To find out what a water droplet does when it splashes I have taken 42 images of water droplets.
The first image is 85 milliseconds after triggering an IR beam, each subsequent image is 5 milliseconds later. This sequence covers 210 milliseconds during the life of a water droplet.
Using this information allows me to decide what images give the best composition and at what time they occur.
This sequence was taken with a water bottle suspended above the work area and a narrow tube from the underside of the bottle was clamped above a tray containing diluted milk. Directly below the tube was a IR trigger system connected to a time delay system which triggers the camera and two flashguns after the required delay. The pink tone on the milk is from a sheet of coloured paper positioned behind the tray of milk, one flashgun illuminated the background and the second was directed at the droplet.
All of the images were taken at 1/250 second @ f16 iso 100 with a 100mm macro lens on a tripod mounted Canon 40D. In order to freeze the droplets both flash guns were set to 1/128th of full power which gives a flash duration of approximately 1/35,000 of a second.
An AVI animation of the 42 frames (equivalent of 210 frames per second video) – note file is 1.8Mb
Kev I posted a question on the 16th of this month and I thought it funny when there was to answer and found out why. One must login but alas I cannot find how to register and I so much like your web site to be thee the best.So can you tell how to register
Mr R McGregor
there is no need to register Bobby, I have to moderate all comments made on the site because of stupid amounts of spam etc so there maybe delays in my replies if I’m out of reach of a net connection.
regards
Kev
Thank-you for that answer .
bobby mac
Hi Kev, I am amazed at the water drops that you take,in fact I have your web site in my favorites just to help me. I purchased a stop shop and have been practising water I am getting results.But want to go a step up are there any tips you can offer to improve my water drops,I know there are dozens and dozens but even a couple of tips & hint would be great please bear in mind I only have one stop shop.
R McGregor .
PS please keep up your web site as a great many of are following it
How far are the drops falling to the ir sensor and after the sensor?
I’ve been trying this using basic equipment(nothing flash like yours!)
Would just like a rough guide to the setup.
Some of your shots are amazing.
Thanks
Hi,
I normally place the sensor about 5cm below the nozzle and the total drop height is about 60cm into 3-4cm of water. To get the collisions you need to get a spacing between droplets of approximately 100mS i.e. 10 droplets per second. The time from a droplet hitting the surface to rebounding into a column is about 100mS
regards
Kev
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hallo
whear I can buy a magnet valve ?
H. Zimmer Germany
I bought mine from http://www.solenoid-valves.com/Page1.htm , I would think there will be a German supplier as well.
Another question, If the shots are of different drops how long did you wait between drops to allow the surface to calm down?
RWW
It depends
I always make sure that the surface is calm and that any small bubbles on the surface are moved away before I shoot again
Are those shots ALL of the same drop? If so did you use the flash in strobe mode or did you trigger the camera and flash multiple times?
Roger
They are individual droplets which show how consistent the timing system is
Very interesting. Am experimenting with photographing water drops and splashes and this help me understand what is happening