Learning Curve Assignment #3 Water/Oil

kassie

Hi, spotted this on boards this morning and thought it might be a fun assignment for us newbies, what do you think?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056782783

kassie

here's my first attempts... took a while to figure it out and have had to crop the original pics, a macro lens would defo be of benefit here!!! But it was fun trying it out and i'm pleased with my results given its my first attempt


Groovy Man 1 by misemefein22, on Flickr


Groovy Man 2 by misemefein22, on Flickr


Groovy Man 3 by misemefein22, on Flickr

this is my favourite, love the colours


Groovy Man 4 by misemefein22, on Flickr

nedd

kassie wrote: »

here's my first attempts... took a while to figure it out and have had to crop the original pics, a macro lens would defo be of benefit here!!! But it was fun trying it out and i'm pleased with my results given its my first attempt

They look great. I will have to try this out, but I don't have a tripod that lets me
shoot straight down :-(

OldGoat

I used an extension tube to get a bit more macro scale. As my tubes are cheap I lose auto focus and then I had real difficulty trying to get a decent shot with the camera mounted on the tripod. After 10 fruitless minutes I remembered that I'm using the flash and shooting at 1/250 so the tripod is pretty redundant.
Went handheld and began to get some keepers.
To get a bit more depth I doubled up my water/oil layers. I used a pyrex cassarole bowl and lid stacked on top of each other with oil/water and a splash of food colouring in each, elivated off the table on a couple of boxes and the flash underneath softened under a bit of material. I ran out of nice dark walnut oil though and all the other oils in the house aere very light coloured. Need more contrast.

nedd

Nice one, I might give this a go this evening. I'm pretty sure I have a Pyrex bowl/lid set in the press somewhere.

kassie

I shud add I didn't use a tripod either!! Nd a used CDs for background colour, I used a cream bread bin with a clear dish on top and a desk light in the bread bin with a cd! I used sunflower oil tried adding red food colouring but it didn't work for me

nedd

My attempts:

I love the swirls in the First one, and my head and camera reflected in the second one.

I got the third one by dropping some Balsamic Vinegar into the Olive Oil.

Like was mentioned already, the lack of contrast between the Olive Oil and the water made it difficult to get focus lock. Darker Oil would work better.


WaterAndOil1 by GarethOBrien, on Flickr



WaterAndOil2 by GarethOBrien, on Flickr



WaterAndOil3 by GarethOBrien, on Flickr

kassie

great to see a few of us attempting this! i just might give it another go some evening!

am still trying to play around with the depth of field assignment LOL i won't let it get the better of me >:(

kelly1

Couple of things I've learned doing this:

- Light the coloured background directly, not the oil/water.
- Agitate/stir the mix as little as possible to avoid air bubbles.
- Ideally you'd want to use a macro lens.