Hey Chad, thanks... Really not as hard as you'd think. Stopping motion isn't about shutter speed, it's about flash duration. Flashes can be infinitely quicker than any shutter out there. A normal flash at full power ranges from a 500th of a second to a 1000th of a second.
Take my 430ex flashes. I think they're about a 750th at full power. They're also the same at 1/2 power, 750th. Now, if you go down to 1/4 power you're at 1500th. 1/8th is 3000th. 1/16th is a 6000th, 1/32nd is a 12,000th of a second (which this was shot at). So, even though my shutter's at about a 250th, the light is only lasting a 12,000th of a second. That can stop just about anything accept a hummingbird and a bullet.
So, I drop with the right hand and click with the left. I've been doing this for a while so my timing is pretty good. I do miss here and there but more of the time I get what I want.
It's really not as hard as it looks. The real key is to be willing to make a mess, bust a bunch of glass and have ridiculous amounts of confidence. I love doing this stuff... Making a mess rocks...
I have seen your liquid shots for awhile on the WA and they are always terrific. This one is no exception. Lovely depiction of green and thanks for the thorough explanation of how it is done.
Hey Thanks all... Had a bit of an anamorphic scaling issue and a bunch of noise and a few spots I had to clean up. That stuff drives me nuts.
To be honest. My intention was for the one glass to collide into the other. I missed but it turned out ok... Well, accept for the green water that went all over one of my walls.
Definitely fun stuff to do. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and glad the explanation helped a bit.
Great shot, I love your work. The lighting is great.
I noticed in your post you said "flashes". How many flashguns do you use when you do this type of work?
From the exif, the aperature is quite small at f/16 & @ 1/250, I'm guessing there is a more than one or two to get enough light in?
Am curious really, I did something involving a droplet for last weeks assignment, but ended up with motion blur/ not enough DOF on the droplet, so am planning on reshooting when I get 5 mins... if that'll ever happen!
