I thought of this idea when I saw this mug sitting on our hutch this afternoon. Initially, I wanted a jet black fluid to splash out of the mug so I tried this using water and food coloring but I couldn't get the color right. Then I switched to coffee and dropped a golf ball in it but the splash wasn't dramatic enough. After a convincing my self that the cleanup wouldn't be too bad...I decided to use used motor oil sitting in the garage from our last oil change (what a MESS!!!!) The first take turned out great except that i had set my shutter speed at 1/250 which turned out to be way to slow to capture the action. After 4 clean up/re-shoots the wife called me in for dinner and I decided to go with this shot. I wish the splash was a little more symmetrical but I was hand dropping the ball and just couldn't get it straight enough.
In photoshop:
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THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!!! My first Blue and a new personal best!!!! I almost didnt reshoot this because I dreaded the cleanup. Im so glad I did. Thanks again!
I'd like to also thank my daughter Kaylee for helping me with the setup and coming up with the name for this shot
P.S. Being mistaken for IreneM is a HUGE complement! I have always loved her work and admired her attention to detail.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 294 Avg (all users): 7.7268 Avg (commenters): 8.6429 Avg (participants): 7.6163 Avg (non-participants): 7.8148 Views since voting: 15700 Views during voting: 477 Votes: 194 Comments: 73 Favorites: 33 (view)
I actually didn't even use a flash on this one. I used the most powerful light source i know of...then sun! Set up was pretty simple. I had an old white particle board set on top of 2 crates and a white construction paper back drop taped to the side of my house about 2 feet behind the mug. I put a TON of newspaper below to catch any stray drops of oil. After I felt that i got my shot (or just sick of cleaning up) i burned everything...except the mug.
Here is one of the pictures taken right after the one I submitted for the challenge.
Sounds like you didn't really want an answer to the question. If you ask, and someone answers you, why would you make a comment like you made (Hmmmm. Covering up contacts sounds a bit dubious to me. The manufacturers surely don't handicap their own units for marketing reasons.) This is one of the reasons I don't answer people's questions anymore if I know the answer. Nobody appreciates it. All they want to do is to argue it. Why wouldn't the manufacturer tell you? Because the manufacturers know their is too many dumb people out there to figure it out. They would probably be getting cameras back as defective left and right because people would think they don't work. I tried this with my D50, and it works perfectly. It's just manual instead of auto.
By the way, excellent shot. This is pristine!!! Great job!
Originally posted by fmalan:
Hmmmm. Covering up contacts sounds a bit dubious to me. The manufacturers surely don't handicap their own units for marketing reasons.
To quote:
A standard hotshoe flash gives out a very short pulse of light. The flash duration can vary from around 1/1,000 second to 1/50,000 sec or shorter. The less light that's needed, the shorter the duration
Depending on whether there is significant ambient light you'd see little difference between a flash shot at 1/30 and 1/500.
Well deserved!!! This shot is in a class of its own. I really don't know how those people in the 1,2,3 range scored this honestly....I guess thats the bad part about this site. But Congrats man, great shot!
To quote:
A standard hotshoe flash gives out a very short pulse of light. The flash duration can vary from around 1/1,000 second to 1/50,000 sec or shorter. The less light that's needed, the shorter the duration
Depending on whether there is significant ambient light you'd see little difference between a flash shot at 1/30 and 1/500.
Great timing and effort here. Lovely shot. Must have been a b**** to clean up though. How about an after shot of the golfball bouncing back out of the cup?
To quote:
A standard hotshoe flash gives out a very short pulse of light. The flash duration can vary from around 1/1,000 second to 1/50,000 sec or shorter. The less light that's needed, the shorter the duration
Depending on whether there is significant ambient light you'd see little difference between a flash shot at 1/30 and 1/500.
After seeing many of IreneM's splash pics on dp shot at 1/500 I emailed her. I explained that if she wanted to use higher shutter speeds with her flash, it was possible.
Simply cover the two "flash" contacts on the top of the camera. I cover the two that are closest to the "eyehole". Use scotch tape.
Then put the flash on the camera. You can then shoot up to any speed...I've done' up to 1/6000 with my flash.
The only downfall is that covering the contacts makes the whole thing "manual". You have to adjust your flash manually according to the settings on your camera. Very easy to do.
The shot below was done with my flash at 1/2000.
Originally posted by fmalan:
Firstly - great shot!
I have a technical question:
How did you light your subject? Flash? I'm asking because 1/1000 is faster than the D200's x-sync speed (unless using High-Speed Sync), but at ISO 125 at F7.1 you surely had too little light without flash.
However, not using High-speed sync at a slower shutter speed (like 1/200) would also have frozen the splash, since the actual duration of the flash's light pulse is very quick.
How did you light your subject? Flash? I'm asking because 1/1000 is faster than the D200's x-sync speed (unless using High-Speed Sync), but at ISO 125 at F7.1 you surely had too little light without flash.
However, not using High-speed sync at a slower shutter speed (like 1/200) would also have frozen the splash, since the actual duration of the flash's light pulse is very quick.
I suspect the thickness of the oil is why the mass of 'coffee' round the middle of the picture looks very glutinous, almost like lava flow. I would love to see the coffee shots to compare.
Brilliant idea to use oil. As an aside, have you ever mixed cornflour with cold water, and poured it. The mixture is amazing - drops slowly, acts very strangely, and if thick enough just pulls off any flat surface without leaving any mess - try it and see. Amaze friends at parties and all that sort of rubbish - but pouring a spoon of it, makes very odd photos.
So glad to see something other then a black and white take first on this when I went back and looked at the past High Contrast challenges it seems that people only wanted black and white.. as if that is the only way to show high contrast!! I didn't get a chance to enter this one was on vacation. But many congrats I love the shot and can only hope to become this good!!
Ken whatdewuc is right. I absolutely LOVE this. It's brilliant and fascinating, can't stop staring at it. Mega congrats on winning and on your first blue ribbon and PB.
Simply put, CRAZY COOL. I love this capture! The crown of the explosion is in perfect detail, the lighting is fresh and clean contrasted by the amazing Espresso (i think its chocolate) :-) 10 all the way!
Is that you Irene? How am I supposed to catch up if you keep entering images like this? Very cool shot. I expect to see this on front page. If this isnt Irene please take the misidentification as a compliment.
bizzarre. i can only imagine the mess. I drink espresso, and I'm not sure if I've even seen it quite that thick :) Interesting and fun photo - kinda wish the comp was more exciting but still a 7.
Espresso Explosion
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