Shooting water splashes

[edumad]

Hi everyone.

I think I posted this incorrectly before...

I've got a K10D and no flash.
I soon realized that that wouldnt be enough to shoot the classic water drop splashing in water... Not in a way that you can freeze the action, at least
Shutter tops out at 1/180th...
Can I get greater speeds with an external flash? What other kit would I need. No fancy triggers (sound activated or whatever) for the splash itself. I'm just playing around...
What are some budject options I can look at?


Thank you.

[Buddha Jones]

Do a search for post by Codiac2600, Chris has done a nice writeup on how to do it.

[noblepa]

First of all, your K10D has a buit-in flash, but I assume you know that and meant you have no external flash.

The maximum synch speed of 1/180 second refers to the speed at which the shutter is entirely open. At higher speeds, the trailing shutter begins closing before the opening shutter has completed its run. This causes a slit that moves across the sensor. At very high speeds, say 1/2000, the slit is very, very narrow.

If you use an external flash that supports high speed flash, such as the AF-540FGZ, you can use higher shutter speeds, but this is done by making the flash fire repeatedly, as the shutter moves across the sensor. I don't think that this will work to capture a splash.

Virtually all electronic flashes made today, have a variable duration flash. That is how they automatically control the flash exposure. There are sensors that detect when enough light has reached the camera to give a proper exposure and then shut the flash off. The closer the object is to the camera, the shorter the flash. Typically, flash duration varies from 1/1000 second to 1/30,000 or 1/50,000 second. Since the built-in flash uses the P-TTL system, I'm not sure if it varies the duration or the intensity of the flash, in order to control exposure.

In any event, except for the high-speed flash option, exposure is controlled by the flash duration, not the shutter speed. The built-in flash may not be powerful enough to do what you want, or its light may be blocked by the lens for very close objects.

Try the built-in flash. As I said, it is not the shutter speed that controls exposure, unless the ambient light is bright enough to expose the image by itself. Then, its called fill-flash. A flash duration of 1/1000 second may not be short enough to freeze the spash. In that case, an external flash, with a shorter duration, may do it.

[edumad]

thank you noblepa.

You reminded some very important technicalities I had forgotten
Indeed my problem, as others have pointed out was that I was using to much ambient light...
I'll try again soon.

I'd also like to apologize for the double posting... should have waited...

[alohadave]

If you are going to do water splash shots, there are two ways to do it.

1. Sync the shutter/flash to a sensor.

2. Open the shutter for a long time in the dark and fire the flash when the water splashes.

Since the flash duration is so short, your shutter speed effectively doesn't matter.

I did these shots with a 3 second shutter speed and a hand triggered external flash:





It takes a lot of shots to get a good one.

These are some older ones where I pressed the shutter and hoped for good timing with the onboard flash:





You can see how having the light overhead makes for harsh shadows.

[davebris33]

Hi,


I did these the night before last using a towel as a backdrop, a K10d, Sigma 50mm macro, an ancient pentax 220 flash, tin foil reflector, and a lot of patience!

But it proves it can be done on a budget!

Hope you like em,

Dave