Unit 2 Relationships - Shoot 2 - 'Capturing the Rain' - Technique Fast Motion Photography

For shoot two I want to look at linking in the theme of weather, and natures relationship with weather, I believe this will make a really interesting shoot. I have taken an initial shoot for this piece, a little bit of experimentation to get an idea of how to capture the weather, in the initial shoot which
can be seen below, I captured 'rain' to create this image firstly I set up my camera on a tripod, with a 50mm lens, so the image would short depth of field (background is a soft blur), it was a reasonably bright day so I was able to set the camera to a shutter speed of 1/4000, this fast shutter speed enable me to capture the falling raindrop, once I had set the camera up correctly, ISO 6400, to increase the brightness as much as possible, obviously I had to find a way to 'set up' the weather, because it was actually a nice sunny day, so I decided to use a watering can, this meant I was able to create an image of rain, the camera was set to a 10 second timer taking 10 pictures, one after the other, I started to pour the water out of the can at around 5 seconds before and continued to do so until the camera had taken all 8 photographs.

What have I learnt from this piece of experimentation?

I really enjoyed this piece of experimentation and I have learnt that it is vital to set the camera go have a fast shutter speed, a slow shutter speed can over-expose the image and will cause the raindrops to become blurred and will create lines of white where the raindrops movement has been captured by the camera. 

What worked well?

I really like the way that some of the raindrops in the foreground are clear and in focus and the water in the background is blurred, this emphasises the detail on the raindrops which are in focus. Another thing I believe works well is the way the raindrops are bursting as they come into contact with the tree, if you look at the top part of the tree, just down from the buds you can see this, and this adds to the image and shows the movement of the water. 

What would I change? 

When it comes to my shoot I will try different angles, above the plants and to the side of them.

Image 1

I think the photos from this shoot worked well and linked to the theme of this shoot, which was the relationship between nature and the weather, the photographs above and below are my two favourites, I prefer the image below as the composition is better, it's an interesting angle, I did this by setting my camera up on a tripod, the camera was positioned above the plant, I set the camera on a 10 second timer to then take 10 pictures at a shutter speed of 1/4000, the ISO was set high so the image was not too dark, I believe the dark brown background works well against the green foreground. I set the camera on manual focus and focused on the central part of the plant, this made the raindrops falling blurred and out of focus, and I like this effect, also the splashing of the raindrops onto the leafs.

Image 2

The photograph below, did not work as well, although the movement of the water splashing is interesting i failed to capture the movement of the falling raindrops, the grasses detract away from the raindrops, this is not what I wanted. Although it's an interesting picture it didn't work as well as the image above. 

Image 3

 

Improving the shoot...

Retake 1

Retake 2

I believe that this is one of the best photographs i have taken during this unit, and it is one of my personal favorites, to take this one I used a 50mm lens, and a fast shutter speed, what I think works well with this photo is the way that only the flower and its buds are in focus, meaning the water droplets on the flower and buds are sharp and in focus, making the picture look really detailed, the focused flower draws the viewers attention straight away because it stands out against the brown/green blurred background, the blurred falling water droplets also make the image look detailed. The detail of the in focus water droplets can be seen if you look closely on the pettels of the flower, you can see the reflection of the sun through these, and i think this adds to photograph. I accomplished my aim in all of these photographs to show the relationship between Nature and Weather. 

Retake 3

Retake 4

After getting to grips with how to use a fast shutter speed and understanding that it has to be bright as well, i deceided to revisit this shoot, it is the shoot I've enjoyed the most and have done the best it!

More Experimentation Photographs

1

 These are the photographs from my experimentation, I simply set my tripod and camera up, and on poured water out of a watering can, onto a table, for this experimentation, I simply used a 18-55mm lens, focuses on the table top, and set the timer on the camera to 10 seconds, then take 10 photos instantly. I also played around with different shutter speeds and ISO numbers

2

How does this shoot relate to my Artists?

Initially this shoot was biased around take the Nature element that Jelle Martens portrays in his work, but after doing my Artist research I discovered that my second artist David Lloyd has done something quite similar with animals jumping into water, and capturing both the movement of the water, and also the movement of the animal. His fast motion photography tends to normally be animals running on land, but I discovered this photo, relating to this shoot. (Shown Below)

'Wildebeest Leaping'
'Great Migration Safari'
Taken in 2014
David Lloyd