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How to Light Glass and Water Splash Photography

How to Light Glass and Water Splash Photography

Glass is a very interesting material. It is rigid but it is almost transparent to light. It plays a very important role in the photography. All cameras and lenses rely on glass to create the image of the object.

It is also very fun to take pictures of glass objects as they let you play around with the light and reflections in the most creative ways. MIOPS Smart Camera Trigger takes you a lot further with high advanced triggering skills. In this article, we will teach you how to light a glass for water splash photography.

water splash photography
Jay P Morgan,The Slanted Lens

Our friend Jay P.Morgan has used MIOPS Smart Camera Trigger to take glass with water splash photo. In his setup, he has used a flashlight behind the glass. This way he was able to create the desired background. He was also able to adjust the brightness of the glass with that light. By lightning a 60-degree areas in the background, he achieved a dark composition of the glass with just some little black lines at the edges. He could get rid of them completely by using a 90-degree grid, but he wanted to see the glass this way. In your setup, feel free to try other options.

This light was for the background only. We needed something for the ice in the glass as well. There is a glass, some water in it, and we will throw ice cubes into it. They are all transparent, so Jay P has decided to use lights for the sides of the glass as well. He used panels to distribute the light nicely. When the lights hit the glass, they light both the sides of the cube and the glass as well. using them on both sides gave him the same effect on both sides.





The surface also created a reflective plane for the pictures. It also glass with some blue cast to it. You can try other colors, black for example.

In order to create the water splash effect, Jay P threw ice cubes in to the glass. He placed a MIOPS Smart Camera Trigger running in the laser trigger mode and fed a laser beam to it. When the ice cube falls, it will break the beam and MIOPS Camera Trigger will trigger the flashes. The setup will be again in dark room and the camera will be open shutter. In order to eliminate the shake of the camera, it can be triggered with a manual remote.

settings for water splash photography

Jay P has played around with the delay feature of the laser trigger mode. This allowed him to adjust the position of the ice cube very precisely. He started with delay of 10 milliseconds then all the way up to 175 milliseconds. The delay parameter made the timing very easy. He only needed to worry about where the ice cube would hit.

camera trigger settings

Jay P Morgan has used macro lens to take these pictures. In order to get the correct focus, he used a stick and adjusted the focus it. This trick can be very helpful if you are working with objects that cannot be focused easily, like a glass of water.

If you cannot wait to try what Jay P Morgan has achieved with MIOPS Smart Camera Trigger and three lights, you better start trying now. You will notice how fun water splash photography is.

You can read full article here and watch the video below.

Related Article: Water Drop Photography Explore Site