LightningPaul

Just an image for FUN :-)


TECH-INFO: How do you make such an image? First of all: CLEAN YOUR TOILET!  Any little spot or pieces of dirt will be amplified during post processing. You can clean it yourself or hire a company. Or do both.
To create depth, use an ultra wide angle or a fish eye like in my case. The latter nicely curves the side walls To catch the flushing action you need flash light to freeze it. I tried long exposures but I didn't get any usable result. A couple of speedlights were pointing to the ceiling, which acted like a big soft box when reflecting light.
Besides the flashes, you really must come very close to the place of action. Here I put my camera on tripod where the center column can swung round to horizontal (like the Manfrotto 055XPROB). The camera is triggered with a cable release, to prevent blocking the flash light as much as possible.
The water in the center is colored blue using ink from my pen. When ready you start flushing and take a few snapshots, preferable in RAW format. At the end, wipe off your lens in case it got (too) wet.

During post processing I wanted to create even more depth by playing with light and shadow. Therefore I created multiple exposures in DxO, loaded them in Photomatrix and tone-mapped until the lighting was more dramatic. In Photoshop I first had to remove some spots in the toilet. Even if it was very clean, the tone mapping enhanced them a lot. Then I  used several masked curve adjustment layers to make the lighting even more dramatic.