Shooting liquids

[Ramis]

Hi everyone , I've got a shot coming up wich it will be on 2K due to slo-mo needs since we're shooting liquids. Is there any advice or tip for that, I'll be using leds ( daylight) to avoid flickering on high speed rates. Is pretty well known the noise issue when shooting 2K , any tips to reduce it?

Thanx!!!!

 

[D Namir]

I shoot a lot of slow motion liquids. I do it with Photo-Sonics 4B & 4C 35mm cameras I have.
Usually for liquid you will need more than 120fps. We do it at 600 800 and 1000fps on 35mm.
We use tungsten on dimmers since the huge amount of light needed, we dim up for rehearse nd for shoot and at once dim down not to fry the area.
I guess shooting at 120fps and with a Red is a different approach which makes it mre like a Phantom shoot.

 

[RikiButland]

I shot alot of water commercials for North Western water board (UK). We found we never wanted to shoot higher than 125fps as the water no longer looked like water but became baby oil. We did the photosonic route, pretty shapes but really does not look like water anymore.imho

 

[D Namir]

Shooting liquids at slow motion

Shooting liquids at slow motion

I shot alot of water commercials for North Western water board (UK). We found we never wanted to shoot higher than 125fps as the water no longer looked like water but became baby oil. We did the photosonic route, pretty shapes but really does not look like water anymore.imho

Riki
It says liquids not water.
Anyhow, I did water as well and it depends what exactly you are shooting. The whole table top slo-mo shoot is a very precise and experienced work. You adjust your camera 2" to the left and the image looks as a totally "new world".
I still think that most liquids need to be shot at 600 FPS and up.
The Photosonics CMI conversion has a Pentax 645 mount and takes Pentax 645 67 and Hassleblad lenses. Shooting with Kodak Vision3 5219 500ASA 35mm film we get beautiful results.
As the camera is a rotating prism it gets to speed (even to 1000 FPS) in 1-2 seconds so I get 2-3 takes at 1000 FPS out of a 400 feet roll of film (I can shoot with 1000' also). I just finished two full days of shoot to Danette using only a total of 8500 feet.
Interesting piece on mechanism with great optics.

 

[Florian Stadler]

LED's will not give you the stop needed (T8-16 depending on shot). You can shoot 120fps with big HMI's with electronic ballasts or use big tungsten units with 80 correction. Assuming this is shooting on Red?

 

[Rich Schaefer]

It depends on the show & shot.

I lit the Pontiac spots a few years ago with massive water. Most of the tank work was at 1000 fps. I needed two 10k Xenons to light it and I cracked the mirror to shoot them down (no surprise) LEDs are way dimmer!!!!

Don't under expose to reduce grain.

Fluids often photograph best with back light or large source side/top light (like car lighting)

Have a good shoot!
Rich