How to photograph rain drops / water drops?

Question

Hi, I am using a Canon EOS400D , I would like to know the best settings to use for taking photos of water drops/raindrops, I have read so many articles,but I am still really confused.

Thank you.

Answer 1

This is pretty much a trade-off. Because raindrops are small I'd say it's optimal to

• keep the focal length as long as possible to magnify the raindrops.
• focus manually on the closest raindrops available (if you're outside in the rain, that means focus to the near limit of your lens).
• balance between fast shutter speed (to freeze the drops) and narrow aperture (getting as much rain in focus as you can). This will require a fair bit of light or higher ISO settings.

If you have a light source illuminating the raindrops while they're in front of a darker background, they will surely be more visible. An external flash from a different angle than you lens, only hitting the raindrops and not your background, could work.

Answer 2

Settings mostly depend upon the environment. For example was taken at ISO 100, F2.8 @ 1/400second. That was just a shot out of my window, after it had stopped raining and the sky was returning to a blue-colour.

If you want to use a strobe to highlight falling water, or falling rain, you'll want a similar shutter speed but you might find the aperture has to be smaller to avoid over-exposure.