Saturday, March 13, 2010

Liquid Macro Mess

I've been not posting anything in the blog recently, but I was shooting at the same rate as before....As previously announced, my goal is to take 20,000 frames this year. So far? 4571. Here's one of them:



Last couple of days, I started to work on my liquid macro skills...again. This time around I'm much wiser, but being wiser only makes me see more mistakes in my work.

My setup had an important ingredient this time...milk, which brings some smoothness to fluidity. But on the other hand, it messes up with exposure, because it takes away the contrast, so one ends up with a flat, non-appealing final result. I still think milk is a good idea, but certainly with another lighting and photographing technique...yet to be learned. Before I tell you how I photographed these, let me throw in another one:


Ok, as said, mixture of water and milk in a large salad bowl with dark blue inside. Actually inside color of the bowl is irrelevant for this example, because we are picking up the reflections of the milk-mixed liquid. Half crescent of the outside frame is covered with a colorful collage of a cardboard...making a wall of 20cm on one side of the bowl. This is where we bounce off the light to give some color to the surface of the liquid. Am I losing you to the kingdom of boredom? Ok, here's another one then:





Then you put the same mixture of water/milk into a plastic bag, hang it about 50cm above the bowl and quickly punch a tiny whole with a needle...tiny is the operative word here. In my first trial, it was like garden hose with no control. Here's a celestial looking one:



In another session, I tried water in a tray with mirror surface and tried to capture some bubbles. No flash is used in this one....it's called 'Bubble Cake"...Bon appétit....