With this shoot, I wanted to again freeze a splash but this time within the studio.
Without the luxury of HSS, I had to change the way I typically use the studio equipment taking what I had learned from the first module, particularly artist research and what I had learned with this module in how strobe lights work.
As my maximum sync speed with the studio lights is 1/200th that means I have 200th a second to freeze motion which isn't fast enough to freeze the splash wanted. However, from learning about how strobe lights work, the pop of flash is much much quicker and varies depending on power. For example, at 1/64 power a strobe might flash at around 1/8000 a second. However, at full power, as the flash tube can't output more light it will output the light for long, so a flash may last 1/1000 of second or longer depending on the wattage of the light, still faster than max shutter speed will allow.
From Tim Tadder's Water Wig Series
Last module I researched Tim Tadder and how he managed to shoot his Water Wig series. Tadder has very expensive equipment which could fire strong bursts for a short duration but was still limited by not have HSS.
To remedy this Tadder blocked out all ambient light, set his shutter speed fairly slow and allowed the speed of the flash to freeze the motion.
To start I turned on a single light to make sure I could put Tadder's technique into practice myself.
I turn off all other lights except for the flash head, placed my camera on a sturdy tripod and set my shutter speed to 0.4 seconds. I triggered the camera using a remote which meant I couldn't focus the lens however focus wasn't important at this stage.
I noticed a long trail of motion blur which made me realise the modelling light comes back on before the end of the exposure.
Light set up for background, building one light at a time.
I set up a backdrop featuring a forest scene as I wanted to create an outdoor winter theme with the image which I lit with a single softbox to ensure an evenly distributed light.
Wanting to shoot at f/8, typically a 'sweet spot' in lenses to achieve maximum sharpness, I altered the power output of the flash until the light meter read f/8 as correct exposure.
I set up my subjects, pointed a snoot from camera left at them which allowed me to direct the light across the subject in a narrow beam which meant I didn't have to worry about the light spilling onto the backdrop. It also meant the angle of incidence would send the angle of reflectance away from the camera allowing the light to shine through the glassware and liquid without creating harsh highlights.
Shooting at f/8 I changed the keylight's, the light that is primarily lighting the subject and typically the most powerful, until it metered for f/8.
Having the subjects in the scene meant I would set my lens to manual focus and pre-set it so I can trigger the camera with remote. I then took a few test shows dropping things into frame practicing timing and how much the scene would freeze.
It was also at this point I realised how easy it would be to accidenetally be in frame.
Satisfied with the test shots, I added water to the glass and went for it.
I then spent a lot of time re-taking shots and recomposing slightly to try and get the best shot and best splash possible.
One problem I came across in this shoot was with the radio triggers communicating between camera and light.
Here my key light was triggering but for some reason my softbox, to light the backdrop, wasn't.
I remedied this by switch the 'cell' function on the light. This allows the light to be triggered when a light sensor on the body of the flash head detects a flash. This meant the radio trigger would trigger my keylight, which the light sensor on my backdrop's light would detect and then trigger itself.
After a lot of shots I came away with several usable images, here is my favourite.
Though the motion isn't as frozen as my shots with my speedlite in HSS mode, it had frozen the motion enough and more so that if I was limited to the 1/200 max shutter speed.
A little bright so I remetered.
Having already set up the light and backdrop I wanted to revisit my Jack Daniels shots again.
I arranged my set keeping the same lighting set up. From my previous shots attempts at shooting this scene I know I wanted to try lighting the bottle and glass independantly however as seen her the snoot isn't creating a narrow enough beam of light. To narrow the beam firruther, I added a grid.
Though still lighting more of the scene, the bottle is more exposed than the glass.
I added a second snoot behind the set and pointed it at the glass. Turning off my keylight to see the individual effect.
Together the 2 lights created this image below, the liquid in the glass is lit along with the christmas paper hat behind however the side label isn't as clear as bright as I would like.
Rather than add another light I used a reflector to bounce the light from the back light onto the side label, using the gold foil side to made the golden colour the whiskey is refracting.
Resulting in this final image.
A problem I had with this shoot was the placements of the light. The lighting rid is connected to rails on the ceiling which make fine adjustments hard. I could have arranged lights on light stands however on this occasion I asked a friend for help to hold the lights steady.
Here is a picture I took on my phone of the set up.
