Video:
Here is the video. If you can’t see it below, you can watch it directly on YouTube.
Materials:
- A sparkling clean wineglass filled with water mixed with holi powder or food coloring
- Any DSLR / Lens combinatiin (You can use any lens, but I would stay away from wide-angle lenses for this).
- Paul C Buff Einstein E640 Strobe with the “giant” soft-box attached (again, you can use any light/light modifier you want, but something that flashes will give you the cleanest result. The LP180 is a good alternative).
- Paul C Buff Einstein E640 Strobe with 7″ cone reflector attached aimed at the background. 2 blue gels are attached to the reflector by a small lightweight plastic clamp.
- PocketWizard Mini TT1 + AC3 Zone Controller (for Nikon, Canon versions are available too) on my camera’s hotshoe. This wirelessly triggers the flash and adjusts the flash power. You could use a Flex TT5 instead of the Mini TT1. Flex TT5s can also be attached to the foot of portable speedlight flashes to receive the signal.
- Power MC2 plugged into the Einstein E640 strobe (The Power MC2 receives the wireless signal from the Mini TT1)
- RFN-4 Wirelesss Shutter Release – this allows me to wirelessly release the shutter on my camera, so I can take pictures without having to physically be behind the DSLR.
Cheaper Alternative set-up:
- The strobe can be replaced with an unused $200 LP180 speedlight, or even something like a used speedlight for ~$50 – the only difference is that you might need to raise the ISO and widen the aperture a bit, depending on how bright the speedlight is.
- The fancy PocketWizard wireless trigger system can be replaced with the RF-603 trigger for $37. I am pretty sure these can be plugged into any strobe by using the PC Sync or audio jack port, as that is what I did with the older RF-602. I even sort of think the RF-603 are more responsive than the PocketWizards! Sometimes, for whatever reason my PocketWizards don’t want to respond and it can be frustrating. The RF-603 is smaller too.
- Then, optionally, you could get a cheap light stand and umbrella for another $20-$40 (but you could probably get by without this, depending on what you are trying to do/photograph).
The cheaper set-up is the stuff I have been using all this time until recently (and still do use it). Remember, I took this shot with all entry-level equipment and it came out great. The flashes had to be close to the subject and have no light modifiers on them, but the shot still looks pro, and I was able to use 1/32 flash power (flash duration is super short, probably shorter than any given strobe, including the E640), and ISO100, F16 (ideal settings)!
Ideas:
- You could experiment with different densities of liquid, and then drip a different color to each density, so it looks like a rainbow is flying out of the wineglass.
- You can also just throw the wineglass up in the air, but you will need to be sure that it lands on something soft. I would recommend having it fall on an elevated sheet. Spinning it in a spiral could be interesting.
Final Image:
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