H A S H W I N Photography

This was something i did about 3-4 yrs back. Water drops on dvds and cd surfaces produced interesting patterns. What makes them more interesting is the different colors you get just by moving the camera a little to the right or left. The angle at which you view the drops dramatically changes the colors on them. and more so if you use a second dvd/cd to reflect some light on it.

The patters get more interesting when you crop the images further.  i spent quite a bit of time with the crop tool on these set of images!

Here is the setup shot. (canon 20 and canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a tripod and triggered either using a cable release or set on self timer).

Shot Setup diagram

and here are some shots from this setup:

UFOs

silkworm

trapped

disgusted

marching towards the prey

isolated - h1n1 ?

peacock feathers

In the ‘peacock feathers’ shot,  you can see the reflections of the second DVD that actually gives the peacock feather look.

First attempt at water drop photography.

My initial readings about water drop photography lead me to believe that a complex circuitry that triggers at the exact moment the water drop hits the water surface needs to be connected to the camera etc…  This was a big discouragement, until i read a post on strobist. This post by Gavin Hoey outlined an amazingly simple procedure to get some great water drop shots.

One thing i found very critical is the rate of the water drops. too slow, too many wasted shots. too fast, the patterns are not very appealing.

Here are some of the shots from the first attempt

next couple of things to try

• different liquids (oil, milk)
• multiple simultaneous drops
• glass bowl with different colored papers in the base

Here are some shots of the setup

The umbrella itself has no significance to the setup. just used it to suspend the ziploc bag

The flashes need to be placed behind the water drops. With the above placement, i saw the light from the flash hit the water drop directly as well

One more thing i realized is that this camera angle is too steep. A lower angle will probably yield more interesting patters.

Using two flashes gives an opportunity to use different gels for more dramatic effects.