Tag Archives: Manual Focus

How I took that shot by Gráinne Davies

I wanted to photograph water drops and it’s not as easy as it may seem.

Image-No.-3

The set up I used was very simple……..

  • Put some water into a black roasting tin
  • I used a small home studio kit set up on a table. If you don’t have a studio kit then just use coloured card (depending on what colour you want out).
  • I used a red velvet background.
  • Pour some water into a bottle or a bag (I used a bag) and suspend the water above the tin of water. Just put a pin hole in the bag and let the water drop into the tin of water.
  • Set your camera on a tripod in front of the water drops.
  • To find a focus I used a pencil and placed it directly where the water drops were falling and focused manually. This will ensure your drops are sharp.
  • Set up a Speedlight flash on a tripod or a flash stand and aim the flashgun directly at the background (not at the water). Set flash to manual and drop the power of the flash as required depending on the exposure of the shots.

Image-No.-3-beforePhotoshop changes – The original was shot in RAW and I changed the colour in Photoshop to give the purple colour. I just tidied the image up with some erasing and cloning and cropped the final image.

 

Technical Details:
Canon 60D
Canon 60mm Macro lens
ISO 200
F10
1/200