# another slow night..



## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

While rusty heads south on a slow night I head for the kitchen sink..

Captured this "goblin" while supposedly doing the dishes last night. Took me two hrs. to finish the dishes but they did get done eventually.. Yea, it was a slow night around my house last night!










Then there was the incident of the spilled milk.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

I love that second one Arlon. Could you elaborate on what was the lighting setup that you used for that shot? It looks to me that if the camera were at the six o'clock position, Id guess there was a flash at about 8 oclock and maybe a reflector at 3 oclock. Also, how did you get such a clean cut off line along the bottom edge and not il,luminate the container in the process?


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

You're killing me...

Now I'm going to have to pull out all me stuff to again try this which again will no doubt lead to inferior results and frustration - thanks buddy! 

I love the eye level perspective. 

Last night I went to Kroger and got some props...but that will have to be another thread.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Nice shots Arlon (and you too Rusty).


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Actually this was pretty simple.

First I got a plastic water bottle and made a pin hole in it (tiny, took 3 tries) to be my milk "dripper". Suspended over the sink from an expandable curtain rod stuck between the cabinets.

Receiver was a black ceramic cereal bowl set on top of a tupperware container to get the edge above the sink. I hung a black towel on the wall behind the sink (wife hasn' found that yet). I then floated a piece of black construction foam (that real thin stuff you get in sheets at hobby lobby) on the the water in the bowl. Foam was a good splash target. Made a few drops and stuck a straight pin into the foam for my focus target, set the focus, removed the pin. Liquid type/depth makes a big difference in how the drop/splash looks. Experiment.. Red splash was just food coloring in the milk.

Set the camera (on tripod directly in front) level just below the rim of the bowl. Used a remote flash on the left side (setting on another tupperware container in the other sink and slightly BELOW the bowl) triggered with an optical slave. Another flash shooting straight up (bounced off the ceiling to keep it from exposing the container) to trigger the remote flash .

I used a 200mm macro lens (to get back far enough to avoid splashing the lens to bad)and shot most of them at f22 (to underexpose everything but the drop) with the flashes in manual mode at 1/16 power (shortest flash duration). Shutter speed doesn't matter as it's the flash duration that's freezing the drop. If you get the shutter too slow and aperture to wide, you'll start geting fuzzy images as it exposes the shot without the flash. Get a good rhythm going and you can get a pretty good successful capture ratio going.

There, that's all you get (unless you need more (-:}). This is going to be a great weekend to go out and capture some drops!

I have a whole gallery of these things (all done basically the same way) out HERE.


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## MT Stringer (May 21, 2004)

Those are some pretty neat shots. I think that qualifies you as a strobist! 

Who'd ever thought it ws done in the kitchen sink. I like the goblin.
Mike


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

WOW....those are really cool looking. Hmmmm ...the mind is thinking.


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## Colaholic2000 (Mar 26, 2007)

I love how the second shot looks like a crown. Great work. . hopefully one day I will be half as good as most of you on this forum


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Just another since the weather isn't letting me do much else..


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Here's a shot that has the exposure boosted so you can see the foam block and "sight" pin before cropping it off..


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