Creating Beautiful Abstract Photos Of Oil And Water
I have always been fascinated by the photos of oil and water that other photographers have taken. Each oil and water photo is unique and beautiful. So needless to say this has been on my ever growing bucket list to try. I found this wonderful site that gave step by step instructions. You can read about it here Creative Photography using Oil and Water. The author, Marc G. C. Photography, wrote a wonderful tutorial and shared some of his beautiful shots. He lists everything you need. I didn’t have exactly what he had on hand but I was able to make due and came up with some neat shots that I would like to share and encourage you to try.
Equipment and Materials
| Nikon D300s | 105mm lens | glass jar | dish soap |
| bubbles | olive oil | flash | natural light |
| fluorescent light | black light | circular polarizer |
Setup
Oil and Water Abstracts
Oil and Water Using Fluorescent & Black Light
This was the first shot. I used a fluorescent light to my left, natural light from the front and the black light underneath. I also had the circular polarizer on the lens.
Drop Of Blue Food Coloring
This one I put the fluorescent light underneath in place of the black light. Then I added a drop or two of blue food coloring. You can see the food color in the upper left corner slowly dripping into the oil and soap.
Blue Food Color Has Taken Over
Stirred Not Shaken Oil And Water
I decided to stir up the ingredients to see what that would look like. Tiny little oil bubbles. You can see my window in the large bubbles in the bottom of the photo.
Side Light Only
On this one I decided to just use the fluorescent light to the left. You can actually see the light in the larger bubble.
Flash
Set my flash to the left. Did not use any light underneath. As you can see each shot taken has been unique and beautiful.
Yellow Food Coloring
Still using the flash on the left but changed it up a bit by adding a few drops of yellow food coloring. Almost looks like a close up eye of some creature from the deep sea 🙂
Oil and Soap
I cleaned out the jar to start over with just olive oil and dish shop. In addition I took off the circular polarizer to see how the bubbles looked. Photo A I used flash on the left and natural light. Photo B I used flash on the left, natural light and fluorescent light underneath. I took these within minutes of each other but yet they look so different.
As a matter fact the oil bubbles were constantly changing as the next 3 photos will show.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my experiment as much as I enjoyed doing it and that you will be inspired to give it ago. If you try it I would love to see your results. Leave a link in the comment section or if you are on instagram tag me @artistnamedbec on your oil shot. Stay tuned for my next experiment that has been on my bucket list CYRSTALS!
