Fashion Photography - Inclusion of Shadows (How the brain perceives an image) (under construction)

I want to focus a lot on lighting, to include shadows and contrast across a subject, like this:

The way the light falls on the subject draws attention to the head a shoulders area even though it is 3/4 shot.

I also like the use of shadows to give more depth to the photo, like this:

To me the addition of the shadow to this photo gives it a more 3d feel. The brain plays a major part in understanding the 3d world we live in, most people presume that we see in 3d because we have two eyes spaced a small distance apart and these two images combined produces a 3d image. In some ways this is true but at any considerable distance the angle of the eyes is so small that there lines of sight are practically parallel, therefore the brain has to rely on experience to understand what it is looking at. One of the major factors of understanding the 3d world is shadows, the size and orientation of a shadow in relation to the subject lets the brain determine distance, shape and size, for this reason I feel it is important to include shadows in a photo because the image produced is 2d there is no chance that the eyes can do the work of making it appear 3d it must be the way the brain perceives the image, therefore the inclusion of shadows will let the brain perceive the image in a more 3d manner. The one thing to remember is that the image is never actually 3d it is just the brains perception of 3d.

Liquid Droplets

When taking pictures of falling liquid droplet the main and obvious way to alter the pictures is to alter the composition of the liquid in both the droplet and the liquid it is dropping into.

The main qualities that affect the behavior of the droplet are:

• viscosity-how the thick the liquid is.
• surface tension-water has one of the highest surface tensions of any liquid.

The viscosity of the liquid can be altered by changing the temperature of the liquid, the hotter the liquid the less viscous it will be. Adding other substances such as glycerin increases the viscosity. The higher the viscosity the smoother the splashes will be but the splashes will not be as big.

Surface tension affects the movement off the splash, during and after impact, if a column of water is formed after a splash it will "fall" five times faster than gravity intended it to due to the surface tension pulling it back down. Surface tension in water can be reduced by adding soap a lower surface tension increases the height of the column.

Depth of field

Since I am using a macro lens at very close distances, I am having issues with depth of field.

I have found a depth of field simulator that helps to explain the use of different camera settings to alter depth of field: Depth of Field Simulator

Under construction - First attempt at capturing a liquid droplet spash

First session in the studio today, mainly just to experiment with the studio lighting and setup to capture a speed image of a water droplet splashing out of another liquid. for example:

Found on, http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/01/17/40-stunning-examples-of-high-speed-photography.html

The picture is shot using a shutter speed of 1/640s but to capture in even more detail an even faster shutter speed is needed, using the Canon 5d it allows me to go up to 1/8000s but the sync speed for the splash only allows 1/200 which is too slow.

This is my initial setup; Canon 5d with canon EF 24-105mm USM lens, 1000w studio flash with concentrating flute. Though the flash provided enough light but as explained above it didn't have a fast enough sync speed to freeze the action.

I changed my setup to include a Canon 430EXII flashgun connected to the 5d with an off camera hot shoe cable with the high sync speed mode on the flashgun it allowed me use the fastest shutter speed the camera has, 1/8000s, but the flashgun didn't provide enough light to use such a fast shutter speed so the studio light was also used and was triggered by the flash of the flashgun and therefore provided the extra light needed. Below are some of the images that resulted from this set up.

Balance

 Triple Shot

Mixed Sphere 

 Pre Impact

 Milk Splash

Shinichi Maruyama

Shinichi Maruyama, a photographer I found purely through a google search - shinichimaruyama.com - I love high speed photography but this guy takes it to the next level 

I'm hoping to produce some photos like this but don't really know where to start. so if anyone has any ideas.....

First Post

Hi, I'm Andrew and I'm doing this course to try and get more out of my camera and if possible kick start a career in photography.