Fun little afternoon project to capture some action shots, there are two ways to get your action photo, one involves some Photoshop and the other consists of some patience!
What you need
- Background, I used white Acrylic (Perspex)
- White Bowl or coffee cup
- Milk — I used 2 teaspoons of corn flour mixed with 1/2 liter of skinny milk (the corn flour thickens the milk)
- Strawberries, but it could be any fruit
- Skewer (to hold strawberries) for the Photoshop version
Camera Gear
This is just what I used, but you could shoot outdoors and just use a white (or black tablecloth or fabric):
- Sony A7RIII & Tamron 28-75mm lens
- Tripod
- Godox AD400 and 90 cm Softbox (power on /32)
- Godox X1 Trigger
- Pixel Remote Trigger
Capture the action
As I mentioned there are two different ways to do this. Either way put your camera on the tripod. Set your focal point (I used the edge of the bowl) setup your lights, camera etc. I used ISO100, 47mm focal length, f/5.6.
Method One
Set your camera on burst mode, set your speedlight to High-Speed-Sync and continually shoot as you drop the strawberries into the bowl. Beware it makes a big mess! You may need to do this multiple times. You can also drop several berries at once. Make sure your shutter speed is high enough to freeze the action.
Method two
Same setup, but I placed a strawberry on a skewer and then placed it in the frame and took a single photo. I did this several times, moving the strawberry around. I did use method one for just the splash at the end. Less mess.
Take the images into Photoshop, make sure everything is aligned and then mask out everything but the strawberry with a layer mask. Voila, you will then have strawberries bouncing all over the place and a splash at the end.
Here is a little video of the edit in Photoshop:
Of course, just like me, you can combine both methods. Just remember to clean up your mess. The milk and corn flour mixture dries and gets tacky, so cleaning up straight away is recommended. Also, if you do this on a hot day, sour milk … well, let’s just say it’s not a pleasant smell!
