Several years ago, I came across some absolutely breathtaking water drop photos on Flickr, and I immediately wanted to create similar images. After researching the process, I realized that water drop photography came with several major benefits: it could be done in a small space, it didn’t take much camera equipment, and it let you achieve absolutely magical images.
Yet I decided that it just wasn’t worth pursuing. If I was looking to capture shots of water droplets as they splashed against a surface, then I would need to spend days or even weeks carefully building a drop station and preparing eye droppers – and then, even with a good setup, there would be a very low success rate, as I would need to manually fire my flash to coincide with the falling droplets.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that water droplet photography doesn’t have to be done manually. Droplet kits are designed to automate the finicky parts of the droplet photography process so you can focus on the fun stuff (capturing artistic photos) instead of the tedious stuff (endlessly squeezing droppers and firing your camera flash).
The MIOPS Splash Water Drop Kit is one of the leading products on the market, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually got my hands on one. The folks at MIOPS sent me a kit to try, and over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing exactly that: testing the Splash Water Drop Kit so I can share my findings with the photography community.
In this Splash Water Drop Kit review, I walk you through my own experiences with the product, including the setup, the ease of use, and, of course, its effectiveness. I also share some of the images I’ve taken while using the Splash Water Drop Kit. When the product first arrived in the mail, my hope was that I would be able to produce at least a couple of drop photos that were beautiful to look at. If you feel that I succeeded, it’s primarily a testament to MIOPS’s impressive design. And if you like my droplet photos, which I captured as an absolute beginner, then you can expect similar – or better – results of your own, especially if you persevere.
Ready to discover whether water drop photography can be transformed thanks to MIOPS’s little device? Then let’s dive (or drop?) right in!
What is MIOPS’s Splash Water Drop Kit?
As the name suggests, the Splash Water Drop Kit is built specifically to help water drop photographers achieve portfolio-worthy images. It does this by automating two key parts of the shooting process: the water drop(s) and the camera/flash firing.
You see, most of the amazing water drop art you can find online is a result of the same basic process:
- First, you fill a container (e.g., a bowl, a cup, a tray) with liquid and place it on a flat surface (generally a table). For ease of discussion, I’ll refer to this as the “wet surface.”
- Second, you set up your camera so it’s next to the wet surface, with your lens focused on a point just above the liquid.
- Third, you hold a liquid-filled dropper over the wet surface, and you release one (or several) drops of liquid so that they splash down onto the surface.
- Finally, just as the water droplets hit the surface, you fire a flash and take a photo.
The difference between capturing a stunning image and a complete dud is mere milliseconds. If you fire your flash slightly too early, then you’ll end up with an empty frame because the water hasn’t yet splashed. And if you fire your flash slightly too late, then you’ll end up with an empty frame because the water has already splashed.
It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of synchronization here. I did some experiments while testing the MIOPS Splash Water Drop Kit, and I found that a 5 millisecond adjustment was the difference between a decent shot and an outstanding shot. A 10-20 millisecond adjustment was the difference between a boring shot and an amazing one.
Manually synchronizing this process, where you release the water from the dropper, wait a handful of milliseconds until the drops fall, and then fire the flash just as the drops hit the wet surface, is unbelievably difficult.
And that’s where the MIOPS Splash Kit comes in handy. It includes:
- A flash sync cable
- A Splash device
- A Splash holder
The Splash device looks like this:
As you can see, there’s a tube along one side, which you fill with your splash liquid.
You then mount the Splash device onto a light stand or tripod using the Splash holder, which is a jointed arm you can use to precisely position the device above your wet surface:
You power the Splash device using a USB connection, and you connect the device to your flash via the flash sync cable.
Note that you also have the option to connect the Splash device directly to your camera via the 2.5mm jack, though you’ll need to position the cord for this connection separately. When testing the MIOPS Splash Kit, I relied entirely on the flash sync cable, and it did the job beautifully.
(For those looking for additional convenience, MIOPS also offers the Splash Pro Pack, which includes a camera connection cable and a two-meter-long extension cable. This allows you to place your camera in the perfect position more easily, building on top of the Splash pack’s content.)
The Splash device itself connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth. To control the device, you’ll need the MIOPS app; this is entirely free and available for both Android and iOS devices.
In the MIOPS app, you can configure your setup by adjusting the number of drops, the delay between the drops, the size of the drops, and whether the Splash device should trigger your camera or your flash (as well as the camera/flash delay).
