[Pics] Fluid Sculptures (deconstruct these shots)

It’s time to put our Fstopper monkeys to work yet again. That’s right, I’m talking about you guys. A Milwaukee-based photographer (Jack Long) has spent a year perfecting his very own, 11 herbs and spices kinda recipe, for shooting liquids in suspension and claims the effect is not created by dropping liquid as seen in other splash photography. So, put your brains to work and tell us how you think he does it, in the comments below.

The Gear: Canon 1Ds MkII with a Canon 28-70 f2.8 lens at 50mm.

“I have been working for over a year with this unique, self discovered method of suspending liquids into the air and capturing them with short duration flash lighting. The shutter speed was set at 125, but because I was using high speed flash I just needed to trigger the lights while suppressing ambient light. I have used an infrared flash trigger at times but these are triggered more by eye and feel than with an electronic system.”

[Pics] Fluid Sculptures (deconstruct these shots)

cup1 [Pics] Fluid Sculptures (deconstruct these shots)

cup2 [Pics] Fluid Sculptures (deconstruct these shots)

via [TheTelegraph] [LaughingSquid]

From Kenn:
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January 6, 2012

Kenn Tam

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Anonymous
Wizardry.
Anonymous
Wizardry.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694282177 August Young
He’s a decedent of Moses?
Anonymous
Looks like there is some sort of syringe in submerged in the beverage that shoots liquid up.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Luis-Luna/1004664435 Luis Luna
well it´s the same cup and the fluid seams to came from below not upon the cup so im thinking in a perforated cup and a medical syringe with the liquid of your choice sealed with silicone and inyected trow the liquid on the cup and dependig on what distance or depth in the cup will be the effect also the syringe diameter that´s my tougth
Luis Luna
http://www.facebook.com/people/Luis-Luna/1004664435 Luis Luna
same thinking unimatrixZxero you win the post for seconds congrats i think the same who join us??
http://twitter.com/Seshan Seshan
Maybe it’s not really a liquid? some kind of epoxy resin, or it’s frozen liquid(most likely not frozen), or there is some kind of structure that is being photoshoped out.
http://twitter.com/Seshan Seshan
Yeah, I started to think something is shooting the liquid out, There must be some photo shopping going on tho, I don’t think you would be able to get such a clean surface from shooting out of the cup.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6GTHNBZ3E6XRTPFRLOROHAPOKE James
Small, heavy and hollow objets thrown inside the cup…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=754554855 Edd Carlile
Stick the cup and the spoon to a wooden surface…elevate up high and then drop (perhaps less than free fall speed?) and have the platform hit some kind of rubber stop at the bottom…have your camera set up on a tripod and with some careful timing and fast finger work…VOILA! You can capture these shots.
I think.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=898795227 Rich Drinkard
I would tend to agree that liquid is injected from below. Even though there are two different spoons and the cup is rotated slightly differently in some of the shots, the cup remains in exactly the same location for all the shots. This tells me it’s a special rig set up from below the cup.
http://www.facebook.com/chip.johansen Chip Johansen
I would think these were created by dropping different objects into the liquid.
http://www.facebook.com/marky360 Marko Ditkun
dripped hot oil into water and then edited out the steam
whats my prize?
http://twitter.com/brendan_carlson Brendan Carlson
This looks like the priduct “the Cake Boss” uses sometimes when he’s making effect for his cakes, a hot sugar syrup poured over ice to cool it in all kinds of funky shapes.
http://www.facebook.com/ofafonua Ofa Fonua
Is he pulling something out of it attached to a string? Maybe?
Paul Perger
A syringe and the water being shot upwards is an interesting idea, however the physics of that idea aren’t supported by the liquid movement. Particularly in the first large photo where the droplets at the bottom of the ball are curved outward… There is no cause for them to do that if the liquid was shot up and is then being brought down by gravity.
There has to be some container which was holding the liquid in place, is removed quickly and the resulting liquid fall is captured by triggering the flash immediately after the vessel is removed. I am thinking the vessel is a balloon.
The photos where there is a “stream” could be caused by poking a small hole in the bottom of the balloon, and then popping the balloon. Getting the liquid to cling to the balloon to create the thin “ball of liquid” would also not be too difficult with the right liquid. I’m thinking nice thick olive oil would do the trick.
A few minutes in post processing removes any remnants of the balloon from the background or top of the photo, and presto, you have a really cool photo…
I just might try it to see if I’m right…
http://twitter.com/camerarec Toby
He has more on his gallery – I am assuming it is the same guy. I was thinking the dropped approach of the whole table – similar to What Edd said above. Not positive and very curious.
Oooh and just found these which might support that hypothesis(to strong of a word) http://www.flickr.com/photos/longshotsphoto/5115186022/in/set-72157625239312044/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Konjarevich-Sr/1806139397 Richard Konjarevich Sr.
Might be not h2o being shot up through the bottom of the cup, but a blast (puff) of air from a syringe?
Anonymous
It may be that Jack used a piezso vibration sensor or an acoustic sensor to trigger his camera and therefore set the strobes to fire in time.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=184805326 Brooklyn Vande Zande
it looks like wax!
Paul Kelly
Can’t be dropping the whole rig (camera as well) as that wouldn’t selectively “splash” the middle as in the top left shot (proof being me just popping into bathroom & making a royal mess with a cup full of water!)
I think it could be a short but powerful jet of compressed air or similar from above…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Hi, No photo composition, definitely in camera capture.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1420804930 Tommy Southiv
I’m thinking that it’s a composite of two shots (cup and splash). The splash is the result of dropping something into the cup. Then enlarge the splash in PS and composite it with a nice shot of the cup.
http://laura-eliza.com Laura Eliza
That is what I think too!
http://www.facebook.com/shlangevin Shawn Langevin
