Freezing Motion (Falling Water Droplets)

<p>So today Ive been trying to freeze falling water. Just using gravity. In the end, even at my camera's fastest shutter speed - Canon 500D at 1/4000th, I'm finding the water droplets arent quite as sharp as I'd like. Ramping it up to 1/4000 certainly helped, but no cigar...</p>

<p>Using such a fast shutter my aperture is pretty big... maybe around 2 to 4. One attempt involved autofocusing on my hand, where the water is going to be falling. Other times I tried manually focusing (when there was something there for me to focus on). My question is... is 1/4000th fast enough for something like falling water, or is my problem that Im not getting the focus bang on?</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>Generally such shots are taken with a flash unit in a darkened room, allowing the extremely short flash duration do the stopping of the water droplets. Manual focus with a smaller lens opening to allow for greater focus range would be the way to go. I've seen threads either on this site or others demonstrating how it can be done.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>You'll need flash for sure in order to freeze the motion effectively. Flash tips site <em>du jour</em> Strobist has a post, with links to videos, on how to achieve this with a single light.</p>

<p>you can use a lower shutter speed - 1/1000 or lower but use smaller apertures for greater "DOF" (f11 or f 8) and ISO 200 or ISO 400 - using a flash is better because the flash fires at 1/10,000 then the shutter speed can be very low</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Here's a for instance of flash duration from Nikon's website about the SB600 flash(the ones I use here) -</p>

<strong>Flash Duration (Nikon for the SB600)<br /> </strong>

 

<ul>

<li>1/900th sec. at M 1/1 (full) output</li>

<li>1/1600 sec. at M 1/2 output</li>

<li>1/3400 sec. at M 1/4 output</li>

<li>1/6600 sec. at M 1/8 output</li>

<li>1/11100 sec. at M 1/16 output</li>

<li>1/20000 sec. at M 1/32 output</li>

<li>1/25000 sec. at M 1/64 output</li>

</ul>

 

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Flashes/4802/SB-600-AF-Speedlight-Unit.html

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Obviously as one dials down the power the flash needs to be brought closer to the subject. But this is the simplest way to get uber rapido exposure speeds and freeze motion. Add some sort of laser beam trigger and viola, you can capture a hummingbird or bug flying into the sensor beam and freeze the little bugger's wings. Or others like to capture balloons bursting with darts, etc.

Jim<br />

<p>At 1/4000th with no flash, you probably have the ISO turned up to compensate, unless you're in the sunlight. This would introduce chroma noise, which might be what you're perceiving as unsharpness. This is in addition to the shallow depth of field you are seeing at f/2. A shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000 is all that is needed to "freeze" water action. What will probably help you is a flash, or to shoot in direct sunlight. Not to freeze the water better, but to add specular highlights to the individual water droplets. This creates the illusion of higher sharpness. Alternatively, you could just add sharpening in post processing.</p>

<p>Try <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-photograph-water-drops-with-one.html">Here</a> for info.</p>

<p>Capturing water drops (hi-speed photography) is not as easy as some believe, but with practice you can do it..a lot of practice.<br>

One of the difficulties you will run into is the flash duration. All flashes have a <em>charge/discharge curve</em> dictated in a large part by power output.<br>

Strobes do not turn on and off in a instant and all strobes are not created equally in this regard. (i.e) One strobe may "Turn on" and "Turn off" over a duration of X milliseconds, while another strobe wil be X + 20 milliseconds.</p>

<p>There are a couple of good videos on youtube as well showing how to use flash to do this. search for 'strobist water drops'</p>

<p>You catch the drop with your flash in a dark room, not your shutterspeed. The camera flash is faster, and stops motion better than shutter.</p>

<p>You catch the drop with your flash in a dark room, not your shutterspeed. The camera flash is faster, and stops motion better than shutter.</p><div></div>

<p>Nice capture Kim!</p>

<p>You will have to use flash to really stop water droplets, especially if you are trying to do something like the photo I did below. Some have flash durations as short as 1/30,000 of a second depending on power setting, aperture (if you are using automatic exposure), etc.</p><div></div>