My very first time using two bottles

[Mike Buckley]

I recently upgraded my drop art photography gear from a kit with one bottle to a kit with three bottles. These are my only two keepers made using two bottles for the first time and they aren't close to what I hope to be doing. Even so, it's so much fun to have two liquids of different colors being dispensed from above into (in this case) a basin with a third color. I look forward eventually to using all three bottles but first I have to gain at least a little command using just two of them. Lots of adjusting and learning to do before I get to that point.

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[acnomad]

Fantastic!

 

[gchappel]

You did such an amazing job with a single drop setup- I suspect with the multiple new variables you are about to go to where no man has gone before.
These are great but at the same time I suspect are just the beginning of your new journey
Gary

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Andy and Gary!

I suspect with the multiple new variables you are about to go to where no man has gone before.

Thank you! However, there are some very talented people doing drop art photography. They are so talented, patient and creative as well as technically capable regarding making adjustments to their drop art systems that it's highly doubtful that I'll create any type of image that hasn't already been created long ago. That's not my goal. My goal is really simple: I want to have fun doing this stuff and, so far, that's been happening more than I imagined.

Anyone can create a certain combination of colors and formations, the former being largely the result of design and patience and the latter being largely the result of luck, but the user's control over these matters is always limited. That explains why luck is such a huge factor in doing drop art photography.

 

[gchappel]

I love the abstracts.
I look at the first image, and I crop it off at the bottom of the black, losing the white pool.
To me, it then looks like planets being born. You could name it "Nanoseconds after the Big Bang" or something like that. I would be proud to hang that- and you are just getting started.
I tried water drop photography in the past, and my problem was I didn't know where I wanted to go. I could copy anything I saw, and it was a blast. But creatively on my own I was lost, so I went other directions.
I enjoy watching your journey.
Gary

 

[Mike Buckley]

I look at the first image, and I crop it off at the bottom of the black, losing the white pool.
To me, it then looks like planets being born.

That is one of several aspects of drop art photography that makes both the process and the results enjoyable. For me, I see that image as a character rising out of the liquid and juggling some colorful balls by keeping them going in a circular motion.

 

[Mike Buckley]

By the way, when doing this stuff I always feel comfortable digitally eliminating part of a scene to improve an image. As an example, it's rare that I don't clone to eliminate some fly-away droplets. Some mixtures create a lot more of them than other mixtures. It seems that all drop art photographers are content with digitally altering their images in that way.

However, I never digitally add anything to an image, change the fundamental color of anything in the image or change the position of anything in the image. As examples, I could have easily digitally added the colorful droplets in both images and I could have easily made them colors other than the yellow and purple that they were in the physical scene. I could have also easily changed the position of the colorful droplets. But I would never do any of that.

I am open to digitally adding a texture to an image but I would always explain that I've done so when posting to a photography forum. I did that once and it is one of my favorite images.

All of that is just my way of looking at drop art photography: I'm controlling to the extent possible the mechanics of the drop art kit to produce and capture a particular moment in the life cycle of a series of drops rather than using digital techniques to radically modify an image. I have no idea how other drop art photographers feel about that.

 

[acnomad]

My goal is really simple: I want to have fun doing this stuff

Well said! I hope to soon find the time to pursue this kind of enjoyment myself with the trigger and droplet generator that I bought in June. Where has the time gone?

 

[Mike Buckley]

trigger and droplet generator that I bought in June

Which one did you buy?

 

[Butlerkid]

Based on the thread title.....I expected two WINE bottles!

 

[Palouse]

Based on the thread title.....I expected two WINE bottles!

Me too!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Based on the thread title.....I expected two WINE bottles!

Me too!

Both of you really thought it would be the first time I had used two wine bottles? Ya gotta be kidding me! The first time I did that was decades ago. ? ?

 

[Palouse]

Both of you really thought it would be the first time I had used two wine bottles? Ya gotta be kidding me! The first time I did that was decades ago. ? ?

Not while operating your new camera and fancy gear!

 

[West]

I want to see ... 4

 

[Mike Buckley]

I want to see ... 4

There are many systems using six bottles dropping liquid from above. I don't think I'll ever use more than three due to the tiny size of my makeshift studio. A lot of people also use a pressurized system that shoots a stream of liquid up from below that collides with the drops falling from above. That apparently gets really messy, requires lots of fine tuning (some people use lasers to do that), and also requires a larger frame. People that go to that effort sometimes place two pieces of white translucent plexiglass about six inches apart between the subject and the flash units to get maximum diffusion. If I remember correctly, one guy uses either 8 or 12 flash units (4 or 6 on each side of the subject) to get the desired brightness shooting through so much plexiglass. Some people also use a pressurized system in the bottles used to drop from above to maintain constant pressure. My point is that there's lots of complexity that can be built into a system if you're motivated enough to make it happen.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Now that I think about it, I should show my wife my previous post so she can appreciate the stuff that I'm NOT getting into.

 

[dossy]

If these are your two keepers, you definitely went for quality over quantity! I don't know how you do this stuff, but it's amazing. I love the two different colors.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, dossy!

If these are your two keepers, you definitely went for quality over quantity!

I could tell when I first began this photo session that the nozzles that dispense the drops were set too far apart. It was quite late at night and I didn't want to take the time then to figure that stuff out, so I kept pushing the Start button just to see if I would get lucky. I was actually very surprised that I got so lucky with these two shots.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I should show my wife my previous post so she can appreciate the stuff that I'm NOT getting into.

I did that and she immediately laughed. It's a good thing that she laughed.

 

[axle01]

Lots of adjusting and learning

yeah but so rewarding with the results, liking ya work mate.

Al