Capturing liquid splashes and moving water is a skill that’s easier said than done. When you see beautiful splashy images on social media, it seems easy enough to capture. Once you actually try to do it though, it’s quite a different story!
To hone in on my splash skills, I did some practicing in the studio the other day. This was one of the final images that I was able to get after lots of trial and error.
Setting Up Lights For Splash Photography
The most important aspect of getting a good splash or pour frozen in time is to have lots and lots of light. My studio is actually in the basement of the in-law suite where Marc and I used to live, so there’s not much natural light down there.
To compensate for that, I used a strobe flash and a soft box in tandem to freeze motion. The strobe’s job is to emit short super bright flashes of light to freeze the water in place. The softbox lit the water from behind so streams like these would have definition and shape.
Creating A Splash
To make a splash, I poured water into my little black cup, then tested to see what kind of objects would splash when I dropped them in.
This “S” hook didn’t do too much. And as you can see, I was still working on my timing at this point!
The winner was a small black pebble that I had in my stash. It created the perfect splash pattern!
Getting The Right Timing
The key to capturing a splash at just the right time is to hit the shutter button right when the stone hit the water. It took me a LOT of try’s to get it just right!
On this one, I was so late that I actually got the stone bouncing out of the cup!
Eventually though, everything came together with the perfect splash.
Putting It All Together
Once I had a few pretty splashes photographed, I practiced compositing other images together to create this:
Each of those elements is a separate photo. By using some trickery, I combined them all into one image showing the different tools and ingredients you need to mix Milk Paint!
My head is so full of ideas using splashes and pours that I can’t wait to get back in the studio to practice!
For more photography topics, visit these posts!
Practicing The X and Diagonal Compositions
3 Eye-Catching Product Photography Angles
Practicing With Hard Shadows
