To all ye who want to paint with light ...

I should have started this blog many moons ago as I started experiencing the joys of rediscovering the art of photography. But as the saying goes - it's better late, than never!
So, here I am, in the hopes of recording what I learn as I progress from ignorance to enlightenment; about what my eyes can see that my camera can capture; and, what my mind imagines and my camera paints with its capabilities.

Please feel free to add any comments and share your wisdom (tips or tricks) that you have picked up along the way.

And do check out my How-To and Birding pages as well.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Milk droplet turns into marshmallow

Still hung up on the droples, I thought I'd try doing some droplets with milk.  I first tried a few shots with 2% milk, but I didn't get any good shots even after about five tries.  Then I decided to throw in some half & half into the milk to make it a little thicker to get the droplets a little bit more substantial.  But no luck there either, so I just decided to throw in some marshmallows to make the milk look interesting.


Since I hadn't yet tried my circular polarizer, I thought this might be a good occasion to try it on the glass and see how it cuts reflections.


Before using the polarizer.  See the ton of reflections on the glass.


This one is with the polarizer on. The reflections are almost all gone.  I'm not sure if there are any other tricks to using a C-PL.  I have to do some reading up on this. 


I just thought I'd like to see some more colour in the glass.


My son thought I'd had enough of the marshmallows and dumped half of the glass into his cup of milk - but not before I got a shot of that as well. :o)
Posted by Shinydewdrop at

6 comments:

  1. TechylingularFebruary 21, 2010 at 9:50 PM

    The image with the polarizer looks slightly darker, and I actually like seeing more color in these images. The polarizer may work better for outdoor images for perspective shots such as for architecture on a bright day.

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  2. ShinydewdropFebruary 21, 2010 at 11:03 PM

    Thanks for your comment - but if you look carefully, the pic with the polarizer is brighter. Were you maybe looking at the wrong shot? Polarizers are basically used to cut reflections from reflecting objects and when outdoors they make the skies bluer and colours more saturated. It doesn't work on architecture. ;-)

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  3. Kristy Sayer-Jones @ Southern In LawFebruary 22, 2010 at 1:55 AM

    I actually like the picture made without using the circular polariser, the colours are richer.
    The polariser makes the marshmallows seem almost frosted, however it works in the picture where the glass is full of marshmallows.

    I guess its all about balance, for me, post processing works best as I know i'll always have a base for my images.
    But I do agree, the polariser works wonders outdoors.

    The milk droplets, however, should work with heavy cream :)

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  4. ShinydewdropFebruary 22, 2010 at 12:00 PM

    Thanks for your comment, Kristy. I absolutely agree with you about the colours, although the saturation was bumped up slightly on the first half-filled glass w/o the c-pl.

    I was basically experimenting with the amount of reflections I get with or without a polarizer. I got fab results on a hand painted plate I shot at night under tungsten. I'll post the with and without tonight to show the difference.

    I am yet to try outdoors, and I'm really looking forward to getting some blue skies and nice colours.

    I'm going to try the milk droplets with heavy cream as you suggested.. and a heavier object to drop into it - the marshmallows were too light. :-)

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  5. Kristy Sayer-Jones @ Southern In LawFebruary 23, 2010 at 12:14 AM

    I've actually experimented with berries and heavy cream before, and that worked a treat - Maybe you should give that a go :)

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  6. ShinydewdropFebruary 23, 2010 at 7:36 PM

    @Kristy - You read my mind! Berries and heavy cream it is, then! :-)

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