Part 6 Lesson 4: WATER SPLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

If your light source is not water sealed, and you cannot move it out of splash range, do not do this exercise with artificial light: do it with natural daylight and let your ISO go as high as it needs to, to compensate

>>> Water + electricity = potential death, electrocution, fire, burns <<<

Please don't risk it.

There is no technical reason to use a tripod for this project - it's just easier. For any situation where you need both hands in front of the camera, using a tripod and self timer means you don't need an assistant.

Just a quick note: you should expect to take a lot of photos this week. There is much trial-and-error involved.

THIS WEEK'S PROJECT: CAPTURE A WATER SPLASH

1. Use a dark background to set off the shapes and a strong side light. Or work outside in bright sunlight, but try and arrange a plain background if you can.

Use off-camera flash if you have it, know what you're doing, and can keep it out of the splash zone. To freeze the splash using flash, you need to work in very dark ambient light conditions because your camera's fastest sync-speed will probably be about 1/200th. So you use the flash to freeze the water rather than the fast shutter speed. Flash is beyond the scope of this course, but those are the basics if you want to google the detail.

I used an LED light panel that is water sealed. You can also just set up close to a window (using just natural light, or put your light source on the outside the window to keep it dry). If you shoot outdoors in sunlight, you will need to let the ISO climb as high as it needs to in order to keep the shutter speed as fast as you need (see below).

2. It's impossible to predict where the splash will go, so frame wide and crop later.

3. If you have a longer lens (I used 100mm), you can attempt to move the camera out of the splash zone. Keep checking the lens for stray drops though - it's incredible how far the water will travel.

4. Check your viewpoint - the most effective is usually at eye-level with the splash.

5. To keep the splash sharp, use an aperture that gives enough depth of field. I used f8 for a splash generated by a quarter of a lemon, with 100mm lens about 2m away.

6. Do some test shots to check how fast your shutter speed needs to be. Probably a minimum of 1/1000th.

7. Shoot on manual mode. Set your aperture at f8. Try a test shot with a shutter speed of 1/1000th. Use the ISO to control the exposure, or leave it on Auto ISO if you have it, with no upper limit. Try faster shutter speeds if needed, and increase the ISO to compensate.

8. Use manual focus and leave it focussed on the same spot, centrally on the splash zone.

9. Fruit pieces are good splash generators because they float to the top each time. If you want the crown-shaped splash, you need to use something flat.

1. If you use Facebook, join the Facebook group (there will be a link in your email) and share your homework in the thread which will be dated the date of your email (find it in the Announcements section at the top of the FB page).

2. If you want to share in the app, join your start date’s group (eg. “June 2020”) and share there.

3. On Instagram, share with the hashtag #AYearWithMyCamera and the date for your start, eg. #AYWMCJuly2019.