Weekly Assignment #66: Liquid Surface

Nikolai · February 1, 2008

This week's task is to photograph another interesting object: a surface of a liquid. As you know, depending on the angle you can get either refraction or reflection. You images should contain only surface, nothing else, however what is reflected/refracted is your choice.
You can use macro lens and small vessels, or regular lens and some large surfaces (doesn't have to be deep - baking pan could be a good starting point.
And yes, we're not interested in oceans or lakes, mini-scale only.
Don't forget to play with your polarizer!
Let's get liquid!

OffTopic · February 4, 2008

Guess we're all a little slow getting started on this one.

I hope this counts as mini-scale enough - I gave up and used my pool after my lack of a macro lens and a sufficient level of creativity really frustrated me in trying to do this "in studio" (which means my kitchen). I had so little creativity that I couldn't even find an interesting subject - I just threw some silk flowers in a vase. At least it's not a lake or an ocean, but I just wanted to show that I'm working on the assignment.

This was in the corner with the last remaining light:

This was in the shade:

And yes, I rotated them 180 degrees!

Now to go bang my head some more and try to figure out how to get a decent surface reflection indoors. Maybe I'll try for refraction...

Nikolai · February 4, 2008

OffTopic wrote:

Guess we're all a little slow getting started on this one.

This is a reflection? Pretty cool! Thanks!

Swartzy · February 4, 2008

Yaaaa!
I get to play..whooohooo!

Bomb Drop

The Power of Red

OffTopic · February 4, 2008

Here's a wider shot showing the edge of the pool, the vase was just out of frame. I have a blackbottomed pool - perfect for reflections

and no wind today since the rain finally ended for a little while.

OffTopic · February 4, 2008

Swartzy wrote:

I get to play..whooohooo!

Bomb Drop

The Power of Red

I have got to get a macro lens! Love the drops, I really want to try them.

Nikolai · February 4, 2008

Swartzy wrote:

I get to play..whooohooo!
Bomb Drop
The Power of Red

Nice ones, David, thank you!

Did you use some gizmo to trigger, or you just used a lot of frames?

Swartzy · February 4, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Nice ones, David, thank you!
Did you use some gizmo to trigger, or you just used a lot of frames?

Heh, yea, the gizmo was my thumb on the cable release....the eye dropper in the other hand.....timing was a bit tricky but managed to get some keepers

spb13 · February 6, 2008

I just join dgrin last week or so, but I saw this assignment and wanted to give it a try.

I spent a couple hours playing around with this last night and wasn't able to come up with anything I liked. So I tried to find some hints for taking this kind of shot and came up with nothing. Finally I found an example of someone's setup for taking shots of water drips. The setup was a lot simpler than what I was trying to do, so tonight I simplified and found some food coloring.

I rotated 180 because my brain couldn't process it "upside down".

When I was importing the shots into PS I noticed one of the "bad" shots that gave me an idea for something more abstract. That idea resulted in this shot...

The reflections are a lot more subtle, but I think it is way more interesting.

Thanks for the assignment. I look forward to playing with this idea some more.

Nikolai · February 6, 2008

spb13 wrote:

I just join dgrin last week or so, but I saw this assignment and wanted to give it a try.

I spent a couple hours playing around with this last night and wasn't able to come up with anything I liked. So I tried to find some hints for taking this kind of shot and came up with nothing. Finally I found an example of someone's setup for taking shots of water drips. The setup was a lot simpler than what I was trying to do, so tonight I simplified and found some food coloring.

I rotated 180 because my brain couldn't process it "upside down".

When I was importing the shots into PS I noticed one of the "bad" shots that gave me an idea for something more abstract. That idea resulted in this shot...

The reflections are a lot more subtle, but I think it is way more interesting.

Thanks for the assignment. I look forward to playing with this idea some more.

Sean,
welcome to Dgrin and to the Class!

Nice reflections. I also like the 2d one better, since it shows more of a surface:-)

spb13 · February 7, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Sean,
welcome to Dgrin and to the Class!
Nice reflections. I also like the 2d one better, since it shows more of a surface:-)

Thanks for the welcome.

The pics from last night didn't quite click with some of my regular "critiques", so I wanted to try the assignment again integrating their suggestions. The problem seemed to be with context. For example someone said "I like the first one but it is kind of hazy." She had trouble placing it as a reflection because there was no point of reference.

