These photographs of water splashes concentrate on the after effects of the impact of a drop of water on a shallow layer of the same liquid. This is a recoil or rebound effect of the surface responding to the sudden disturbance caused by a drop of water hitting the surface. After the initial "crown" seen in in the early stages after impact, the subsequent recoil column of water rises to surprising elevations above the surface and then due to surface tension effects it breaks up into droplets that fall back into the host liquid under the pull of gravity.
Some of the images were made on film with a Canon A1 with a 135mm f/3.5 Canon FD lens with a 25mm extension tube. The film for B&W images was Kodak T-Max 400 black and white film processed in Rodinal 1:25 for 6 minutes at about 72 degrees F. For the color photographs made on film, the film was Kodak Extachrome and a blue filter was used in front of the lens. For some photographs the lighting was provided by a Braun electronic flash set to automatic but with a piece of paper deflecting light from the flash head towards the photocell in order to quench the flash and thus produce a flash of short duration. For most of the photographs, whether film or digital I used a Sunpack 552 electronic flash powered down to 1/16 or 1/32nd power to keep the exposure time short. This is required to end up with sharp photographs of this high speed event.
The milk splash photographs were made with a Fastax high speed motion picture camera and the 16mm Kodak color reversal film was scanned. Finally, some of the most recent photographs were made with a digital camera. I used a Canon Digital Rebel essentially the same way as used for the images made on film.
The timing was always accomplished by using a home-made dark activated synchronizer that detected the passage of a drop across a light beam from a small lamp directing the beam across the drop path of the water drops. Its delay after detecting the passage of a drop through the light beam could be adjusted to fire the flash at some desired time giving time for the drop to achieve the desired splash features and appearance. Needless to say, the camera shutter was set on "B" and opened just previous to a drop's splash and closed immediately thereafter. NOTE: Second row of rebounds are photo-illustrations with flying drops reshaped or repositioned.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to AM Worthington and "Doc" Edgerton for their pioneering work in this field.
If you would like a photograph made to certain specifications drop me a line and we may be able to work something out.
Object splashing into water glass and causing cavitation |
Rebounding glass of water 8490 |
Rebounding glass of water 8492 |
Rebounding glass of water 8477 |
Rebounding glass of water 8488 |
Rebounding glass of water 8494 |
Water rebounding out of cup 781 |
Water splash 8564 | Water splash 8604 | Water splash 8660 | Water splash 8673 | Water splash 8722 | Water splash 8739 |
Water splash 8211 | Water splash 8176 | Water splash 8204 | Water splash 8321 | Water splash 8444 |
Leaky faucet dripping water drops a sequence of 6 photographs |
Water splash #2 |
Water splash #3 |
Water splash #4 |
Water splash #4744 |
Water splash #4759 |
Water splash #4761 |
Water splash #4765 |
Milk drop splash 01 |
Milk drop splash 02 |
Milk drop splash 03 |
Milk drop splash 04 |
Milk drop splash 05 |
Milk drop splash 06 |
Milk drop splash 07 |
Milk drop splash 08 |
Milk drop splash 09 |
Water drop splash 4726 |
Water drop splash 4730 |
Water drop splash 4741 |
Water drop splash 4744 |
Water drop impact 4766 |
Water drop splash 4767 |
Water drop splash 4776 |
Water splash #1802 |
Water splash #1873 |
Water splash #1728 |
Water splash ripples #4559 |
Water splash ripples #4566 |
Water splash ripples #4572 |
Water splash ripples #4565 |
Water splash ripples #4554 |
B&W Splash 1 | B&W Splash 2 | B&W Splash 3 | B&W Splash 4 | B&W Splash 5 | B&W Splash 6 |
Spalsh Sequence |
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