He is pouring the liquid over an object (spoon) directly over the cup. The spoon in coming in from the back so you can’t see it. Then it flows over the spoon and voila you have the pic. One first large pic the spoon is right side up and the second large pic the spoon is upside down. As for the other pics not sure what he used.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Rogers/1647168888 John Rogers
I thought about a balloon as a possibility too, but I keep coming back to the liquids actually being static in these pictures (like the syrup poured over ice shapes). To my eye, none of the airborne liquids seem to really match what is in the cups… I’m probably wrong, but now you’ve got $0.02 more than you had before :-)
Anonymous
I reckon you’re right there mate…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
The Gallery is of other photographers images. Not all techniques are the same.
http://thegirlinthemiddle.wordpress.com/ Molly_Mac
It looks a lot like burned sugar (hard candy) to me…but I also thought syringe…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Not wax
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Not a composite
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
A bit rudimentary, but my site…
http://jacklongphoto.carbonmade.com/
Ken Claytor
I’m thinking compressed air with a Corn syrup mixture blah blah blah
Ken Claytor
sorry corn starch
http://kenntam.com Kenn Tam
Thanks for putting these shots out there Jack. I love it when people can’t figure something out, so I knew I had to post about it :)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
I get a bit of sadistic pleasure from it. ;^)
It really is an honor to be picked apart by such a prestigious group.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=754554855 Edd Carlile
I stick with my dropped table thesis…but would like to add that I note the liquid coming out of the cups doesn’t seem to be decreasing the volume that is already in the cups…..perhaps there is a fast double exposure at work here as well with a flash freeze.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Timo-Hahnenberger/100001563541838 Timo Hahnenberger
I Think you throw a lumb sugar in the cup. Or a cent. or something else ^^.
And then you press the shutter!
Sorry for my English!!!
here in German *G*:
Ich denke du hast ein stück Würfelzucker oder einen Cent oder etwas anderes in die Tasse geworfen.
Dann ist das wasser/kaffee/tee hochgespritzt und du hast ausgelöst!!!
http://twitter.com/Seshan Seshan
I don’t think it’s dropped, you wouldn’t get clean stream you would get a messy splash.
From the looks of his other pics on his flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldschooljack/
He is defiantly shooting more liquid up, not air. He must of some special nozzle close to the surface.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=737656797 Aaron Bockelie
I think he’s dropping the cup and table from a small height, with the camera in a fixed location. The
description in the article says he’s using a short duration flash and infrared trigger. The IR trigger lends credence to the idea of dropping the whole scene, since it would be hard to get the liquid to precisely trigger the flash, and very easy for a table or surface to trigger.
However, I think there’s more to it than dropping the scene. Just dropping it would cause the liquid to
accelerate at the same speed as the cup and table, so you wouldn’t get the spectacular splash shapes. You need something to motivate the liquid out of the cup, and impart some turbulence to the fluid. I suggest perhaps an overhead rig with a stick and a little flat disc attached to the bottom of the stick is placed in the liquid before the drop. Depending on what depth you set that into the cup before the drop gives you varying control over the amount of disturbance you want to impart.
Look how long some of the drawn out paths are, especially the one that sort of looks like a caramel apple. I’d be willing to bet that the stem is related to exactly how far the surface was dropped, and that the canopy or apple part of the splash was actually formed first, by the expanding wave reflecting off the edge of the cup, and then drawing it out. The Reynolds number of the water simply isn’t high enough to get the long drawn out look he’s performing. Something has to perform the initial disturbance of the liquid.
In some of the shots as well, you can see turbidity in the cup, some even just localized.
What a cool idea, I would love to know the story of how he developed this technique.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Wow if it took that much work…I’d pass.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Not meant as snark.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=737656797 Aaron Bockelie
No worries about your reply, I thought it was amusing. That was just my best guess. Can you tell I am fond of complex systems?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616801407 Constance Basque-Hanscomb
What about some sort of pressure banged up from the bottom of the table (with the container’s fixed – glued – down)? It would have to be a fair amount of pressure to cause the liquid to “jump” that high…. Makes me think of the Big Bang Theory episode when the boys put some sort of white liquid on a speaker and let the base play high and the liquid bounced around like some alien thing… quite kewl (and geeky) ;-)
http://www.facebook.com/Marsfilms Mars Oliva
It doesn’t appear to be Photoshopped, as says this:
http://errorlevelanalysis.com/permalink/d1b05a8/
burt
That is not really evidence. I just submitted one of my photos to that same software. It says ‘no photoshop’, but I can guarantee that I used it quite a lot for that shot…
http://errorlevelanalysis.com/permalink/eb5a714/
burt
BTW, I am pretty sure this is not a “coffee cup dropped” type of image. I made a series like that recently, and the results look very different. Here is a composite of 5 such drops:
http://www.mindstormphoto.com/20-studio/01-photos_water/photos/splash_5_colors_rainbow.jpg
Look at this other photo from Jack. He has a series like this, and it looks very much like he has a straw in the liquid that sticks up a few inches, then the liquid is shot up through the straw. That would form the kind of dome we are seeing, with the straw being mostly hidden in the liquid as it comes down:
http://jacklongphoto.carbonmade.com/projects/4049199#2
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Not PS composite. Pure capture with level, curves and basic retouching. Promise. I pride myself on image integrity.If I say not comp’d…NOT comp’d.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1558692487 Jack Long
Not like that on these.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=184805326 Brooklyn Vande Zande
what about some sort of musical bass, to vibrate the table/cup

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