So keeping that in mind I made a few changes. I grabbed a different bowl from the cabinet and started with the same basic setup as last night with a bit different composition. Then I realized I had an Asian bowl and remembered that today is Chinese New Year, so I figured it would be fun to play with that a bit. This is what I came up with...

Nikolai · February 7, 2008

spb13 wrote:

Thanks for the welcome.

The pics from last night didn't quite click with some of my regular "critiques", so I wanted to try the assignment again integrating their suggestions. The problem seemed to be with context. For example someone said "I like the first one but it is kind of hazy." She had trouble placing it as a reflection because there was no point of reference.

So keeping that in mind I made a few changes. I grabbed a different bowl from the cabinet and started with the same basic setup as last night with a bit different composition. Then I realized I had an Asian bowl and remembered that today is Chinese New Year, so I figured it would be fun to play with that a bit. This is what I came up with...

Thanks for the info, Sean!

Antonio Correia · February 8, 2008

Nikolai · February 8, 2008

Antonio Correia wrote:

water in the glass

Thank you!

dmmattix · February 8, 2008

I might as well play also
This was taken at College Fjord in SE Alaska. We were on a ship and I noticed the neat reflection in the ship's wake.

Nikolai · February 8, 2008

dmmattix wrote:

This was taken at College Fjord in SE Alaska. We were on a ship and I noticed the neat reflection in the ship's wake.

Nice image!

Is it fresh?
Also, the requirement was to show just he surface, nothing else...

dmmattix · February 8, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Nice image!
Is it fresh?
Also, the requirement was to show just he surface, nothing else...

No it is not fresh. I thought about that on the way to dinner tonight.

Sorry.

I guess I can't play...

Nikolai · February 8, 2008

dmmattix wrote:

No it is not fresh. I thought about that on the way to dinner tonight.
Sorry.
I guess I can't play...

You sure can - just shoot something new!

Azzaro · February 10, 2008

Nikolai......Does this work...It is a shot of a reflection of a tree above my horses water barrel.... Weird colors and I'm not sure why.....

Nikolai · February 10, 2008

Azzaro wrote:

Nikolai......Does this work...It is a shot of a reflection of a tree above my horses water barrel.... Weird colors and I'm not sure why.....

Very cool, thank you!

Pexi · February 11, 2008

I shot this yesterday morning, a vertically flipped reflection from my pool.

Nikolai · February 11, 2008

Pexi wrote:

I shot this yesterday morning, a vertically flipped reflection from my pool.

Pexi, this is great image, thank you very much!

cjmchch · February 14, 2008

A little sun, a puddle on asphalt and an oil leak from a Mercedes

Nikolai · February 14, 2008

cjmchch wrote:

puddle

Very nice shot!

Too bad some requirements are not met, like "nothing but the surface".
Remember, we're not going for "relection" (that was a separate class), but specifiucally trying to capture the surface itself

cjmchch · February 14, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Very nice shot!
Too bad some requirements are not met, like "nothing but the surface".
Remember, we're not going for "relection" (that was a separate class), but specifiucally trying to capture the surface itself

My bad, I thought that given the rest of the asphalt was protruding through the puddle edges it constituted the 'wet surface area'

Nikolai · February 14, 2008

cjmchch wrote:

My bad, I thought that given the rest of the asphalt was protruding through the puddle edges it constituted the 'wet surface area'

well, yeah.... maybe... kinda... sorta...

MooreDriven · February 15, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Very nice shot!
Too bad some requirements are not met, like "nothing but the surface".
Remember, we're not going for "relection" (that was a separate class), but specifiucally trying to capture the surface itself

Either way, it's a cool shot.

pathfinder · February 15, 2008

In a gutter in Saint Augustine last week in Fla.

I have other reflections, but they all include something in addition to the waters surface so they don't count I guess

Nikolai · February 15, 2008

pathfinder wrote:

In a gutter in Saint Augustine last week in Fla.

I have other reflections, but they all include something in addition to the waters surface so they don't count I guess

Jim, this is lovely!

The "something in addition" is fine by me, it's not that prominent...

pathfinder · February 15, 2008

Oh Ok. Courtesy Green Cay Wetlands

A marina on the Indian River I think.

Water is always worth a second look

Nikolai · February 15, 2008

pathfinder wrote:

Oh Ok. Courtesy Green Cay Wetlands

A marina on the Indian River I think.

Water is always worth a second look

Beautiful images, Jim!

But I think they more suited for Reflection class (which we also had) than for this one, since they more about the reflection than anything else.

Weekly Assignment #66: Liquid Surface

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