop I would get a deep enough depth of field that the water drops would be acceptable sharp.

After a few trial and errors shooting in continuous mode I decided to use milk drops in to the water. And to my surprise the photos came out pretty neat. It made a smoke like look in the photo.