Static Blur Tutorials

A lot of amazing things happen all around us everyday, but they are either too small for us to notice or happen too quickly and we don't see them at all. This is something that happens too quickly.

To capture a droplet hitting any surface requires not only a well lit environment and a fast shutter speed, but also a quick finger and lot and lot of patience.

The above photo was taken using a D70s digital SLR camera, a tripod, an external flash and several table lamps. Also, I connected the camera to my laptop to transfer photo instantly to the computer, but that is not necessary. I covered my desk with white printer paper and put the cup of coffee on top. And I used a pipette to drop milk from different heights to see which would make the biggest splash. Milk was used because it's color has the most contrast against the black coffee. Experimenting with different liquids might yield different, more favorable, results.

I placed the camera on the tripod and pointed it onto the coffee. The camera was placed in shutter priority mode, and a high shutter speed was selected. I used auto focus to focus on the cup and then turned the camera to manual focus mode. This was done so that the camera does not waste time refocusing when the milk is dropped.

The pipette filled with milk was held with my right hand above the coffee and my left was on the shutter release button. As the milk was dropped a very very short time was waited before the shutter was released. This was done because although the drop of milk falls very fast, if both are pressed at the same time nothing will be captured.

It is important to experiment with shutter speeds and heights at which the milk is dropped. Experiment by dropping multiple drops of milk one after the other. When they hit the coffee, the combined splashes will be a lot different than one drop. Remember to take lots and lots of photos, it is the best way to learn.