New Year, New Gear, Fresh Photo Opportunities With MPB
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Your first water splash images are quite special, but as you get used to the equipment and refine your technique, major improvement come quite quickly.
I am not familiar with the Triggersmart unit, as I use the SplashArt system, but here are a few tips which may help:
Use your flash off-camera, manual, 1/64 power, distance 4 - 6 inches. Freezer bag over the flash for protection. The lower the flash peer, the faster the flash and you need fast flash to freeze the action.
Use an aperture of f16, especially if you are looking to capture collisions.
Have the drop tank around 600 - 750mm higher than the catch tank. The catchtank should be at least 50mm deep to allow for reasonable height tendrils.
Small movements (and I mean very small) of the controls to walk the shot in to what you want. Only move one control at a time until you fully understand what it achieves. Moving more than one just gets very confusing.
Expect to take between 400 - 600 shots to get a reasonable usable selection. That is half a day to a full days shooting.
Try using milk, it is a little more controllable.
Add 5% Glycerine to thicken up water.
If you want collisions, you will need a drop rate of around 10 drops per second.
Hope that helps.
I am not familiar with the Triggersmart unit, as I use the SplashArt system, but here are a few tips which may help:
Use your flash off-camera, manual, 1/64 power, distance 4 - 6 inches. Freezer bag over the flash for protection. The lower the flash peer, the faster the flash and you need fast flash to freeze the action.
Use an aperture of f16, especially if you are looking to capture collisions.
Have the drop tank around 600 - 750mm higher than the catch tank. The catchtank should be at least 50mm deep to allow for reasonable height tendrils.
Small movements (and I mean very small) of the controls to walk the shot in to what you want. Only move one control at a time until you fully understand what it achieves. Moving more than one just gets very confusing.
Expect to take between 400 - 600 shots to get a reasonable usable selection. That is half a day to a full days shooting.
Try using milk, it is a little more controllable.
Add 5% Glycerine to thicken up water.
If you want collisions, you will need a drop rate of around 10 drops per second.
Hope that helps.
Thanks everyone - early days yet and admittedly I was getting very similar, if not better pics when I used to fire the camera by hand and judgement. That said using the Triggersmart system does leave that aspect out of the equation and enable me to think about drip rate etc so hopefully progress will be made.
Thanks for your tips Colin - very helpful
I was just using the studio light last night as I was, as usual, a bit short of time and am damned if I know where the flashgun is - I'll see if I can find it this evening.
It didn't help that at one point I accidentally switched the system over to sound activated - it all went a bit nuts for a while I need to sort some time this weekend to settle down and get to know the controls properly - an hour in the evening after work really isn't long enough! Roll on hometime........
Thanks for your tips Colin - very helpful
I was just using the studio light last night as I was, as usual, a bit short of time and am damned if I know where the flashgun is - I'll see if I can find it this evening.
It didn't help that at one point I accidentally switched the system over to sound activated - it all went a bit nuts for a while
I need to sort some time this weekend to settle down and get to know the controls properly - an hour in the evening after work really isn't long enough! Roll on hometime........
Quote:Well I think it is pretty damned good.
I assume that the trigger system was one of your purchases at Focus.
Ta
Yep - I went to Focus with two items on my list - the Triggersmart and a new macro lens. I had to cut back on the macro lens and got the Sony instead of the Sigma (considerably cheaper) but it does the job for now.
It was more important for me to have a new challenge......