Then, when you’re ready to go, you press a button, the Splash device drops the liquid, and your camera or flash is fired at the pre-configured time. If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll end up with an image like this:
Once you have the basic setup in place, each photo is very repeatable; since the Splash device is so precise, you can capture a near-identical shot over and over again, or you can make all sorts of adjustments to achieve different effects!
Ease of use and build quality
In the previous section, I explained how the MIOPS Splash Water Drop Kit worked. And I’ll admit: if you’ve never encountered this type of product before, it might sound complicated. But while the initial setup does take some time, once you understand the moving parts and have everything connected up, everything is very easy to use.
The app, for instance, offers a simple interface so you never feel overwhelmed:
And when you actually go to configure a new drop “scenario,” the controls are extremely intuitive. You just press the Plus button to add drops:
And you simply tap and type to change the drop size and delay:
Actually triggering the drops is also done with the press of the orange button in the bottom right-hand corner:
Configuring the hardware is also fairly straightforward. The Splash device includes three connections – one to supply power, one to connect to a flash, and one to connect to a camera – and each is clearly labeled.
The biggest difficulty I faced was deciding whether to trigger my camera or my flash. If I were to trigger my camera using the Splash device, I would need to independently connect it (either wired or wirelessly) to the flash, so that the Splash device would trigger my camera, which would in turn trigger the flash. Instead, I chose to trigger my flash using the Splash device, and to ensure that my camera captured the splash, I set the exposure to 1 second and manually tripped the camera shutter at the same time that I triggered the Splash device using the app.
Actually aligning the Splash device over the wet surface – and then ensuring that my lens was carefully focused on the spot where drops were falling – also took some time, but that had nothing to do with MIOPS’s hardware; it’s just the nature of water droplet photography. Since droplets are small, you have to work at high magnifications, which in turn requires very precise positioning to ensure that the photos are sharp.
I’ll also mention that I was consistently impressed by the Kit’s build quality. The Splash holder is flexible yet sturdy, and the Splash device, while made of plastic, is very robust. I don’t anticipate any of the hardware failing anytime soon, and since you’ll be shooting indoors, you shouldn’t have to worry about inclement weather, dust, and so on.
Performance
Now it’s time for the fun part: Evaluating the Splash Water Drop Kit’s performance. Was the Splash device able to deliver great results on a consistent basis?
After hours of working with MIOPS’s product, I can say that the Splash Water Drop Kit does an amazing job of simplifying the water drop photography process. The Splash holder made it easy to position the Splash device exactly where I wanted it, and the app allowed me to play with all sorts of different settings so I could get a variety of photos.
The Splash device was unerringly consistent, and I have zero complaints; it did its job, and it did it well.
Of course, it’s important to acknowledge that, even with the Water Drop Kit, you can end up with bad images. You’ll need to configure the settings in the app to account for your particular setup and vision, and this can take some trial and error.
The hardest task, at least for me, was determining the ideal delay between the drop and the flash, especially because it depends on several variables: the distance between the Splash device and the wet surface, the portion of the drop you wish to capture, and the type of liquid you use, to name just a few. Fortunately, MIOPS makes the testing process surprisingly easy thanks to an auto-adjustment feature, which automatically adjusts the delay setting by a customizable increment as you fire your camera over and over again. (I relied on the auto-adjustment feature a lot, and I recommend you do the same!)
I should acknowledge, though, that this experimentation is all part of the fun. By constantly tweaking my settings, I was able to capture a wide range of images, including classic drop shots, but also more abstract images like this:
And this:
I hadn’t expected the MIOPS app to include so many adjustable settings, but I’m very glad that it did. The more room for adjustment, the more you can play around and create unique art!
MIOPS Splash Water Drop Kit: verdict
As you can probably tell, I love the Water Drop Kit, and it’s a product that I wholeheartedly recommend. It does a fantastic job of making water drop photography accessible, and I was pleasantly surprised by the level of customizability included in the app.
Who should buy it? Anyone who’s interested in taking great water drop photos! For the beginner, MIOPS’s kit makes it easy to take eye-catching splash shots without much work – and serious water drop photographers will appreciate how much time and effort it saves, not to mention the various drops and splashes that it’ll help you achieve!
So don’t wait; head over to the MIOPS website and get a copy of your own!
MIOPS is a paid partner of dPS.
