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Graceful Landing...
1st PlaceGraceful Landing...
sekarmalathy


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: What DPC Loves the Most (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Location: Bloomington, IL
Date: Mar 18, 2011
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/500s
Galleries: Still Life, Studio
Date Uploaded: Mar 20, 2011

 Suggested Items:
a) Plastic cups (or wine glasses if you can afford to break a couple of them)
b) Coloring ink
c) Fishing wire - the secret weapon ;)
d) White poster board, for background
e) Camera that can fire a remote flash (I had used Nikon D70s)
f) An external flash that can be triggered remotely (I had used Nikon SB30)
g) Any good lens (I had used Nikkor 50mm 1.8 lens)
h) A remote or a cable shutter release
i) Tripod
j) Buckets of water
k) Couple of waste cloths to wipe the floor
l) A short table to mount the setup

Suggested camera settings:
a) Smaller aperture (f/16), for deeper depth of field and to keep everything in focus
b) 1/500s (whatever your camera can sync – 1/200s or 1/250s)
c) Flash on Manual mode (least power, just enough to trigger the SB30 flash – I had used 1/16th power)
d) Manual focus
e) Mounted on Tripod

Setup details:
Let me try and explain how I did this.
• Placed the short table inside the bath tub (or any other place that you afford to get messy or easy to clean up)
• Placed the white poster board for background
• Placed the background flash behind the white poster board
• Placed the cups on the table, next to each other
• Filled up both the cups half way through with water
• Added colored ink to my taste
• Tied the fishing wires to the legs of the cups and left approx 6 inches of length
• Held the remote on my right hand
• Grabbed both the fishing wires together, using my left hand
• Pulled the wires to lift the glasses and pressed the remote simultaneously. I had to make several attempts to get both actions synchronized. Smarter folks might pick it up quicker ;)
• Repeat the last two steps until you get desired results
• And yes, there was cleaning after each attempt, as I did not want my bath tub to get stained with all the colors. I have to find an alternative for these colored inks. These inks leave a heavy stain if I don’t clean immediately.

With better timing and some more luck, you should get better shots than mine. I tried a couple of shots with wine glasses, before I broke them. Those shapes did not come out as what I wanted. It took approximately 6 hours to complete this shoot. That includes time for setting up, trials, shooting and clean-up. After all, photography IS all about having fun, isn’t it! Hope you find this explanation useful! Happy shooting!

Statistics
Place: 1 out of 95
Avg (all users): 7.0608
Avg (commenters): 8.5294
Avg (participants): 6.4583
Avg (non-participants): 7.3500
Views since voting: 6481
Views during voting: 426
Votes: 148
Comments: 47
Favorites: 11 (view)

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AuthorThread
 11/13/2011 09:29:22 AM
Great shot and setup, congrats on the blue! Wondering if food colouring might be a good alternative to coloring ink?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/09/2011 01:56:53 PM
excelente imagen e idea
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/08/2011 10:19:31 AM
Impressive... I am even more impressed after I read the setup.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/31/2011 03:37:01 PM
Thanks for the "How To!" Such a great, unique shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/31/2011 03:17:47 PM
Such a wide gap in the score between this and the other one like it. I wonder how much that has to do with the lack of spot editing vs challenge relevance.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/31/2011 01:06:24 PM
Thanks for sharing Raj! Awesome write-up.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/31/2011 12:09:18 PM
wow great set up,thanks for sharing
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2011 10:56:14 PM
Absolutely astounding shot. I am really surprised you got only 8 10s. I, like so many others of those commenting, would love to have a high level view of how you did this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2011 09:48:57 PM
Amazing shot, Raj. Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2011 10:35:09 AM
Definitely cool. How was it done?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2011 10:11:18 AM
Can't imagine how you accomplished this amazing image !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/30/2011 07:13:12 AM
That is just INSANELY good. Mamma!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/29/2011 07:16:57 AM
Wow , Congratulations a superb image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 09:30:48 PM
Good one, Raj. Congrats for the BLUE.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 07:02:31 PM
The uniqueness of the way you captured this image is what brought it home for you. Congrats on your big win!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 01:53:22 PM
Well done! Kudos!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 11:58:43 AM
Amazing image!! Congratulations Raj.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 09:22:07 AM
Congrats Raj on the ribbon! I am sure you are glad your efforts paid off big time :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 06:51:20 AM
Congrats on the ribbon, now we need notes telling how you did this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 03:38:57 AM
Congrats, Raj, refreshingly different and excellently done. Must have been a heck of a mess to clean up :)
How did you fix and lift the glasses?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 03:12:14 AM
Perfect! Congratulations!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 02:51:45 AM
wow
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 01:52:25 AM
huge congrats!! ...waiting for the making of :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 01:35:42 AM
Huge congrats on a great image! Very well deserved blue.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 12:42:55 AM
Straight back to form! Terrific.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 12:37:39 AM
Exxxcellent! I can't even get my mind around how you did this -- but you did it flawlessly, and it is definitely award-worthy! Congratulations on 1st place!

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/28/2011 12:24:16 AM
congrats on a great shot, that must of took much persistence to pull off.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
03/27/2011 04:12:33 PM
Totally awesome! I like the composition and colors, plus the obvious movement. Hopefully you will fill us in on how it was done after the challenge. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/26/2011 10:29:45 PM
How the heck?! Pretty great achievement... would love to hear a "how it was done" story when the challenge is over.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/25/2011 10:16:39 PM
Very impressive splashes. I could make some guesses as to how you did this, but it doesn't really matter. It's a fun take on water glasses and artistic splashes :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/24/2011 09:47:53 PM
Don't i see double, i thought this was in another challenge, well similar anyway.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/24/2011 05:49:14 PM
Can't help wondering how many attempts this took. :)
Great picture btw.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2011 10:18:50 PM
Ooooooh... Goood one!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2011 09:56:42 AM
brilliant - can't imagine the cleaning required in between the shots!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2011 08:01:55 AM
really great work! one of my top 3! -Good luck
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 11:45:38 PM
THAT is an original wine glass/wine drop/spill entry. Beautiful colors and lighting. (not voting)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 08:06:34 PM
My. Isn't this something. I think I'd have preferred this an instant sooner before the liquids hit the flat.
Love the lighting and everything. Great work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 06:29:49 PM
WOW - how many times did you have to do THAT?? Nice stop action.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 04:38:29 PM
How can I give you anything but a 10. Bravo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 03:31:06 PM
Love to hear how you did this. Very nice. 8...bump 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 02:53:08 PM
Wow - this is very impressive. I can't wait to find out how you to did it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 01:44:24 PM
this is pretty cool
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 08:47:36 AM
Wow, how cool! How many times did you have to do this (and clean up) before you got it right?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 04:05:53 AM
That's really neat, excellent lighting and color. A tad oversharpened maybe...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 01:03:35 AM
Ok I have to come out of the closet and admitt, I love wine galsses and speed shots... My kitchen has looked like WWII hit a million times and never got anything close to this! EXCELLENT
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 12:29:48 AM
Ohhhh.... FABULOUS!! (not voting)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/21/2011 12:21:48 AM
amazing image! 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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