Today I decided to try experimenting with camera flash for the first time.
Over the past week i've purchased a few new pieces of equipment. Specifically an off camera flash or speed light from Flash Point. I also purchased a wireless transmitter that will allow me trigger the flash without it being attached to the camera. With these new pieces of gear added to my collection I figured the perfect way to test them out would be to stop some action. Specifically freeze water in mid air. I know i've already done similar shots to this before, however I used a rather inefficient method that wasn't worth the hassle. The method I used this time was amazing. I was able to get four amazing shot's in the same amount of time it took to get one using the old method. It was also took a lot less time than before.
Ill go into more detail on my setup in the future, as I intend to make a video explaining how to freeze water using a flash. However I basically started out placing a mirror on a table with an old film projector screen as my background. I than placed two soft boxes adjacent to the subject and placed my flash under the table pointed at the screen. I was shooting with my canon T3i with my Canon 75-300mm lens set to 75mm at f/11. My ISO at 100, and my shutter speed at 1/200th of a second. Attached to the camera I had my trusty cable release as well as my wireless transmitter. The whole thing was than plugged into my laptop which I than used as a preview window. I than stood next to the glass dropping various fruit into it trying to capture the water splashes. After about twenty minutes I had what I was looking for.
What you see below are the results of the shoot. Overall I am quite pleased with them and more importantly I now have a good knowledge of how to use this new flash. Obviously I still have some learning to do, but that's all part of the process.
In the future I hope to do even more with this setup. Im even looking into buying some colored gel's to create some scenes with different colors. And I do have plans to show this all on video so be patient. That all will come in the next couple of months.
Enjoy the photos.
-Nick
Crystal Clear
Crystal Clear II
Crystal Clear III
Crystal Clear IV