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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Share your water drop/high speed photo equipment
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12/06/2009 04:47:20 PM · #1
There are a few people taking fantastic water drop/high speed shots on the site ( IreneM first springs to mind of course but there are many others). There are a few ways to achieve this and I was wondering if many of you are using timers or just by eye. So I was hoping you could share some of you equipment to help others.

I've had a couple of attempts at this so I'll start by sharing my bumbling ways.
First I start by just dropping stuff in liquid trying to get the right point by eye. Very few keepers (1:50 maybe), also the shallow focus and the randomness of the dropping meant a lot of out of focus shots. I have 2 entries with this method:


Next I built a little circuit following some plans I found at HiViz for a photogate timer. This was a lot more consistent, and I could set the focus point a lot better. I found it hard to adjust the timing just right. But I got this entry which I don't think I could have gotten without a timer:


My current project is to use an Arduino, which is a programmable processor chip on a board. The pic below show the setup connected to a remote shutter release and a remote flash trigger. The yellow board is the HiViz circuit mentioned above that I used the photogate trigger part for this. Basically this has a little menu that lets me select shutter open, delay in milliseconds, and can control more than one flash. As you can see its a bit of a work in progress, still a lot of playing a couple of bugs but it does work. I like the idea of this, I can use it for anything I want to trigger the camera or flash automatically; sound, time lapse, lightning even combined with motors to move the camera, the possibilities are endless.



Please share your methods.

12/06/2009 05:17:20 PM · #2
I do all my water drop shots without timers or gizmos. My eye hand coordination is all that's needed. I'll post some shots later tonight in this thread.
12/06/2009 05:26:13 PM · #3
Also eye hand coordination.
Essential for me is a wired remote trigger with an external flash trigger (from Ebay).




12/06/2009 05:36:15 PM · #4
I'd like to find something like what you're doing. If I'm going for something in particular it could take as many as 500 shots to get. Yeah, hand/eye timed shots are possible, but I'd like to spend my time doing other things too.




12/08/2009 04:06:15 PM · #5
Some lovely shots there guys, done by hand too!
Maybe I'm the only one playing with timers, but then again I'm a nerd (yes vlado I know you can vouch for that :) ) and like to fiddle and learn new stuff, this gave me a chance to learn some digital electronics :)
12/08/2009 05:16:07 PM · #6
is my trigger / timer was self built - link is dead to the original info will have to recreate it sometime..
..
though the equipment is sitting in the corner / haven't used it in a year or so....
always big plans to revisit ... but ..
I do have a couple of Arduino boards for other nefarious purposes,
again big plans ...

sigh...

Message edited by author 2009-12-08 17:16:21.
12/08/2009 05:20:45 PM · #7
Tony......nerd........
love the globe stressball thoughwant to see the waterdrop it creates........
12/09/2009 01:10:24 AM · #8
Originally posted by millsa:

... but then again I'm a nerd (yes vlado I know you can vouch for that :) ) and like to fiddle and learn new stuff, this gave me a chance to learn some digital electronics :)


Yes... most definitely a nerd. But I can't vouch for whether or not you like to "fiddle" or not... I though you were a guitarist, and frosty1 was the violinist. ;)
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