The other day over on G+ I was bitching and moaning about not shooting anything remotely interesting... and in true G+ fashion, it was mere moments before I had friends encouraging me to try something new. Thanks to them, I broke through the block and made some really interesting images, starting with this one.
Several people asked me how I did it, and so I thought I'd extend the blah busting experience by redoing the shoot and creating a blog post about it.
I love clean crisp images like this, and I always thought it required all kinds of fancy gear to create. It really doesn't. You can see by my setup below, that the requirements are pretty simple.
A flat faced glass container. This is critical to avoid really irritating glare and reflections on the glass.
White foam core. You need two sheets, one for the base and one for the background. You could use anything white, I use foam core because it's cheap, and I already have it in the house.
Club soda.
Fruit, or vegetables or anything else that comes to mind.
Tripod is nice, but not necessary.
Lights. Really critical. You can get completely fancy with speed lights, or you can go with continuous studio lights like I have, or you can use desk lamps or clamp lamps.. whatever you have is fine. The brighter the better, as the more light you have will allow you to get faster shutter speeds at lower ISO levels. You need one for each side of the glass container.
Ok, so once you're all set up with lights and a container, have your objects ready to go, then you can go ahead and pour your club soda. Make sure you leave room for displacement or you'll be mopping up a mess.
Try and keep your f-stop as small as you can and still get a reasonably fast shutter speed. You want to have deep enough focus to keep all of the bubbles in focus. However, bubbles move, and unless you're using speed lights, you'll need to keep your shutter speed in mind or you'll end up with blurred bubbles. My lights were good and bright, so I was able to have a nice low ISO of 200. f/7/1 at 1/250 sec kept everything nice and crisp. Note that my white balance is set to Auto. If you shoot in jpeg then you need to adjust your white balance now. That setting will of course depend on your light source.
Keep in mind what you want to have in your shot and either float your fruit so that the bubbles will be where you want them, or hold it in place. Use your hands or a clamp, or you could get creative and use a fork or skewer, keeping them in your shot for added pizzazz. Now start shooting... as the object moves the bubbles will release and rise, and more will reattach themselves as you shoot. Check to make sure your focus is looking good, and play around with object in different positions.
Post Processing
I use Photoshop, but I image you can get similar results in whatever editing program you use.
My RAW image, straight out of the camera.
After editing, which includes white balance adjustment, white and black point adjustments, and sharpening in a RAW Camera Filter Layer, and an additional levels layer to brighten the background.
This is pretty nice, but I like the close up look, so I cropped to achieve the look I wanted.
The final image... crisp and fresh!
Once you get started, it's fun to see what you can do... don't be afraid to flip things around in your editing, either.
Baby Bok Choy
Plastic Waste Basket Liner (really!)
The most important thing to remember is to have fun! If your settings aren't working, change them, and try again... play with the angle of your lights, try different objects. See what you can come up with!
I'd love to know if you found any of this useful, so leave a comment! I can't wait to hear how your ideas turned out, or if you have any questions. :)
Several people asked me how I did it, and so I thought I'd extend the blah busting experience by redoing the shoot and creating a blog post about it.
I love clean crisp images like this, and I always thought it required all kinds of fancy gear to create. It really doesn't. You can see by my setup below, that the requirements are pretty simple.
A flat faced glass container. This is critical to avoid really irritating glare and reflections on the glass.
White foam core. You need two sheets, one for the base and one for the background. You could use anything white, I use foam core because it's cheap, and I already have it in the house.
Club soda.
Fruit, or vegetables or anything else that comes to mind.
Tripod is nice, but not necessary.
Lights. Really critical. You can get completely fancy with speed lights, or you can go with continuous studio lights like I have, or you can use desk lamps or clamp lamps.. whatever you have is fine. The brighter the better, as the more light you have will allow you to get faster shutter speeds at lower ISO levels. You need one for each side of the glass container.
Ok, so once you're all set up with lights and a container, have your objects ready to go, then you can go ahead and pour your club soda. Make sure you leave room for displacement or you'll be mopping up a mess.
Try and keep your f-stop as small as you can and still get a reasonably fast shutter speed. You want to have deep enough focus to keep all of the bubbles in focus. However, bubbles move, and unless you're using speed lights, you'll need to keep your shutter speed in mind or you'll end up with blurred bubbles. My lights were good and bright, so I was able to have a nice low ISO of 200. f/7/1 at 1/250 sec kept everything nice and crisp. Note that my white balance is set to Auto. If you shoot in jpeg then you need to adjust your white balance now. That setting will of course depend on your light source.
Keep in mind what you want to have in your shot and either float your fruit so that the bubbles will be where you want them, or hold it in place. Use your hands or a clamp, or you could get creative and use a fork or skewer, keeping them in your shot for added pizzazz. Now start shooting... as the object moves the bubbles will release and rise, and more will reattach themselves as you shoot. Check to make sure your focus is looking good, and play around with object in different positions.
Post Processing
I use Photoshop, but I image you can get similar results in whatever editing program you use.
My RAW image, straight out of the camera.
After editing, which includes white balance adjustment, white and black point adjustments, and sharpening in a RAW Camera Filter Layer, and an additional levels layer to brighten the background.
This is pretty nice, but I like the close up look, so I cropped to achieve the look I wanted.
The final image... crisp and fresh!
Once you get started, it's fun to see what you can do... don't be afraid to flip things around in your editing, either.
Baby Bok Choy
Orange Bell Pepper
Plastic Waste Basket Liner (really!)
The most important thing to remember is to have fun! If your settings aren't working, change them, and try again... play with the angle of your lights, try different objects. See what you can come up with!
I'd love to know if you found any of this useful, so leave a comment! I can't wait to hear how your ideas turned out, or if you have any questions. :)
Awesome splash photography. I would love this type of photography.
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