Cool reflections and refractions

Add a splash of colour with some creative close-up photography of oil and water drops

While the natural world is drab at this time of year, there’s nothing to stop you creating bold and colourful close-ups indoors.

One easy project is to fill a bucket with water, add a few drops of cooking oil, and photograph the reflections in the spherical shapes created by the oil. You can really go to town with your light source, using sheets of coloured acetate cut into attractive shapes and placed in front of an angle-poise lamp. Make sure the acetate doesn’t touch the bulb, and stir the liquid to break up the oil on the surface of the water.

Another creative option is to photograph a colourful subject refracted in drops of water. Place a sheet of glass above the subject and add drops of water to the glass using a syringe or pipette. Get in close and manually focus on the refracted image in the water drops. To make the drops ‘bead up’ rather than becoming flat discs, clean the glass with an automotive rain repellant (although I used WD40 for the image here).

Refraction plan Light the background rather than the drops. I used a flashgun, angled down on the baubles, with the glass supported on chairs.

On reflection Create your lighting template using acetate or lighting gel. An angle-poise lamp allows you to change the angle.