Help on focusing on water droplets

LadySaslic83

LadySaslic83

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Samantha
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Hi

This might sound like a really daft question, but since seeing all the water droplets people have been posting on here, I thought I would give it a try.

I am using my sigma 20 - 80mm macro lenss, I have a basic tripod still a noob :) and my nikon d3100. I have been trying and trying and braking my back trying to get the droplets that I want. They look alright on my camara untill I get on photoshop and they are out of focus when you zoom in.

Are there any tricks or is it just practise or are my eyes just shot :thinking:

this is the picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67574994@N06/6225864513/in/photostream

Any help is much appreciated

Sam
 
If you crack it, dont forget to post some of your results on here.
 
Last time I tried this I stuck a pencil where then water fell, and manually focussed on that, then took the pencil away.
 
Yup a pencil is pretty good to mark focus with. Also what are you using to get the water dropping?
 
I have been using a water bottle attacted to some sort of hanging device I made up lol

I have had a few more attempts and seem to have focused a bit more here they are


6231447504_d79196eec4.jpg
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6226175353_d15729ce07.jpg
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better than my first attempt I think
 
I've not done any drop photos for months so I thought I'd have a go today.
To get the focus point I place a steel ruler across the top of a small tank I made, I then place a screwdriver on the ruler and position it so the drops are hitting the tip of the screwdriver then focus on that.

Here is an example of one of my focus tests that I took today and three of my photos from today as well.

8eNEt.jpg


NIh1o.jpg


SPunG.jpg


t0gIs.jpg
 
Last edited:
LadySaslic83 said:
I have been using a water bottle attacted to some sort of hanging device I made up lol

I have had a few more attempts and seem to have focused a bit more here they are


6231447504_d79196eec4.jpg
[/url][/IMG]

6226175353_d15729ce07.jpg
[/url][/IMG]

better than my first attempt I think
Click to expand...

Definitely better Samantha.... Well done :clap:
 
I can't see the exif info, but the other suggestion is what aperture are you using? increasing the depth of field might help.

Results so far look good, now try dropping the height of the camera so it's level with the splash
 
Thank you Splog

Byker my aperture is f/8 and my shutter is 250. I will lower the camara and take some more tonight. The only problem I am noticing is that the front of the glass is blurred with the DOF. But I am sure I will crack that once I practise more
 
I focused on my finger and used a large f-stop to give me a bigger margin of error. The link on my thread to the video with the photo sequence shows all my error shots. Hope that helps a bit.

Gavin
 
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