Invisible cup splash

[tokyorush]

The result:



The best capture I got available here.

One of the test photos:



I put a large radius glass vase on a CD cover elevated onto two identical cups, put the flash (430EX II) on a Cactus V4 under the vase pointing up through the bottom of the vase. The camera was on a tripod in front of a setup with a wired release hooked up, settings up to 1/250s, f11 (not sure, lazy to check now, but basically as high as possible to allow you good side-to-side-up-&-down focus), ISO a low as possible - at 100, Camera was my 40D with the 55-250mm IS. The reason I used this lens is to get far enough not to risk a camera splash, but still get enough magnification. Also, the flash was in a plastic bag to avoid the same splash.

The splash was actually produced with canned air rather than dropping something into the vase. The reason is: it's much easier to capture canned air which can last for a second or two than to capture a splash that is much shorter. Also, by controlling the pressure on the can release, you can control the depth the air will reach, the amount of the splash...everything...

If you take a look at the last photo, the redish tube that is delivering the air is clearly visible. Pre-focus on the vase, clean it up and dry all the smudges from previous attempts, press the release on the air and in the same time hit the remote shutter.

Post production took reducing the exposure and increasing blacks to hide as much of the glass as possible, some saturation to pimp up the colors [all in Lightroom]. Than in PS, cloned out the specs that were still visible, covered up for a few drops that distorted the edge of the vase and voila...

Hope you like it...

[sbunting108]

Wow they look great! Well Done!

[mika]

Very cool!!!! I love it!!

[jarziom]

Wow - This pic gives me some ideas for some food pics I hope to be taking.. Your explanation is pretty elaborate and very helpful. Thanks a lot for sharing

[MOmilkman]

What was your flash settings? ETTL?

[evader]

can't wait to try this one
Thanks for sharing

[tokyorush]

Hello peoples, thanks for your comments, and sorry for late replies, don't come here to DPS often, my apologies...

@MOmilkman

I always shoot manual, don't like to let a machine make decisions for me. In this case I'd go for maximum power on your flash so I can maximize DOF, meaning the biggest f number with the given light possible...

[Athas_orm]

Wow this is really cool. Love the colours and the idea is great. Thats for giving me ideas.

[MrBeta]

Interesting. I've never thought of using canned air.

[tokyorush]

Thanks people, I appreciate it.
To be honest, I was having conned air from cleaning my PC on the table when it struck me, so I quickly prepared the setup to see how will it look on camera. Looked good IMHO...