Lockdown photography - part 2

Ideas to photograph at home

 A few more ideas to get the creative juices flowing whilst we are spending most of our time at home. My brain isn't functioning well enough to go into detail of how to do each one so please excuse that, but hopefully the ideas will prompt further exploration and search engines will help you find full instructions. I have included some useful links to help.

Liquids

 Oil on water

This is a fairly easy one, although can be a bit fiddly setting up and getting everything just right- take a glass container such as a casserole dish and stand it across two stacks of books, with a gap underneath ( so it looks like a bridge)  or other sturdy props so that you can place something colourful underneath ( I use a tablet with colourful photo). Or use a tall glass/measuring jug and fill it with water and stand that on your chosen colourful backdrop. Once everything is steady and you feel you have the right height of water to get the background you desire then pop in drops of oil and stir gently. Make sure your glass container and stirring item are super clean with no dust. Photograph from above- a tripod can be useful for this and takes a good deal of work out of it - setting the focus up and locking it, then shooting on live view means you can do this more comfortably. If using a macro lens and getting quite close then you can often get away with closing down your aperture to get the drops of oil nicely in focus whilst the backdrop is out of focus due to  close up work. It will take trial and error to get your distances and amounts of water right. One drop of washing up liquid added to the water when everything is still and set up will help with your droplets.

This image below was photographed by a lovely online friend Kathryn Willett - she used an ipad below to get this look. ( Kathryn also produces wonderful animal photography)

Soap bubbles/soap suds - lit up to show irridescent rainbow colours - here is a link to show how to obtain these colour abstract images. Soap bubble technique

Or try photographing bubbles full of smoke by holding an incense stick underneath the bubble blower that comes with a little bottle of kids bubbles liquid. Smoking bubbles  Smoking bubbles 2

Refractions in Droplets on wire or stem/flower 



Raindrops or spray on glass ( or other surfaces) - Handy as textures but also can make wonderful abstracts. This one below is just water sprayed on glass with flowers underneath.



Droplet Splash or droplet collisions
I've not done this in about ten years, so excuse the low res pics. You don't need expensive equipment - some aquarium tubing and a valve to sort drops out, its not so easy getting the collisions this way but I did manage some. Best to read up how to do this for good results - I used to set up in a dark room to avoid ambient light causing issues and adding various substances to your water/liquid can help get more interesting results ( I seem to remember a lot of people used to use something called Rinse aid). A couple of flashes that work at 1/128 speed are very handy too. Its fun and addictive. Try using a a CD for colourful reflections for something unusual or add milk to the water dripping into the bowl. I used to challenge an old friend to produce more creative droplet collisions giving him the idea set ups as he was so much better at it then me - from wine glasses, coffee cups to a boiled egg shell or mushroom. 






Liquids jumping due to vibrations
Another thing Ive not tried myself but would love to. If you type in "Paint on speaker " into your search engine or youtube you will get to see pics and videos. They're very eye catching.


Liquids in bottles or glasses and dripping ink/paint/milk into water
Check out the wonderful creative splash art by Mark Hunter for some creative inspiration using glasses, bottles and much more Mark A Hunter Photography He has also put together info on mixing liquids for photography liquid photography



Ice cubes or containers of ice with items frozen within



Reflections - either at home or on a walk



Items being dropped into water or actually submerged in water - this is a really old pic - I will post a better one soon


Abstract images using ink/paint and alcohol ink or nail varnish floating on water
Make it rain - spray water in a scene and capture the droplets falling either frozen still or using long exposure
Droplets on top of a CD ( Another old pic from about ten years ago just to give an idea) 


Freezing bubbles in the snow or in the freezer can give fun effects
How to photograph bubbles in the snow