How was this photo taken?

I found this image in the gallery here and was wondering how it was taken? What lens? How did you set this up for the shot?

Rocket Man wrote: I found this image in the gallery here and was wondering how it was taken? What lens? How did you set this up for the shot?

Looks like timing and good old fashion luck was involved in that one.

Good youtube video, I tried doing this myself last year. These aren't very hard to do but it takes patience. It's fun though and the results can be stunning. I did mine in the kitchen sink, as the drop rate can be adjusted very consistently. Here's what you'll need:

1. A macro lens, or close focusing zoom lens
2. A metal kitchen sink
3. Off-camera Speedlight flash with the wideangle flap engaged (diffuser is even better)
4. Everything except speedlight mounted on a sturdy tripod
5. Cabled release (optional but helps a lot)
6. UV filter on your lens incase of splash
7. Expect to take a lot of photos. large card needed, especially when shooting RAW

Ok, first fill your sink up. Different levels of water will get you different splash and crown patterns. about 1/2 inch of water gets a crown similar to the picture you posted and requires high shutter speed to freeze the motion. 4 inches gets wakes and bubbles suspended in mid-air. Set your camera on a tripod facing into the sink.

Once the sink is filled to 1/2 inch, gently adjust your faucet until the drops hit about once every 3 seconds. This gives the surface of the water time to flatten out before the next drop hits. Attach a blob of puty to the bottom of the sink and stick a toothpick upright where the water drops hit. Set lens/camera to manual focus and focus on the toothpick. Now that your focus is set, romove puty and toothpick.

Now the fun part. Set your SLR camera to manual, f16 @ 1/2000 second shutter on continuous frame mode. Set speedlight to high speed synch. Set the speedlight power output to maximum. Every three seconds a drop will splash. Time your shutter depressions to right before the drop makes contact. I guarantee one wil be a good capture, just like the crown you posted. Try positioning the speedlight in different positions around the sink. I got decent results both side-lit and directly overhead.

Okay, if you want bubbles and wakes, fill sink up to about 4 inches and readjust drops to about 5 seconds apart (it takes longer for the water to flatten out). refocus with the putty and toothpick trick. you don't need so high a shutterspeed, around 1/400 second and speedlight set to normal output power.

Try placing flat colorful things under the water, or bounce your flash off something colorful like in the youtube video. The colored shots I posted here was a colorful chinese zodiac calendar under the water

Milk can give interesting results too....

Have fun

f/16 1/2000 second shutter

with colored chinese zodiac calendar under the water
f/16 1/400 second shutter

Milk,
F/16 1/400 second shutter