wax drop, the how.

i posted my wax splash in an indonesian forum and asked 5 ppl to raise their hands if they want me to write a tutorial about it.
5 ppl raised their hands.

and as promised.

here's a short tutorial on how :)













i started shooting wax instead of water one hot dark night when i was in indonesia.
it was during a blackout and i was trying to figure out what to do.
i lighted 5 candles in different positions in my room walking around thinking.
after a while of sitting in the darkness and staring into empty spaces.

i went to look at my candle,
thinking that may be i can shoot candle again like i did the other time,
hoping to find a new way of shooting candle.
since i think my previous try didn't really impress much people : /



take another look.
cause it impressed me =P



anyway, to my horror,
the candles started dripping melted wax everywhere !
3 melted on my tv !

quickly i clean it up and the idea came.




"eh, what will wax drops look like ?"




so i did it in total darkenss with only 1 torch light.
i didn't light the other candles to save them for the drop.


here is the re-invented try on it.




what you will need :

1. camera obviously.
2. an external flash ( optional but would be great if u have it )
3. candles and lots of them, unless u're really good + a lighter.
4. cable release.
5. lots of paper ( advisable ).



























the setting is super simple,

place the paper ( i use white ) as the base so when the candles drop, it won't drop on whatever u're shooting on.
place lots of them, cause if u use only 1 sheet, the wax will actually make that paper stick to ur table so cleaning up won't be a pain in the ass.

u don't need any external light for this actually, but if you own superb lighting sets, then go ahead and set it up however you wish.

i don't have any lights yet.
so i just use only my study light.

now the technical part,

set your aperture from around f11 on wards.
i used f18.
place ur flashgun so when it flashes it'd hit the wax directly,
i brighten my flash up to +3 stops to get the maximum power of it.

speed is max for flash,
1/200.

if u use external lights,
u have to go higher than 1/500.

to get the blue cast like mine,
simply change the white balance to tungsten or fluorescent.

attach your cable release to your camera.

when shooting splashes,
always put on your lens hood to protect your lens from the splash.

i used my canon 100mm f 2.8 macro.

i had tried using canon 50mm f 1.8 II also and it works well too.













next is,
like the picture.
hold the candle in one hand,
the cable release in the other.
and shoot it away !!

if u're new to splashes.
then it'd be a trial and error thing.

for the focus,
i always put my candle on the spot where i wanna focus first.
focus on the candle,
then i drop the wax there.

if u've shot water splashes before,
then you know what to do :)















good luck people.
email me at herbertism@gmail.com a link if u try it.