Yet a few more drops...

[coffee]

A few from last month.

[kinetic]

Hi Joseph, all excellent, I do enjoy looking at these photos because every one is unique.
I particularly like the ones that have a lot of Blue in them.
Mark

[Kaye]

Again Joseph, love them all, and like Mark, I am particularly fond of the ones with that beautiful rich blue.
The third one to me resembles a woman's body with arms stretched up in the air!

[coffee]

Thank you Mark and Kaye, and I agree with you both. I also love the deep blue in these drop images. Seems more dramatic, but also is the color that produces the most noise that has to be dealt with.

I'm planning on a new waterdrop shoot for the weekend of the 1st of May. Can't wait. Thanks again.

[jonrayner]

All 4 are amazing. I love how you manage to get such a crisp clean image, I am sincerely jealous of how you manage to do that! :D. There are some great colours in all of them, the third one has avery autumnal feel to it. Love them.
Jon

[ladyups]

You are a fine example, Joseph, of the fact that practice makes perfect! You have really perfected this art and it shows with each new series. Love them all!

[Pat]

Beautiful, as always Joseph.
A question, if I may. You mentioned noise, and dealing with it. I use noise reduction a fair bit myself, but always, as I'm sure you're aware, reluctantly. As you know, we also lose a certain amount of detail (which, of course, may or may not, be attractive/desired).
My question has to do with your settings. I see you're shooting at iso 400 with flash (I'll ignore shutter speed and aperture as I assume you're dialed in for d of f). I was wondering if it might be advantageous to lower the iso and crank up the flash (or use two flashes, if possible.) Presumably this would cut back the noise.
Now, I don't for one minute think you haven't thought of this, so I would be interested in the reasoning behind your settings.
Again, beautiful shots.

[coffee]

All 4 are amazing. I love how you manage to get such a crisp clean image, I am sincerely jealous of how you manage to do that! :D. There are some great colours in all of them, the third one has avery autumnal feel to it. Love them.
Jon

Thank you Jon. Your comments are always appreciated and helpful. Crisp clean images are very hard to accomplish with these water drops. Trying to pin-point a location where the drops should hit every time is still hit and miss, and with a macro lens, and at such a close distance to the subject, even 1/16 of an inch off will be soft. A lot of time is spent cleaning up the noise that is always present in the darker colors. These images always look more vibrant on the underexposed side, so noise is always an issue.


You are a fine example, Joseph, of the fact that practice makes perfect! You have really perfected this art and it shows with each new series. Love them all!

You words mean a lot to me Mary. Thank you. It amazes me how something like a waterdrop has drawn me into an almost obsession. I think about it all the time. The more I look at what I've done, the more I see an almost landscape in the images. Even though this is on a very small scale, I see mountains in the ripples of the water. That brought me to what will be the next step in this progression. In two weeks I'm going to spend the weekend setting up my tiny studio, and try to purposly create landscapes with these drops. I'm going to use planet background to get an almost celectrial images. I'm also going to introduce dry-ice and smoke into the images to try and get a mystic look to it. I can't wait to get at it. Thanks again Mary.


Beautiful, as always Joseph.
A question, if I may. You mentioned noise, and dealing with it. I use noise reduction a fair bit myself, but always, as I'm sure you're aware, reluctantly. As you know, we also lose a certain amount of detail (which, of course, may or may not, be attractive/desired).
My question has to do with your settings. I see you're shooting at iso 400 with flash (I'll ignore shutter speed and aperture as I assume you're dialed in for d of f). I was wondering if it might be advantageous to lower the iso and crank up the flash (or use two flashes, if possible.) Presumably this would cut back the noise.
Now, I don't for one minute think you haven't thought of this, so I would be interested in the reasoning behind your settings.
Again, beautiful shots.

Thank you Pat, Your comments mean a lot as I know how accomplished you are.
Yes I think about my settings a great deal. There is a very fine line I walk with the settings because number of shots per second is very important in the timing of the shots. If I were to lower my ISO, and thus increasing my flash output, frames per second would take a big hit. Even at ISO 200 there is going to be noise, not as much as you are right, but still noise will be present and has to be delt with. With the camera on manual with setting I use, normally 1/250 or faster/f5-8/Iso400, and manual flash output of about 1/8 to 1/16 of full power, I can usually get about 6 shots per second, at about 8 shot burst before either the camera has to catch up, or the flash. This is optimal for me because I use a very primitive drop delivery system where others use timing devices where they can better catch the drops when they want. I rely on catching a keeper by chance, not on demand. So during a weekend session, I can easily capture over 6000 images. After weeding out, I usually end up with saving 2-300 of them. Of those I usually get 20-40 or so that I am crazy about, and will spend the many hours editing. In case you are wondering about the flash output: The reason I lower the flash output is so the flash duration is less. Meaning that it reduces the light streaks that a longer flash output can cause. It also helps stop the action better and produce a sharper image as the flash on the subject is shorter.

If it wasn't for the fact that f/5-8 is needed with a macro lens to maximize the DOF needed, because I like some background, it would be much easier to manage the noise and available light I need to still get the frames desired. If I was only shooting a water drop itself, I could probably open the aperture more, but since this has evolved into producing an entire image, foreground and background, I need to stop down the aperture to get better DOF, and bring some of the background into focus so it's somewhat discernible.

I have since purchased a second 430ex flash, and a third 420ex to get more light. And since I have three flash now that I will work with in a few weeks, it may be that I can drop the ISO a little lower to ease the noise work.

It was a great question, and I hope some of this makes sense. Thanks again Pat.

[Pat]

Makes perfect sense and quite interesting to boot, Joseph. Can hardly wait for the dry ice. :)

[trashytrucker]

Joseph,
You are my hero! Nice work again...Love pic #3.


Matt

[Michaelaw]

I just love the color in these Joseph!

[iofred]

Hi Joseph, I am slowly but surely being drawn into Macro as well, and was thinking about going the Floral way, but looking at this is amazing.

Amazing

[coffee]

Joseph,
You are my hero! Nice work again...Love pic #3.


Matt


I just love the color in these Joseph!


Hi Joseph, I am slowly but surely being drawn into Macro as well, and was thinking about going the Floral way, but looking at this is amazing.

Amazing

Thank guys for taking a look and the great support.

[iofred]

Joseph, what are you using as the "basin" for the water??
I was thinking if an "underwater-light" would give a special effect as well ... it definitely has started me thinking

[coffee]

Joseph, what are you using as the "basin" for the water??
I was thinking if an "underwater-light" would give a special effect as well ... it definitely has started me thinking

Hey Fred thanks for the suggestion. Very interesting. What used for the shots in this thread, I use a large kitchen pot with the non stick black teflon inside. But any thing that will hold water will do really. I use different things depending on what I'm shooting.