WATER DROPS ON LEAVES -- PRACTICE SESSION 1
Once I made the decision to use water as my project; I needed a starting point, different directions that this project could take me, I love looking at images and it helps me to look through all different ideas so I generally start with Google Images. My initial search was 'Water Photography' - this took me to a page with a lot of different ideas, then I jotted down all the types of photographs I liked, from this I got to water drops on flowers.
This is when I extended my search - I wanted to see just how far people have taken this and how they are used it in there photographs and composition. This search was simple 'Google Images - Photographing water drops on flowers' .
I had just finished another practice session when I started this one. So I had my large studio light already set up at my table I then got the only plant I own and placed it in front of the light. Instead of using water I used glycerine - as I have read in research for other parts of my project that it keeps its shape longer its sturdier and doesn't evaporate for quite some time - I used an eye dropper to place my drops on my little plants leaf and started to shoot. For this practice session I decided to use my camera hand held, I used my macro lens and I just started shooting to see what I would get.
For my first set I have created a silhouette of my plant and drop - my overall mission for this practice session is to get a general feel for it and see if any ideas would generate.
IMAGE ONE -- WATER DROPS ON LEAVES
SETTINGS
APERTURE F/5 SHUTTER SPEED 1/125s ISO 100
I removed the dust spots and then did only two other alterations and that's decrease the Blacks slider bar to -13 and then increased the Whites slider bar to +28.
This was a trickier shot than I thought it would originally be, I think it would be worth using a tripod on the next practiced session. I would also like to try the silhouette look with a few other shaped leaves petals and flowers, I would also like to try it with colour to and see what I can achieve.
Whilst I had this already setup I decided to play with the composition a little and see what I could come up with.
IMAGE TWO -- WATER DROPS ON LEAVES
SETTINGS
APERTURE F/5 SHUTTER SPEED 1/125s ISO 100
I wanted to work on different composition ideas; I had a few marks that I couldn't get rid of using my normal techniques, I decided to now practice my Photoshop techniques to try and eradicate my blemishes, the removal of blemishes didn't go brilliantly however this composition is one of my favorites if not my favourite out of this practice run.
IMAGE THREE -- WATER SPRAYED ON
SETTINGS
APERTURE F/5 SHUTTER SPEED 1/160s ISO 100
Using a spray bottle and keeping the plant in the same lighting position I wanted to see what the combined look would be and if the water droplets would still appear - which I was sure about considering the lighting used. This image has not been altered in any way.
NEXT STEPS
I have various different things that I want to try - but next I want to work on a thorough lighting setup that is going to given even and bright lighting to the flower, I also then want to try different types of flower and leaves, then I want to retry spraying the plant and the glycerine and decide which gives the best results; other options to look into are the position of the glycerine drops (for example hanging right off the end of the leaf) and whether I want reflections in the drops or not and whether.
What type of colours and where they are to be used is another consideration, and focus point - if spraying the water on the flower maybe that isn't the main focus, maybe the side of the flower - maybe only one petal with 3 drops or maybe three petals with one drop on each.
What type of colours and where they are to be used is another consideration, and focus point - if spraying the water on the flower maybe that isn't the main focus, maybe the side of the flower - maybe only one petal with 3 drops or maybe three petals with one drop on each.