Fruit Splash Setup

Ok. As promised here are details of my fruit splash setup.

Have to post it now as I have to change the "garage" studio setup for some product shots of items that I am planning on selling on e-bay. If you are interested in some camera gear for sale then visit my items for sale. Details to follow of e-bay items in the next post.

Anyway back on the details.

The equipment is as follows:

1. Glass Fish tank (rectangular £1 from local tip and lots of cleaning of fishy scum
2. Water 3/4 of fish tank full
3. x1 DSLR - Nikon D2X - Fitted with 18-70mm Lens
4. x1 Tripod in front at tank at Water level.
5. x2 Speed Lights (set to 1/4 power to give fastest flash duration)
6. x1 PC flash cables & camera mount
7. x1 Black main background - Foamex board (Matt black A0)
8. x2 Side black reflector - Foamex board (Matt black A4)
9. Various Clamps & cloth & Knife etc.
10. Squeeze (did not have this but you will need one!)
11. FRUIT - A range of fresh fruits. Apples,oranges,lemons,limes etc etc

Once you have all the stuff collected all the equipment. Setup the tank and add water. WARNING - Camera equipment and electricity DO NOT MIX. Get all the wet water stuff done FIRST. Then start with the camera stuff!.

Then setup the background and speedlights at the sides of the tank. The speed lights where un-diffused and directly pointing at the area where you will be dropping the fruit. Place two black diffusers to stop as much light reflecting off the background. This is important as drops & bubbles will form on the back edge of the tank. They will appear as out of focus BUT they will take hours of post processing in Photoshop to remove (speaking from experience!)

Here is an image of the setup:

Here is a diagram:

Once all setup you are ready to go. Get a floating object where your drop site is going to be. Manual focus and manual exposure on camera. Manual focus on this to get your focus spot on. Set aperture to give the right amount of light to get good exposure (do not use shutter speed! Keep shutter speed on sync speed (x250))

Fire off a few test shots using your floating subject. They run a few test drops. Drops are about 30cm above water. Any more or less is either too much drop or not enough. Once happy with exposure move on to composition. If you want a water line and above splash include say 1/4 to 1/3 above the water line and the remainder below water line. Once happy with test shots get a selection of fruit ready.

Now drop the fruit and try to open the shutter when the fruit is just entering the water. Its trial and error. Plenty of drops. Try to ensure the front and rear glass is clean and there are no nasty bits floating on or in the water.

Enjoy! Links to my flickr shots : http://www.flickr.com/photos/28067431@N03/