Hi guys I'm Ben from Adaptalux and
I'm back today for another macro
photography tutorial today we're doing
oil on water which is a really popular
macro photography subject it's really
easy and fun for you guys to do at home
so let's get started
so oil on water probably one of the most
prolific macro photography subjects that
I see people trying out when they first
get their macro lenses simply because
it's so easy to set up and do at home
and get some really cool interesting and
varied results all from the comfort of
your coffee table but what you need to
actually do this let's take a look
 we've got some oil obviously
I've got sunflower oil but any cooking
oil would would work just the same so
vegetable oil or olive oil they'll all
create that film layer of oil on top of
the water and water we're gonna need
some water I've just got a little
measuring jug here but that's not what
we're gonna be shooting in we're gonna
need some sort of glassware that's got a
large flat surface area on the bottom
that we're gonna shoot against so a Pyrex a
baking tray there and we're gonna set
that up on this glass coffee table and
I'll show you how to do that in a second
we're also going to need some lighting
and some color because that's where the
real striking images come from is the
color of the background and so I've got
the Adaptalux Studio here I've got a
few white lighting arms and I've got all
of our color filters here because we're
going to be experimenting with those
you're also going to need some kitchen
towels just to clear up the mess and
we've got another use for those as well
but I'll show you that in a second and
obviously we're going to need a camera
and a tripod
I'm gonna set up that camera and tripod
now and show you how this whole thing
comes together I already managed to
spill some water but we've got our
camera set up here the way that we want
it and the aim of the game is to be
shooting directly downwards
onto your glassware where your water's
gonna be and you're gonna need some
space underneath that as well because
we're going to be putting some colors
and some lights under there I'm very
lucky that I got a glass coffee table
here which allows me to shoot down
through our glassware and then also down
through the top of the glass under here
so I can put things under here and it's
gonna work really well next we're gonna
be adding the oil and water to our
glassware and we can see what that's
going to look like through our camera
now we need to add our water first
because if you add the the oil first the
act of the water going in there is going
to make the bubbles really really small
so I'm just gonna add some water here
and there's no real limit to how much
water you need to use it's the oil that
is going to make the difference here so
that's probably enough water in there
for the oil though I'm gonna start with
just maybe a tablespoons worth of oil in
here if you use too much you can't get
it out again obviously and if you use
too little you won't get the bubbles
that you're looking for but you can
always add more and you can't take it on
again so now that we've got some oil in
there I'm just going to very gently stir
this and see what kind of bubbles
we're getting forming on the top of here
whether or not we've got enough oil I'm
liking the look of this so far so I'm
gonna pop this under the camera and see
what we can see so I've popped oil
mixture underneath the camera here and
you can see that there's there's not a
huge amount to see right now what we
need to do is make sure that our
glassware is centralised
here
the frame because there's a big Pyrex
logo on the bottom with some with the
remnants of a label and there's also the
edges of the tray so I'm going to make
sure that I'm shooting through this
little area just here and that means
that we're not going to see any evidence
of the the tray or the glass underneath
here our next step is going to be to add
some color and some lighting so what
goes underneath our our mixture well
I've got the Adaptalux Studio here
and I've got three lighting arm s's
which are our slightly brighter version
of the normal white lighting arm I'm going to
plug all three of these lighting arms in and
I'm going to position them so they're
they're all quite close together and
then I'm going to pop on some color
filters so ive got a green color filter
on this arm three one on as well and I'm
gonna try red on the outside as well now
you'll probably already notice that that
makes a huge amount of difference to
power shot you can see all three of
these colors quite clearly down through
the solution and they're a little bit
too clear for my liking so this is where
I mentioned that we're going to be using
our kitchen roll for another purpose and
we're going to use that for diffusion so
I'm just gonna pop that straight over
the top of our colors and that's going
to create a nice even layer of color
for our diffused materials and looking
through our camera you can see that
you've got a really nice even spread of
the three colors across the background
of our solution I'm focusing you want to
be focused upon the bubbles themselves
not on this background if you focused on
the background bubbles would just serve
to create some sort of distortion in
there and you wouldn't be able to see
them so let's take a really quick look
at our camera settings I'm shooting at
1/320th of a second which is
really good for when you're taking
stills and that means you can freeze the
motion of the bubbles as they move
around my ISO is at 200 and my aperture
is set manually via via the lens at f2.5 that's really quite wide and there's
a reason for being that wide it's to
make the depth of field as shallow as
possible we really only want to be
focused on the bubbles themselves and
everything behind that needs to be out
of focus so a really wide aperture is
great for achieving that I'm speaking of
focus there's a really great tip for if
you're using a live view camera like
this and focusing manually you can
select an area on your image and use the
zoom functions on the back of your
camera to zoom in and choose your focus
very very precisely so getting in this
close it makes it very very easy to
focus manually and accurately I'm gonna
very quickly turn out the studio lights
and see exactly what we've got here
because these lights up here I'll go
into the affecting they're going to be
falling on these bubbles and affecting
the way that they look so I'll turn
those off really quickly and see what it
looks like this is looking pretty good
to me
well something that's happened since
we've poured our oil and water is that
the the oil has congealed back into
larger bubbles so all you need to do to
fix that is just give it a little bit of
a mix and this in itself is really
really interesting because it creates
all sorts of crazy swirls 
and shapes that then move around and
it's very very interesting to do some
videography on on this which is what
we'll be doing throughout this entire
process is filming as we mix and it's
going to create some really interesting
shapes as the bubbles move around and
interact with the light on the
background now speaking of the light in
the background this is where you're
going to want to adjust a little bit as
you move those lights around you're
going to change the balance of the
colors that are falling onto the bubbles
so just a quick movement there means
that I've got now red on the left and
then green and then into blue as those
bubbles move across which I think is
really quite cool so that's pretty much
everything that you need to consider
when you're setting up a shot like this
other than obvious stuff like the glass
being as clean as possible now my my
bowl has actually got a few
scratches and things on it so it's not
perfect and my images aren't gonna be
perfect but if you want yours to be as
pristine as possible make sure that
you're shooting through some glass or
plastic that just doesn't have any
scratches or imperfections now there's
other ways to do this as well you don't
need to be lighting things from
underneath using the Adaptalux Studio
you can be lighting say a colorful
object underneath it and that object
would then shine through and you'll be
able to see that through a lot of people
like to use iPads and tablets for stuff
like this as well because you can put an
image on your tablet and it will shine
up through your oil with the same sort
of effect again you don't need to be
using a coffee table either you can
stack up a bowl or a piece of glass on
say some some books and raise that up
off there off the floor so you can then
fit things underneath it that's a really
great way of setting this this up what
I'm going for is to be getting some
great varied images using different
colors so I'm going to be using all of
our color filters and changing them out
on our white lighting arms so that we
get a big very
creation between the different colors in
the background I'm gonna start doing
that now and just go mad and see how
many different styles I can get out of a
simple setup like this
I've had so much fun doing this there's
so many different combinations of lights
and colors and the way that the bubbles
interact on the surface of the water
every time you stir them that's
completely unique so yeah there's
loads and loads to do with this and I
know that some of you guys at home have
already done this this is one of the
most common macro photography subjects
to try out when you first get your new
macro lens so yeah I really want to know
exactly how you guys would do this
especially if you do it differently to
the way that I've done it leave a
comment below describing your setup and
what you would do differently if you
liked the way that we've done it though
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thanks for watching and I'll see you
next time
