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How I do my "Water Dress" shots.
After getting so many emails asking how I do the water shots, I've finally decided to let everyone know how I did it. I didn't want to reveal it at first but I feel that I have learned many techniques from some very talented people here so it's time I give something back. If you don't know what the water dress shots are, check out my portfolio or the main image on my website. So here it is: 1- You need to have a camera that can shoot 1/8000 s. 2- Pick up a location to do the water splashes. Back yard worked best for me. It MUST BE a sunny day. Overcast or partial cloudy won't work. 3- Get a large container that can hold water about 20" deep. 4- Pure water but leave the top 6" empty. VERY IMPORTANT. 5- Place the camera on tripod about 15 feet away. You don't want any water splashes on your camera or lens. Keep a towel close by. 6- Use a 200mm or longer lens on manual mode and manual focus. 7- Camera settings: Shutter speed: 1/8000 s, F8-F11, ISO 1000 8- Setup a 100% pure black (not dark gray) backdrop, 10 feet away behind the water bucket. The material must absorb light so it doesn't reflect any light. 9- Manual focus the lens to the front edge of the bucket. 10- Have an assistant grab a brick. Have her through the brick in the water in an angle so a wall of water comes out from the side of the bucket. 11- I assumed you were behind the camera shooting 3-5 frame per second when she did that.  12- Before you do anymore, download the shots to your computer to see if you have got focus right. 13- Keep doing this till you have about at least 500-750 shots. Why so many? each water splash would be very unique and interesting shape. You need as many shapes you can get. 14- Give that towel to your assistant to dry herself. 15- On your computer, choose the best ones and adjust the levels so you have pure black background. You should now have pieces of a dress that you need to put together. 16- Open the image of your model, and drag the water shots as layers and set the layers to "Screen". Don't just use one splash. You can bring as many water splashes and piece them together; just like a puzzle. That's it. Good luck. And if you make one, show it here. I would lov eto see your results. Feel free to ask any questions. And sorry for my English. Not my primary one. Bijan www.bijanstudio.com Water shots:    May 31 08 02:00 pm Link Nice tip. Thnx Love the end results. May 31 08 02:05 pm Link Outstanding. Thanks a lot for tutorial. May 31 08 02:06 pm Link very nice. There is a video cgi program that makes some amazing water effects up to 5K file sizes, it works extremely well and lets you mold and shape and redesign on the fly the water as well as wrap it around objects, I found that when you bring an image into the program sideways you get near 13MP image size worth of file and can wrap the effect sideways, the system is more limited when there is only one still frame to work from, but can still produce amazing water effects. Some of the designers worked on the Abyss. http://www.realflow.com/te_videos.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4fSk5bc … re=related Stephen Eastwood http://www.StephenEastwood.com May 31 08 02:07 pm Link Cool deal. Thanks. May 31 08 02:08 pm Link StephenEastwood wrote: Thanks. May 31 08 02:17 pm Link bijan studio wrote: yes, the technology that has been around for years makes us still guys feel like dinosaurs, they have been doing things we have not even thought of yet for years, Now that I am in commercials, all my brilliant new groundbreaking ideas are like, Oh yea, we did that last year May 31 08 02:20 pm Link Most excellent! Thanks for sharing! May 31 08 02:29 pm Link Thanks for sharing. That stuff looks really cool. One of these days I'll actually get a DSLR and incorporate advice like this. May 31 08 02:36 pm Link Thanks for sharing, Bijan. Very generous of you! May 31 08 02:39 pm Link Thats awesome. Thanks for the tip. I will have to try that some day when I have the time. May 31 08 03:01 pm Link Thanks guys. Don't forget to post your results here. May 31 08 03:06 pm Link Very cool of you to share, Bijan! I've been wondering about that for a while now! May 31 08 03:08 pm Link bijan, thanks so much, i have envied your images for a long time, i may just try and do one, but i live in seattle sunny days are few and far between. May 31 08 07:31 pm Link Thanks for posting this. I think you just gave me my next project. May 31 08 07:38 pm Link Now that sounds like some fun work. Been trying to do it with some Bert Monroy tutorials on creating realistic water in ps.... May 31 08 08:05 pm Link thanks for sharing your knowledge with us very cool works !May 31 08 08:09 pm Link Thanks for your generosity, and giving me something else to shoot when I'm not shooting a model! May 31 08 08:44 pm Link bijan studio wrote: That was my best job evar!!!! May 31 08 08:50 pm Link I would think many many people would rip this off, but I don't think it can be done very successfully. May 31 08 08:52 pm Link Iona Lynn wrote: Oh yes, Thanks to Iona who helped me throw the brick into the water. May 31 08 08:53 pm Link IrisSwope wrote: I plan on doing this, primarily for the PS experience, for which is a weekness of mine I feel. May 31 08 09:16 pm Link bijan studio wrote: Thanks Bijan for sharing. I enjoyed reading your technique. However, the above sentence you can now rest assured I will never try. In other words, I was much more likely to try this until I saw everything you did to do it. Now I know I won't. So no ripping you off by me... May 31 08 09:31 pm Link jtiphotographer wrote: LOL, I am not worried. I know where to find you. May 31 08 09:56 pm Link Very cool, someone posted a question a few weeks ago asking "how did they do that" It was a model in a studio shot and her dress was actually water or was created from water to look like a dress. This reminds me of that thread. May 31 08 10:59 pm Link Bernie Browder wrote: Never saw the thread. Can' find it either. Jun 01 08 01:07 am Link bijan studio wrote: You know what, I was a little off it was a question about a shot of Gisele Bundchen's water dress Jun 01 08 01:32 am Link I'm actually doing a Water Dress concept this month with a photographer. Jun 01 08 01:39 am Link shocked you gave that away thanks Jun 01 08 01:45 am Link Bernie Browder wrote: Thanks. No I hadn't seen it. Jun 01 08 01:49 am Link get ready for dozens of ports filled with these images. very cool technique, im glad you shared, and i'll definitely try to bring something new to this Jun 01 08 01:52 am Link KGToops Photography wrote: I got new stuff coming up soon. Jun 01 08 01:52 am Link bijan studio wrote: All those technical terms being thrown around in that thread and your technique is fairly close and seems much easier. LOL But it still takes talent, very beautiful work you did. Jun 01 08 01:53 am Link Great you gave us these secrets. Sure one day i'll try Thank you very much!!!! Jun 01 08 05:23 am Link Thank you very much for the tip, you are a genious!!! Jun 25 09 08:48 pm Link Thanks for the tip. I'd be curious to see if I can pull this off! Jun 25 09 11:44 pm Link Timeless Photoworks wrote: Likewise! Jun 26 09 01:51 am Link Thank you for sharing. Your work is gorgeous. Jun 26 09 01:59 am Link Wow thank you, it is very kind of you to share this! Your work is amazing and beautiful! xoxo Jun 26 09 02:05 am Link Little outta my league but I really like your port and it's great inspiration. Jun 26 09 03:18 am Link |
