Liquid Photography With David Lund

Liquid specialist and former Visual Education student David Lund joins Karl in studio for an exciting episode somewhat different from (and far more messy than) previous live workshops.

Working closely with Karl, David brings his liquid expertise and unusual gadgets to the studio, showing exactly what can be achieved when using creative solutions to control water. Together Karl and David show you a number of different techniques, each of which produces completely unique results. Using water, colored gels and David’s creative contraptions, it’s a show you don’t want to miss.

In this class:

  • Controlling and manipulating liquids
  • Problem solving and creative solutions
  • Using colored gels for creative effect
  • Photographing using trigger devices
  • Photographing different objects in water
  • The advantages of shooting in mirror lock-up mode

To find out more about David and his career, watch his live talk show or read our blog post ‘Designer to photographer – David Lund’.

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Hi Karl,

    That was my favourite shoot so far. I have so many ideas I want to try now.

    Do you remember what colour tone the large blue filter was at the back?

    1. Hi John, I don’t remember at the moment but I will try and dig out the filter tomorrow and come back to you, I’m out on a shoot today.

      1. Hi Karl,
        After having repeatedly watching this very enjoyable show, I was going to ask the same question: what colour code was the Lee-Filters blue gel used for the background?
        Hopefully you can find something in the archives or maybe David could advise.
        All the best and thanks to both of you,
        Bogdan

  2. I can’t believe, I missed your workshop in HULL thats where I live, nothing like this EVER happens here I always have to travel to London etc. for this type of course

  3. Hi Adam
    Thanks for the comment glad you had so much fun.
    We made quite a mess didn’t we.
    Liquids and pistons and hi speed, are so fascinating,

    Currently making a giant vortex but with a electronic controllable aperture, and variable pump speed, this will allow a sudden massive wide diameter down the centre of the vortex. Love to use one of those super fast robot arms to zoom down into the bottom of the vortex, while adding coloured inks in.

  4. Hi Karl!
    I was on David masterclass at 21 of July. It was brilliant! Please bring him back to your show! Do something big! Fire, guns, explosions… ehhh better nooo 😉 We don’t want burn your studio 😉 AnywayI believe guys you can create something special!

    Regards, Adam

  5. Ive just remembered where i seen your face before david, was you at the photography show 2018 doing your paint explosion covering a guys head in blue paint??

    1. Dan so sorry for the epic delay.. to your question but yes was at the NEC did 2 talks and a crazy paint explosive demo on the main stage.

      Not sure ill get invited back as they had to recapped the stage after us…. But it was fun!

  6. Hi Gina, thank you for your comments, glad you enjoyed the show. Yes doing things live is fun!!! and unpredictable at times. Absolutely love my job. Karl has been a continual inspiration with his teaching material.

  7. That was great ya’ll! I can tell David is such a gentle soul. Love your humor Karl. I learned so much while laughing my head off at ya’ll. Point being is that ya’ll were willing to show everyone that things rarely go smooth all the time even for the experts. I loved this show.

  8. Hi Karl, I have a question regarding Flash duration. I only have speedlites, and am aware that the lower the power the shorter the flash duration. eg. 1/128 = 1/20’000 sec My question is, in your experience what is the best speed to capture splashes in a water tank ? Thanks

  9. ksporry

    That was a nice show to watch Karl. Seemed like you guys didn’t have enough time to move on a leisurely pace, but the idea is great! I’ll be looking forward to watching the recording of the interview with David!

    Some 7-8 years ago in shanghai I played a bit with freezing water splashes. We didn’t use strobes though. We shot at high iso and fast shutter speeds.

    I did have a question on the background construction though. I understand now how the ball of light works with diffusion material etc, but in this setup, how important is the size of the scrims? We don’t all have space for an 8 ft scrim. Is there a background setup that is smaller but gives a similar effect?

    1. Hi Kryn, yes I can appreciate the space requirements, although you will often see us using a large scrim that is mostly because it is the scrim that we have. Many of these things can be placed a bit closer and be considerably smaller. Even the extra diffusion wasn’t entirely necessary, for example this setup could have been achieved with the single layer of acrylic diffusion and the blue gel placed over the back of that and then the light behind with another blue gel on it. Or with an additional light bouncing of the wall behind to ensure the corners of the scrim did not vignette too much.

  10. As always really interesting live show!

    One thing I hate though is having the “countdown time” in each live show replay. For instance this one has about nine minutes before the actual show starts. Can’t this useless part be removed from the replay’s? I would really appreciate that!

    1. Hi Ruud, it is usually removed from the replays or at least shortened, I will ask Ben our video editor to check this one.

  11. Great suff, really enjoyed it and got some great tips along the way. Waiting for the water canon to load was a tense moment!! LOL

  13. I had to watch this after the event and in two parts because of other commitments. I just finished watching it and wanted to leave a quick note to say how much I enjoyed it.

    I could see the possibilities of using these techniques on product shots and I’m looking forward to trying some of them when my wife leaves the kitchen unattended for a couple of hours… :o)

  14. out standing work. the whole set up so handy and so much one could do with that one set up
    thanks again Karl & David looking forward to next show

  15. For many years Trengrove studios in the U.S. have been the standard for high quality acrylic ice cubes. I suspect that’s the brand name David was trying to remember. Calumet used to sell them in the U.K.. Set Shop in New York has them.

    1. The Set Shop is the only place I have found that sells the Acrylic “Shards” and you can buy one and finance it on your MasterCard in 36 payments!

      That was a fun session to watch and learned a lot… Karl apparently had a couple Red Bull’s before this one!

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