A simple and fun way to photograph water drops

This is one of my favorite in-home photography projects. The whole setup only took about 15 minutes (with a frying pan, a ziplock bag, water, my camera and flash) and it was surprisingly easy to get great photos freezing water drops in the air. It was so easy that I thought "This would make a great video to show you all how to do this at your house" and so I set out to shoot this "How-to" video. I hope you give this a try!

[gabriellechisholm]

I've watched a few of these videos and the zip lock bag: that's brilliant. And the key - so simple, but I wouldn't have been able to figure it out. Love the simplification of the backgrounds. Thanks for a great video, Jeff.

[nicksmith]

Thanks, Jeff - Your video is a great help. My first ever water drop photo session turned out far better than I hoped. All thanks to your video!

[raydavidson]

Followed your video like a cookbook recipe. People were astonished with my results and especially when I explained to them what they were looking at. Great instruction!

[dianeschuller]

You make this sound easy -- and fun. I'm going to have to get the instruction book out for my off camera flash to see how to operate it now!

[onyourmarkphoto]

Fun! The one thing I learned after trying this is that when water drops and hits the surface, you need a slight hesitation to get the column rising and rebounding. I want to try to get a hole the right size to get a collision effect. Macro photography is so cool! Thanks for sharing this Jeff.

[henryhasz]

I just tried this with my Cannon Rebel and used a 75-300 lense and the results were almost identical to the pictures he showed at the end of the video! I used the same camera settings he mentioned at the start of the video. If you have a camera I would suggest trying it.

[SanMiguelBulls]

Thank you so much for this information, I can’t wait to experiment and have fun…

[miguelsuarez]

Cool video.... easily explained. Thanks

[jvusa]

Wow...This is amazing Jeff, Thank you for the information....

[stringacousticsinger-jos]

I've just tried this with a Canon 80D with a 100mm Sigma macro lens, results were impressive thanks for the lesson. I used the same set up to photograph a splashing gin and tonic for a local venue.

[katiemunro]

This is a really great tutorial! Thank you for sharing

[jamescook]

Thanks! I tired this and got some GREAT SHOTS in a short time. Getting the focus dialed in was the limiting factor.. and finding an interesting background.

[ewa]

Just getting into macro and am so glad you are not using an electronic dropper etc, Ziploc bag is a great idea just as much as the backgrounds.

[michalhughes]

SO cool! Great info! Totally want to try this!

[JohnHayesOnLine]

Hi Jeff thanks for that, amazing results. Just a question for you. I have bought a flash and need to learn all about it. Are there any particular settings on the flash ? Thanks John

[joealmont]

I work for the edgerton center. He is the guy who came up with the strobe. And he is also famous for the picture of the water drop like that, which we have that hanging up in our museum. We had a device that you press a button and it made the drop like that and you can adjust the speed of the drop. Harold edgerton was also the father of stop motion photography and high speed photography.

[lokhincheung]

Cool ! i'll try the setting as you do, thankyou.

[carolbroverman]

Great video! Would you have any thoughts on how to do this without a flash?

[prabhakaransathasivam]

Fantastic. I have smartphone only. Realme7 i too tried to catch rain drop.... Result is 40 to 50 percent of yours... Here tough one is timing... 🙄👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[JH-tgdv]

what model lights are they... great video! going to try this!