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Sticky tape refraction

Hi,

I used clear packing sticky tape which i taped between 2 glasses and then sprayed the tape with a fine mist spray bottle, underneath the tape I placed an orange gerbera, lit the flower with a small LED light and shot this. Shooting with tape was a good experience but I prefer glass as it needs less cleanup in post getting rid of debris and other things that may stick to the tape, you can still see some in the final image. Stacked image of 24 shots. Enjoy šŸ˜€

2021-11-27 16-40-40 (C,Smoothing4)-Edit-Edit.jpg
 
EXIF
Sony a7iii, Laowa 100mm macro lens, ISO 100, f/4, 1/40 sec, macrorail, tripod

lovitazoe

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I didn't know we can use a tape to shot a reflection. I never thought of it. It's a nice experiment. I love the vibrant colours and the reflection of gorgeous gerbera. Oh...and that black hole too! It looks like a galaxy with gerbera planets.
 
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Tina Boes

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What a neat idea. Very cool shot. And you are right, cleaning up debris from sticky tape would be a hassle. LOL
When you shoot using glass, are you using any kind of repellant like Rain-X for windshields? I've been reading that it helps the water to bead rather than spread out. I have been using a bit of glycerine in the water to help it keep shape, but I want to see what the Rain-X will do with just straight drops of water.
 
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Chavezshutter

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What a neat idea. Very cool shot. And you are right, cleaning up debris from sticky tape would be a hassle. LOL
When you shoot using glass, are you using any kind of repellant like Rain-X for windshields? I've been reading that it helps the water to bead rather than spread out. I have been using a bit of glycerine in the water to help it keep shape, but I want to see what the Rain-X will do with just straight drops of water.
I have seen that tip online before as well but I have never tested it. Water naturally wants to return to its normal state which is more like a sheet of water rather than a round spherical droplet, how fast this happens is down to a few factors like what surface, what liquid, temperature,etc. I have found that almost all surfaces including glass will reach a saturation point given enough soaking time and from there on your only option is to completely dry out the surface (simply wiping the glass dry wont do) and start again as the water will always flatten out once that saturation point is reached, so I set everything up and once I use water I work quicky to get my shots. The repelling action of a product like Rain-X should keep the water spherical for longer but I think gravity and saturation will eventually win and the water will flatten out into a sheet sooner or later. I'm curious to try it out myself.

The other thing that goes on with water is evaporation of course, this can easily fixed by adding more water to resize the droplet or mixing glycerin or sugar into the water which reduces the evaporation, saturation as mentioned above is harder to deal with, maybe the repellent can help here, I will let you know if I get a chance to try it out. Thank you for your comments too šŸ˜Š
 
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Tina Boes

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I have seen that tip online before as well but I have never tested it. Water naturally wants to return to its normal state which is more like a sheet of water rather than a round spherical droplet, how fast this happens is down to a few factors like what surface, what liquid, temperature,etc. I have found that almost all surfaces including glass will reach a saturation point given enough soaking time and from there on your only option is to completely dry out the surface (simply wiping the glass dry wont do) and start again as the water will always flatten out once that saturation point is reached, so I set everything up and once I use water I work quicky to get my shots. The repelling action of a product like Rain-X should keep the water spherical for longer but I think gravity and saturation will eventually win and the water will flatten out into a sheet sooner or later. I'm curious to try it out myself.

The other thing that goes on with water is evaporation of course, this can easily fixed by adding more water to resize the droplet or mixing glycerin or sugar into the water which reduces the evaporation, saturation as mentioned above is harder to deal with, maybe the repellent can help here, I will let you know if I get a chance to try it out. Thank you for your comments too šŸ˜Š
Thanks for the tips. :) I found some Rain-X in the garage yesterday and will be trying this out today before work. I have another brand that is supposed to react the same. I'll post back for you with what my test shows.
Also, the info about water saturation was interesting. This could explain why I couldn't get the Champagne bubbles to stick to the side of my glass when I tried my photos on a new pour. The bubbles just rose to the surface and none would adhere to the inside of the glass again. I will try that again as well.
Edit: I was just thinking over my morning cuppa, maybe a hair dryer will help speed up the drying process. Also, the tip from the photographer where I read about the Rain-X said a couple of applications are necessary after wiping down and drying in between applying.
 
