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Joe Zanrè

Water splashes

In issue 288’s Photo Answers , Andrew James advises a reader that flash is needed to capture water drops. In my opinion, water drops captured with flash often tend to have a flat, featureless surface, devoid of texture and contrast, and this can give them an unintentional, two-dimensional pencil-sketch appearance. This also robs the subject of shadows, which are how water surface ripples are often represented.

My photograph (above) was captured using a technique that relies on a constant light source. The details and texture have all been preserved, even down to the reflections and refractions in the water ball above the column. Rather than relying on attempting to capture drops released from an unsynchronised water source, either by triggering from the sound of the splash or simply by trial and error, this system releases water drops by using a solenoid valve, which is controlled by the same device that also fires the camera shutter. By doing it this way, millisecond resolution is used to determine the exact point in the water drop’s brief existence at which the image is captured.