The main issue I had was getting the water to form beads. This time round I applied Glaco (Similar to RainX) to a different sheet of glass. The water beaded up instantly. This time I used some candles as the backdrop instead of the jellybeans.

 To take photos like this you don’t need much. I made a basic frame using knex, and then placed a clean piece of glass over the top. It did take a while to get the glass clean enough, trust me – its worth spending alot of time getting it perfectly clean. Dust specs and watermarks show up very clearly. I recommend using newspaper to clean and polish the glass.

I used a spray bottle to make the water drops. If you want more control over the layout, try using an eyedropper.

At the bottom of my frame I set up a grid of red and yellow/white candles. I tried a few different patterns, but this looked the most appealing.

I was using macro tubes for the first few photos. After removing them I noticed that I could still focus close enough to get a good shot. So, use them if you need to but check to see if you can achieve the effect without them first.

You will also need a good tripod. I have a Manfrotto that allows you to slide the center column out sideways, making it very easy to aim the camera straight down. Getting the camera position just right is very important if you are using macro tubes. Just a centimeter or so too high/low will put your image out of focus. I used a coin to help getting the camera in focus.

You may also want to adjust the aperture to control the bokeh.

]]> http://blogger-off.com/2011/10/howto-water-drop-photography/feed/ 0 http://blogger-off.com/2011/10/decisions-decisions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=decisions-decisions http://blogger-off.com/2011/10/decisions-decisions/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:40:36 +0000 Chris http://blogger-off.com/?p=772 What to do? Lens or camera body? The opinions of the lovely folks at dpreview.com (forums) indicate the general consensus is that lens > body. I can see the sense in this but why does it still feel like a body upgrade is a better deal?

Enough questions! The choice has been made. I will be getting a new Pentax K5 to replace my (still excellent) K20D. My reasoning is this – with greater ISO performance I can essentially reap the speed benefits of the faster (2.8 etc) lenses by bumping up the ISO. Doing this on the K20 produces easily noticeable noise at ISO levels higher than 400. Obviously it wont be possible to get nice bokeh and that the image quality wont be as good, but for now the body is going to make me happier than a new lens. I hope.

This is not to say I ignored the excellent advice from the guys in the dpreview forums. No! They almost convinced me to change my mind and buy a lens. Originally I was 100% set on the body, but now I am at 40/60. Still, they made a strong argument. The outcome of this discussion basically lead me to look for a temporary second job so I can finance the camera purchase, and hopefully a decent lens too.

For those of you wondering which lens I was considering – I was stuck between two options, the SMC PENTAX DA STAR 200MM F2.8 ED (IF) SDM and the Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM.

Now the waiting game begins. With the recent takeover of Pentax by Ricoh (Today!) and news about a new camera on the horizon it would only make sense to wait for the price of the K5 to drop further. Here’s to hoping it will be sooner rather than later.

Which would you choose?

Included with the kit was a 18-55mm lens. Many people have indicated that a 50mm prime lens is essential for good quality pictures. It might be a while until I can afford some decent lenses, but I can play around with what I have for now. I also ordered some lens filters to play around with. I got a polarizing filter and a macro filter (I know a lens is much better, but I can’t afford it) from DealExtreme.

Went out over the weekend to take some pictures of the surroundings – uploaded some to iStockPhoto. Hopefully they will be accepted and I might be able to make back some money.