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Tina Boes

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I have seen that tip online before as well but I have never tested it. Water naturally wants to return to its normal state which is more like a sheet of water rather than a round spherical droplet, how fast this happens is down to a few factors like what surface, what liquid, temperature,etc. I have found that almost all surfaces including glass will reach a saturation point given enough soaking time and from there on your only option is to completely dry out the surface (simply wiping the glass dry wont do) and start again as the water will always flatten out once that saturation point is reached, so I set everything up and once I use water I work quicky to get my shots. The repelling action of a product like Rain-X should keep the water spherical for longer but I think gravity and saturation will eventually win and the water will flatten out into a sheet sooner or later. I'm curious to try it out myself.

The other thing that goes on with water is evaporation of course, this can easily fixed by adding more water to resize the droplet or mixing glycerin or sugar into the water which reduces the evaporation, saturation as mentioned above is harder to deal with, maybe the repellent can help here, I will let you know if I get a chance to try it out. Thank you for your comments too šŸ˜Š
Okay, Rain-X is going to be very useful. Here's a photo of glass and water drops, one without using the Rain-X and one with it. It was just plain water, so I can ditch the glycerine now. I did two applications of it, that worked out great. Quick test, the glass was sitting on top of another sheet of glass that had not been cleaned, so please excuse the dust, spots and focus. LOL

Rain x test.jpg
 

Chavezshutter

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Okay, Rain-X is going to be very useful. Here's a photo of glass and water drops, one without using the Rain-X and one with it. It was just plain water, so I can ditch the glycerine now. I did two applications of it, that worked out great. Quick test, the glass was sitting on top of another sheet of glass that had not been cleaned, so please excuse the dust, spots and focus. LOL

View attachment 20622
That looks very promising, did they hold this shape for a while? From my experience in a shot where repellent wasn't used the time difference between the drops on the right and the left would be about 1 maybe 2 minutes, at that point I will dry out the droplets with a cloth (saturation hasnt occurred yet) and restart the whole process, at saturation the party is over until the glass is completely dry.

I just thought of another tip regarding focusing on these. If you get close enough to these drops you will actually realize that there is not one but two points that need to be focused, the first is to get critically sharp focus on the image within the drop, the second is to get the drop sharp. With deeper DOF (higher f/stop or longer working distances) we can usually capture both of those points in a single shot pretty easily. When I dont get both of those mentioned points in a shot I get mixed results. A photo where the image within the drop is sharp has great detail within the drop but does not have reflection or depth on the droplet will look more like a cut out window, and vice versa - a shot where the droplet looks crisp, has depth and shine/reflection but shows a blurry refracted image within is no good either. Use stacking or deep DOF to get around this when you are working close (I would guess at over x 1.5 magnification as a rough guide)
 

Tina Boes

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That looks very promising, did they hold this shape for a while? From my experience in a shot where repellent wasn't used the time difference between the drops on the right and the left would be about 1 maybe 2 minutes, at that point I will dry out the droplets with a cloth (saturation hasnt occurred yet) and restart the whole process, at saturation the party is over until the glass is completely dry.

I just thought of another tip regarding focusing on these. If you get close enough to these drops you will actually realize that there is not one but two points that need to be focused, the first is to get critically sharp focus on the image within the drop, the second is to get the drop sharp. With deeper DOF (higher f/stop or longer working distances) we can usually capture both of those points in a single shot pretty easily. When I dont get both of those mentioned points in a shot I get mixed results. A photo where the image within the drop is sharp has great detail within the drop but does not have reflection or depth on the droplet will look more like a cut out window, and vice versa - a shot where the droplet looks crisp, has depth and shine/reflection but shows a blurry refracted image within is no good either. Use stacking or deep DOF to get around this when you are working close (I would guess at over x 1.5 magnification as a rough guide)
They did hold their shape for quite a while, though I didn't really time it. Will do that tomorrow when I set up for some real photos. I have already worked with the focus on both points as you mentioned with some shots I took a few weeks back. Got that down, but needed to get my drops rounder and taller rather than flat and misshaped. The example photos I showed up were a quick test, I didn't concentrate on focus or cleaning the lower glass at all.
 
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oscar118

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Try to place the subject between crossed polarizing filters (one attached to the lens, the other behind the subject) to see if something different appears...
 
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