Hi everyone! Today we are going to do a very fun and creative photoshoot. A few months back I made a video about fineart photography. I shot some footage that didn't make it to the video. That's because the style of the photo's was a little bit too different from the rest of the images. So I decided to make a whole new video about it later on. I'll link the video in the description for you if you haven't seen it. In that video we worked with a white, semi transparent sheet of plastic to create a mysterious mood in the picture. Now we're going to do something similar in style, but with a different technique. You can say this is fineart photography part two. So what do we need? A bowl, doesn't matter what kind of bowl it is, water, some milk, and something you want to photograph. Flowers and plants are very interesting to do this with. You want something with a little bit of depth in it.
So do not go for something completely flat. So go outside and search for some treasures. In your garden maybe and you're good to go. First we fill the bowl with a layer of water. The reason why I fill the bowl with water first, is because then I need less milk, and because I want the milk to be slightly translucent at the surface. That way it looks like the items appear from the mysterious liquid.
It's quite satisfying to see the clouds of milk filling up the water. A bit of visual ASMR. The amount of milk you add to the water, depends on your own taste. You really don't need that much milk to get an opaque consistency. You can always add more later on if you need to. For this video I don't use a specific lighting setup, you can do this near a window or anything you prefer.
I've put my camera on a top down tripod. If you don't have a tripod like this, you can do this hand held, but I like to have my hands free with this shoot. Obviously I can't reach the camera in this position, so I've connected my DSLR to the computer with that orange USB-cable. Now I can control the settings with the free software that came with my camera. Then I can experiment with the plants and flowers and see what looks good. Let's take a look first at the footage I shot a few months back, when I came up with this idea. This is why I mixed the milk with water, because now you still see the plants slightly below the surface.
I keep an eye on the livescreen at all times, to see what the image looks like on camera. I don't know if every plant that I picked for this project is working out the way I want, but that's what we gonna find out. That's the fun of experimenting. Sometimes things look better in your mind then they do on camera, other times things turn out better then you expected. It's always a surprise.
Sometimes the plants don't cooperate very well. They float away or they sink to the bottom. In this case I use some stones to keep the plants in place. In some cases you can use bluetack or poster buddies. In all cases, a little bit of patience is the key to the perfect picture. For an extra level of interest, you can add some color the milk. I use blue food coloring with a complementing plant. You can also use paint or ink, whatever you have on hand. That was it for today. I hope I could inspire you in some way. Which photo was your favorite? Please let me know what you think in the comments below. Have a nice day, and till next time..