More Strobe Photography

As I was working my way through a book on Canon strobe (electronic camera flash) I always came back to photograph on the cover – raspberry dropped into a glass of water. It is a stunning composition but there isn’t any detailed description as to how the picture was taken, just a passing note that 2 strobes were used hooked to radio trigger. I took it as a challenge and after about 5 hours of experimenting I have managed to get somewhat similar image. No raspberries in refrigerator so I used frozen strawberry. I am sure that I could have taken better picture but I ate my prop. I’ll be perfecting the technique once I buy some fresh strawberries.

Oops…forgot to clean wineglass in between drops

My setup. One flash was placed behind and to the right of camera and second flash behind white screen. The flash on left is one from behind. Both flashes were triggered by radio trigger that was mounted on camera’s hot shoe.

I lowered steel nut that was tied to a string into the glass so that I could focus where the strawberry will be after drop.

Book that challenged me.

Strobe Photography – Part 2

I did more strobe pixs of water droplets but this time instead of white card to bounce flash I used old calendar page with yellow sunflowers and white daisies. It came out pretty good. Later on I took my camera, strobe and tripod outside to take some early morning pictures of dew on peach tree branches and leaves. Then I packed my gear and drove to Lake Lisgard to take some foggy morning photographs. It was a good day.

The cedar that reflects in dew drop is only 1 meter behind the twig.

50mm Macro, f/16, 1/16sec., ISO 800, off camera flash at 1/32 power fired from left side.

Lake Lisgard at 9 o'clock.

Sunrise on Lake Lisgard

18mm lens, f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 100, CP filter

Strech of Trans-Canada Trail system.

Strobe Photography - More Fun with Camera

As I was surfing YouTube I came across interesting movie about photographing water droplets. Since I had everything needed for this specialised form of photography, generally called “strobing”, I just had to try it. I needed solid tripod, flash, radio strobe trigger set and lots of time on hand. The fact that I also have a light tent for close-ups was big advantage. Here are the results. Watch the video on YouTube to see how the set-up and focusing works.

In this shot I used Cloudy White Balance setting. Rest of the photographs were taken with Tungsten White Balance.

Canon Rebel T1i, Manual mode, 1/60 shutter, Macro lens 50mm 1:3.5 set at f/16 and 1:3 magnification, ISO 400, Yongnuo Digital flash YN468 at 1/16 power, Jianisi PT-04TM radio trigger, Cullmann 2904 tripod and head.