Slam Dunk A Stem DCW Aug '12

[Don1462]

Hi
There was an article in August issue of DCW titled 'Slam Dunk a Stem". I have tried the project a few times using a fish tank and one Mettle 400 studio light. All my shots come out blurred. Has anyone else here tried that project and could kindly give some pointers on how they did it please.
On most shots my settings were:
ISO 100, f/8 at 1/250 sec. Camera (Canon 7D) was set on a tripod and I used a remote to trigger the shutter.
Thank you.

[SPARKY iow]

Hi, I tried it, I am new to photography and I haven't got much kit. I used a standard lamp and a fish tank. It took me ages to get any shots worth keeping. The way I got around it was a higher iso. I am not sure if this will help you while using a flash but it may help. I have one of my results loaded under general photography if you wanted to look at it. It's a bit grainy but I am going to try again when I have saved up for an off the camera flash. Sparky.

[Don1462]

Thank you for your reply.
I am not sure why I didn't try a lamp, going to try that next time. The reason I used a flash was because I assumed that would somehow help get the bubbles and moving flower in focus. Also I assumed there must be good reason to use one if it was mentioned in the article. But as you said that would limit my shutter speed (1/250).
This might sound a bit daft but would a 'Speedlight' help: i.e. would that enable me to set a faster shutter speed?
I couldn't locate your image, could please tell me the title of your image. thanks

[Don1462]

Oh I found it finally. The focus is pretty good, much better than what I got.

[Don1462]

[Don1462]

[Don1462]

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/fo...hp?i=15653&c=4
this is what I got

[SPARKY iow]

it looks good to me! I like the shape the water is making around the stem. It's not easy is it. Like I said it took me ages to get an image I was happy with. I suppose it's like everything - the more practice the easier it get's. I'm very new to digital photography and didn't really know what I was doing, so I just kept playing around with the settings. It is hard to get a quick enough shutter speed and still capture the image bright enough though. I suppose that's the advantage of having a flash lighting the flower from the side!