High Speed Photography - The Splash

After seeing some of the fantastic high speed photography of water droplets I wanted to give it a try myself.  Searching the net only gave me the same answer, that I would need some high tech stuff to get the accurate amount of drops and so on.

Hmm, a challenge?  Duh!

I used my 450D and built in flash, an oven pan and a small clear plastic bag with water.

In the oven pan I placed some water.  The amount of water will depend on you and how high you want the drop to go.

I positioned the pan in a well lit area, placed the plastic bag with water above the pan (can't remember what I used to suspend it) with a corner of the bag facing down like a triangle.

I set up my camera with a fast shutter speed around 1/60, on a tripod and aimed the camera at the area where I thought the drop would be.  Now all of this is trial and error and don't expect to get the perfect photo straight away.

I made a small hole in the corner of the bag just enough to let the water drop about every 4 seconds.  Looked through my lens to see if I was where you should be.  Once happy, I made sure my flash was on.  This is where you start preempting when the next drop will fall and how fast.  With some practice you will get it.  I used continuous shooting mode but that is slowed down by the flash.

My result:

For more inspiration: http://www.lightstalking.com/water-splash
And for ideas: http://www.diyphotography.net/strawberry-splash-thoughts-about-high-speed-photography