52Frames Weekly Photo Challenge – 2021 Week 4 “Water”
This week’s theme for 52Frames was water, so I did a fun two-light toy-photography shoot using colored gels. I composited this image with one photo of the toy character hanging from fishing line into the water, and the second shot of the splash was created by dropping a few ice cubes into the bowl. Photos were processed and graded in Lightroom, composited and removed fishing line in Photoshop, then finished the editing round trip with a few minor levels and HSL tweaks back in LR before exporting.
Nerding out here for a sec for any fellow photo nerds who may be interested:
The unique thing about this shot is I actually did a long 1/2 sec (.5″) exposure, and manually triggered the two flashes while dropping the ice into the bowl during the 1/2 sec of exposure.
Water splash was frozen with flash, not shutter speed. At 1/32 pwr on Godox V1 roundhead speed light (blue gel), duration is 1/22200 sec, and on the ad200 pro strobe (orange gel) at 1/64 pwr, duration is 1/10204 sec, both of which are significantly quicker than most camera’s shutter speeds are capable of. As long as the room is very dark (no ambient light), the slow shutter speed doesn’t cause any light to expose the sensor until the flashes fire…..lower the flash power, faster the flash duration.
After manually focusing with the dining room lights on, I turned them off before beginning the shot. Timing everything was a little tricky to get right, but after a few tries I had a decent rhythm of:
- triggering the camera’s shutter (on a 2 sec delay)
- picking up the wireless flash trigger from the table with one hand
- dropping the ice cubes after the shutter opened with the other hand
- manually firing the flashes with the wireless trigger as the ice hit the water
After several misses, I finally got the timing down and captured a few good splashes during the 1/2 second the shutter was opened.
Below are the individual images that make up the finished composite.
Behind The Scenes Shots Of My Setup
Next week’s 52Frames’ photography theme is “Horizon Lines”.
Check back to see what I shot for 2021 Week 5!
What is 52Frames?
The following is taken directly from the 52Frames website:
52Frames offers a guided weekly photography challenge, designed to help you improve your skills.
Every week, we send you a new assignment. You have 7 days to take your shot and share it with the community. Together, we give feedback and guidance to help you grow. Oh, and it’s totally free.
