Smoke wannabe and soap flower

[naeno]

I took a dinner plate, filled just bottom with milk, and added 4 drops of food coloring. (If you have a decorative edge on your plate, keep the milk away from that area.)



Added a drop of dish soap. The soap forces the colors to the side and blends the colors. I experimented with different shutter times and just enjoyed watching the food coloring do strange things! The longer the shutter time, the "dreamier" the effect.

Soap Flower (5 sec. exp)

Camera Olympus E-510
Exposure 5
Aperture f/20.0
Focal Length 54 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Did not fire

Smoke Wannabe (1/20 sec exp.)

Camera Olympus E-510
Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 54 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Did not fire

[Eileen D]

Fascinating images. Thanks for the explanation. It's definitely something I will try!

[pokermanuel]

Very pretty!

[AnneWynne]

Thanks for sharing! This is a lot of fun, and I have had a ton of fun playing with images afterward. Here is an example of an original image and then some of my playing around.



Then I made some of these:


Then I did this with that:


What fun! And very addicting. More images at www.facebook.com/anneedensphotography

[BuddhaPi]

outstanding results anne, thanks to the OP for sharing this must try project!!

[BexJarratt]

Originally Posted by AnneWynne

Thanks for sharing! This is a lot of fun, and I have had a ton of fun playing with images afterward. Here is an example of an original image and then some of my playing around.

Then I made some of these:

Then I did this with that:


What fun! And very addicting. More images at Anne Edens Photography's Notes | Facebook

Oooooo, they'd make nice ceramic tile designs!

[AnneWynne]

A few tips for getting the swirly results I got.

First of all, clean your lenses and sensor. This is not a project where you want to be cloning out dust and specks.

This is a project you can do with a point and shoot as well as a DSLR, so everybody can have fun with it.

Check your settings and/or shoot in raw so you get bright, colorful images. Shooting in raw lets you batch process in Photoshop if you need to adjust your settings. I thought I would be using my tripod a lot, did not use it at all.

Use a larger pan with low sides. I used a white pie pan and I found it to be a bit too small.

I found that a squirt worked better than a couple of drops of dish detergent. Mix in _gently_ with your finger or you will get surface bubbles. You can pop bubbles with a tooth pick or bamboo skewer.

Wear rubber/latex gloves or you will be walking around with green and blue finger tips.

Do not open the bottles of food coloring over your plate, then make sure any dried bits are brushed away before holding the bottle over your milk.

I used several drops of each of the four colors in the milk. I (impatient as I am) swirled the colors with a finger tip (see tip on using gloves) to get a marbled effect. You could also use a bamboo skewer, a knife, fork, anything to get the milk moving.

Start out gently so as not to mix the colors too vigorously. Take your shots, then run your finger through the milk again to get more designs. Repeat until the colors are no longer bright. You can either toss the milk, clean the pan and start over, or you can add fresh food coloring.

You can carefully swirl or nudge the pan to get the milk to move.

To make the sphere in Photoshop, crop your photo into a square shape.
Under Filters, go to Distort>Polar Coordinates and click polar to rectangle.
Go to Image, Rotate, and rotate 180 degrees.
Go back to Distort>Polor Coordinates and click rectangle to polar
You can then use the round marquee selection tool to select the sphere, inverse selection, and delete the corners of your sphere.

Tons of fun!

[Eileen D]

Thanks for the added details, Anne! Love the results from both of you. Can't wait to see what I can do with this inspiration!

[naeno]

Originally Posted by BexJarratt

Oooooo, they'd make nice ceramic tile designs!

That's the exact thing I said!!

Anne, it's always fun to see someone take an idea and expand on it. Well done!

[AnneWynne]

Lynnae, you have triggered my addiction.

I love doing this and it is providing me new fodder for my kaliedoscopic images. Thanks for posting the thread. I think milk + dish detergent + food coloring will be my new go-to bordom buster.

Next, I want to do the oil and water trick in a glass casserole dish suspended over colorful fabric.

Then, water droplets, with different colors in the background,

Then, milk droplets with food coloring,

Then.......