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John Harvey Photography | all galleries >> Macros >> Water Drops On A Mirror > comp 1st place
KM C40 Repetition; comp: Turning The Tables
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<b>comp 1st place</b><br>KM C40 Repetition; comp: Turning The Tables
13-AUG-2005 John down under , rain man

comp 1st place
KM C40 Repetition; comp: Turning The Tables

my house in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia

Umbrellas on drops of water instead of the other way around.
Water drops on a mirror with manual flash behind the overhead umbrella. I tried this first by illuminating with lamps from underneath the umbrella, but it looked MUCH better when I used a flashgun from behind the umbrella.
Shots with different panels and with lamps lighting under the umbrella here: http://www.pbase.com/jhphoto/macros_7d_umbrellaswaterdrops

My other KM C40 entries here: http://www.pbase.com/jhphoto/c40_repetition

I also entered this one in DPR Macro Challenge #6: http://www.pbase.com/jhphoto/gallery/dpr_macro6

I want to acknowledge Sonny, who provided me with the inspiration for this shot. Check out his creativity with water drops here: http://www.pbase.com/sonnyasehan/miscellaneous
If you like this kind of thing, here's another one from Vikas that you may also like: http://www.pbase.com/vikasmal/image/45275735

In response to Marisa's and Jeremy's comments, it's really quite simple, although the subject, setup and lighting all make a difference to the outcome.

I put drops of water on a mirror (lying flat) with a straw with my finger over the end and set up an umbrella at an angle over the mirror. You can see the umbrella frame in the water drops to show it's the underside. I set up my camera adjacent to the mirror and looking down at the mirror so that I could see the water drops with their tiny umbrellas and the reflection of the umbrella in the background, with the blue panel in this case filling most of the frame (cropped the rest). I tried the other colours in the umbrella panels as well, but liked blue the best, as did my wife, which proves that it's the right choice ;^).

The focus distance was about 40cm, so fairly close. The water drops act like small, convex mirrors (or is that lenses?) to concentrate whatever they see into a small viewing area and invert it both vertically and horizontally without any trickery involved, just the coolness of what curved, reflective surfaces do with light.

The 0.8 sec exposure was just to give me plenty of time to manually fire the handheld flashgun from behind (and above) the umbrella where I was standing with my shutter release remote control. I chose the ISO, aperture and flashgun output that would create the right combination of DOF and exposure, then leaned on the curves during processing for the vibrant result you see here. I shoot RAW and process at 16 bits/channel precision (actually 12 bits/channel as that's the limit of RAW information). The flexibility and tolerance for aggressive processing are unsurpassed. JPEG at 8 bits/channel often just doesn't cut it if you want to really lean hard on the curves for more dramatic results.

If you like this one, you may also enjoy my 'Cure For A Rainy Day':
full size: http://www.pbase.com/image/47889321

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7 Digital ,Tamron SP AF 90/2.8 Di Macro
0.80s f/20.0 at 90.0mm iso200; manual flashgun hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time13-Aug-2005 00:56:02
MakeKonica-Minolta
ModelDYNAX 7D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length90 mm
Exposure Time0.80 sec
Aperturef/20
ISO Equivalent200
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programmanual (1)
Focus Distance3 m

other sizes: small medium original
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Barry Moore 29-Oct-2008 11:42
Briliant work. Everything works well and the detail is mind expanding. ~V~
Toby 22-Mar-2008 00:37
really leaps out, nice work.
lorraine 15-Feb-2008 12:36
absolutely gorgeous very welldone
Christina Conroy 26-Apr-2006 16:45
Fanstastic! I spent a long afternoon this weekend experimenting with water and you've inspired me to be sure to do it again this coming weekend. Thanks!
SimplePhotography 05-Nov-2005 22:11
A huge WOW to this one. Ultimate creativity. Voted too.
Guest 28-Oct-2005 20:25
wow..this is so fun; excellent choice of subject; your water shots are amazing
Guest 20-Aug-2005 04:55
[speechless] [vote]
steve mcsweeny 19-Aug-2005 21:43
A big WOW! Great stuff.Vote!
Veronica Fresh 19-Aug-2005 03:08
"Alleluia" re-spelled.
Veronica Fresh 19-Aug-2005 03:04
The colors are singing and the song is "Alluah!" So well done, I can't wait to try it myself!
Veronica
Sheila 16-Aug-2005 03:29
I did this a while ago and also called it Turning the tables :-)
http://www.pbase.com/sheils/image/38684142
gary becker 15-Aug-2005 17:29
Stunning. Love the 3 errant dribbles.
Bob White 15-Aug-2005 13:10
Excellent shot --- well done
Bob
Sainath 14-Aug-2005 22:35
Absoultely magnificient, John! Wow! I'm amazed at how the umberlla reflection has completely taken over each and every drop. Wonderfully sharp and full of vivid color and great array of shapes and sizes. Excellent work, very impressive. Can't comment on bg color choice having not seen other variations, but the blue does work very well here and really can't imagine any other color working quite as well. Appreciate the techincial info behind the shot as well.
Khalid Hameed 14-Aug-2005 12:44
Excellent!!
saskia 14-Aug-2005 12:17
Fantastic!!
Steven Jusczyk 14-Aug-2005 06:34
Amazing technical work. Great colors, too.
shatterbug 13-Aug-2005 20:11
Oh, I see the details now. Thanks.
shatterbug 13-Aug-2005 20:06
Really cool shot! I have no idea how you did this. Vote.
uofmtiger 13-Aug-2005 19:26
This is too cool! GMV
slimboyfat 13-Aug-2005 09:51
Thats fantastic I love it :)
Pat Hemlepp 13-Aug-2005 09:05
Nice image, John. Very creative.
Vikas Malhotra 13-Aug-2005 06:11
Great stuff, very very nice shot. Cheers, Vikas.
JeremyGood 13-Aug-2005 05:52
Nice job. No idea what's going on here, but it's striking.
Marisa D.L. 13-Aug-2005 05:26
You are getting devilish (in a totally good sense, of course) with your tricky and amazing images. I’m not sure how you have done this one, I’m trying to understand, they are like small air balloons flying in a domestic Lilliputian sky.
Ok, let’s imagine the umbrella is reflected in the water drops, but how is possible that it’s not reflected in the mirror too?
Just manipulation in a post processing version? I don’t think so.
After taming bugs, you have learnt how to tame water droplet. Your macro photography is incredible. You make me appreciate and like a kind of photography I had always felt alien.
Standing ovation!
Marisa
Bryan Murahashi 13-Aug-2005 05:01
Excellent shot. Great colors and exposure.
Dan Chusid 13-Aug-2005 04:57
Nicely done John!
coaster 13-Aug-2005 04:27
Nice effect and beautiful colors!
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