From drip... to a real water droplet 💧
Sunday 30 August 2026, 20:20 by Rob Zwart | 136 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
I thought: how hard can it be to photograph a falling water droplet? Well... pretty hard, as it turns out. 😉
How it started
I wanted to freeze a falling droplet from the kitchen tap with my Nikon Z6 II and a Hähnel RT600 flash. Camera on a tripod, 85 mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 100 and the flash in a softbox.
The window light came from behind me and the dark composite background behind the tap seemed ideal.
Ambient light
I started without flash to get the ambient light right first. Then I added the main light and experimented with the position and power of the flash.
At first, I thought I would probably need HSS to get to 1/1000 second or faster.
Why can't you see a droplet yet?
But then came the first surprise: after more than 100 photos, I still hadn't captured a decent water droplet. In fact, in some photos I could barely see more than a vague bright spot. 😄
Is the shutter speed right?
It then became clear that the shutter speed wasn't my problem at all. I first had to make sure the droplet appeared in the frame at the right moment and in the right place.
So: move the camera further back, use a wider frame, lock the focus and make the tap drip faster. Then try again.
From:
Water droplets - f/7.1, 1/125s, 200 ISO @ 85mm
To:
Water droplet - f/7.1, 1/125s, 200 ISO @ 85mm
In the end, this one photo took me six rounds of trying, in other words about 250 photos.
Keep trying and don't give up
And that is exactly what I like most about this exercise in hindsight. The final photo may seem simple: a water droplet from a tap. But behind that one photo is a whole morning of experimenting. And above all, of carrying on and not giving up too quickly.
I've learnt that with this type of photography, the shutter speed isn't the only important thing. Timing, focus, framing, flash duration, light and the position of the droplet all have to be right at the same time.
And perhaps even more importantly, I've experienced again that a failed series is not a failed exercise at all. Each series told me what I needed to do differently next time.
So if you ever think: "I should try that too sometime, photographing a falling water droplet"...
Do it!
But make sure you set aside a fair amount of time in your diary. 😉
About the author
My motto is: being a bit good is not good enough. I try to learn something new every day so I can do it better next time.
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