Lemon Water Post Tutorial

I have been asked by several people again to do a tutorial on my latest posting. I appreciate all the positive feedback on the last tutorial. It gave me more confidence going into this one. I'm so happy it was a help.

I have seen this done with a piece of foam board and colored paper as the background but I got rid of all the colored paper that I had so that wasn't an option for me. I decided I wanted purple as my background since I knew it would be a nice contrast and luckily I had just changed my daughter's clothes and put her to bed and her purple shirt was on the table. So I laid it on the kitchen floor against the childproof gate.

I originally had borrowed a clear colorless glass from my mom since I only own blue glasses but hers has ridges in it so I had to scour my kitchen for something else clear and found this, a food processor I used when my baby girl was still eating mushy foods.
I was concerned about the middle tube part of it but it actually came in handy for the lemon to rest against. So I popped off the container and set it on the purple shirt...
Next I cut a slice out of the lemon.

Then I got some Walmart Flavored Water. Obviously any flavor will work since it's clear...
Then I poured the water into the container and stuck the lemon inside. I filled the water almost to the top since it's a short container. I had to wiggle the lemon around a little bit to get the bubbles moving again. (There is no water in this picture because I already dumped it out before I took pictures for the tutorial.) If you look closely you can see ridges on the container so I had to center it just right to avoid capturing the ridges.
I let go of the lemon real fast and thankfully that middle tube kept it standing upright so I could use both hands to hold the camera. In another tutorial I saw (that I searched high and low for and can't find), the photog used a skewer stick and put it through the top of the lemon and rested the stick on the top of the glass to keep the lemon from moving or sinking. Considering the container I used is very short I had to let the lemon rest on the bottom of the container to maximize the amount of lemon I could capture without getting the top of the container in the picture.
I used my macro filter to capture this. You might be able to capture it without the filter but I decided just to go ahead and use it.
I made sure to adjust the white balance in my camera and then I got down on my belly and started snapping away. Through the process of trying to use the ridged glass and different angles with this container it took me about 40 shots before I finally got one I could use. It definitely requires a lot of time and patience.

ISO 800  f/5.6   1/30 sec

Next I started the editing process...
Before and After
So there you have it. I hope to see some of you give it a try in the near future. I hope these tutorials will help make it easier for you.

18 comments:

Amy said...

Thank you for posting this! I may have to buy lemons someday soon ;-)

Photography said...

Very good thanks!!

Jamie said...

Thanks a bunch!!

Kathleen said...

Awesome! Thanks for such a helpful tutorial! Will definitely try this sometime!

黄清华 Wong Ching Wah said...

WOw... cool, I will try that with my macro lens !

karren said...

Very good! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. I need to buy something to do macro's without buying an expensive lens.

Catherine said...

Oh, this is so cool! Thank you for the tut!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the tutorial, Misty. This is something I will definitely try as soon as I have a macro lens (which hopefully won't be *too* far in the future!)

Christina, Sweden said...

Interesting to follow the making of this great photo.

Sandra V. said...

Another great tutorial!

Unknown said...

Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing!

Kristin said...

Thank you so much for sharing this. You are so creative and have great ingenuity when it comes to putting things like this shot together. I love the behind the scenes look because I never would have dreamed you went through all that to get to the end result; when I looked at your original picture, it looked so natural and effortless. I really need to try some shots like this and get out of my box. Thanks for the inspiration and tips on how to do it!

Becky Sue said...

I did this, too, back in January.

http://cggrlogan.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/picture-winter-a-little-sunshine/

Adding salt to the bubbly water creates even more bubbles.

Carlynn said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I am so visual and needed that step by step.

Melissa said...

This was very helpful, Misty. And a skewer stick.... Very good idea! Thanks for the tips!

Branson said...

Definitely bookmarking this! I saw the shot in your week in review (because I am ALWAYS behind and work backwards, lol) and couldn't wait to get to the actual post for this photo :)

longneys said...

I love these tutorials. It's so generous of you to take the time to do them. I'll definitely be trying this one out soon. Thanks.