Shooting Ink Droplets From Start to Finish – Photo Premium

Ever seen a fantastic ink droplet image, and wondered how the photographer achieved the effect? In today’s video tutorial, we’re going to shed light on the whole process from start to finish. From buying the right equipment and setting it up, right through to the finishing touches in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy the tutorial!

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Equipment Needed

This is a really hands-on, practical tutorial, so you’ll need a few different pieces of kit to get started! So you know what you’ll need to try this technique, here’s a full list:

• Black Liquid Ink (around $1)
• A dropper or pipette
• A bottle cap
• A plastic stick
• A fish tank, or large glass container
• A completely white piece of card (as background) – 100cm x 70cm
• Two strong lights

Preview the Video!

The Process

Here’s a quick overview of the different parts of the process we’ll cover. The 15 minute video roughly breaks down into half practical shooting, and half post-processing:

• List the required materials
• Set up lighting and background
• Prepare to drop some ink
• Cleaning the air bubbles from the fish tank
• Cleaning the water droplets from the fish tank
• Some important helpful advice
• Creating the ink drops and shooting
• Retouching in Photoshop

Sample Screenshots

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This is a really interesting technique, and our simple walkthrough makes a fairly advanced process thoroughly easy to understand, whether or not you’re a seasoned photography expert.

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