Chad Sloan

Chad Sloan

The Water has Eyes

Chad Sloan, Get Wet

MCEN 4151-001, 10/1/18

 

This is a photo of pure vapor bubbles in boiling water.  When I thought of taking this photo I really wanted to try and capture a single bubble as it was rising to the surface. As I realized that was not going to work I decided to try and capture that when someone looks at it they must think about what could cause it.  After a few tries I was able to capture a picture that showed the boiling water in a beautiful way.

The flow was created by boiling water in a black pot.  This flow is cause by convection.  Convection is when the heat passes from the burner into the black pot, and from the black pot to the water at the bottom of the pot.  Once the water at the bottom heats up it rises to the surface and forces the cooler water to move down.  The motion of the hotter water rising causes circular motion.  Once the liquid gets hot enough to where the water on the pot surface of the pot becomes vapor.  The vapor at the bottom of the pot groups together to form bubbles, once the bubble is large enough it is able to break off the bottom of the pot and rise to the top.  As you can see at the top of the photo the surface tension of the water traps the bubbles for a split second.  The boiling point of water falls under the change in phase of a fluid category.  On a Temperature vs. Pressure diagram for water, boiling water falls on the line between liquid and vapor.  While the water is boiling it stays at a constant heat, this is because the energy that it takes to fully change a phase is very large.

To create this image, I used a black pot and filled it with 3 cups of water and waited for it to start boiling.  Once the water started to boil I picked up the black pot and tilted it a little to get a bit more of a side view.  While taking the picture I keep the light that was above my stove on as well as using the flash that is on my camera.  I figured out that the more light that I was able to get reflecting off the water the more interesting the picture became.

In order to capture the photo that is above I used my roommates Cannon SL1.  When taking the picture, I got as close as I could (about 8-9 inches) to the boiling water while keeping focus towards the front of the picture by using close up mode on the camera.  To let as much light as I could in I turned the shutter speed down to 1/60 and F-stop to f/5.  By turning the ISO up to 400 I was able to get a sharper image.  In post processing in cropped out parts of the photo that included the bare pot as well as parts of the boiling water that just didn’t look good to me.  After cropping I went in and adjusted the colors to turn the black parts of the pot all the way black and made the light reflecting off the water white.

I really like how the image turned out.  I think that it shows the flow, but it shows it in an in interesting way.  I think the more you look at the photo the more your find.  It shows both the vapor bubbles rising as well as the surface tension of the water trapping them in.  I think one way to take it further is to try and take a photo from the side, I think that would show some interesting things.  Overall, I am really happy with how my photo turned out.

 

Reference:

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/37838/what-makes-water-boil

https://www.nuclear-power.net/nuclear-engineering/heat-transfer/boiling-and-condensation/natural-convection-boiling-onset-of-nucleate-boiling/

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29 Comments. Leave new

  • William Tse
    Oct 1, 2018 13:17

    Art: Very beautiful to see all the individual beads of water. They are very gratifying to look at and aesthetically textured!
    Flow: Clearly illustrates the beginning of a phase change as the liquid is changing into a gas, pure water vapor.
    Photographic Technique: Very detailed and the focus in the middle gives the picture character and the cropping is nicely done. You kind of get lost into it!

    Reply
  • Chase Cleveland
    Sep 24, 2018 12:20

    This is a beautiful shot. It is hard to discern what is going on at first which gives the image an alien effect. I like the narrow field of view as it brings out the clarity of the bubbles in the center of the image. The splash at the top gives a nice layering effect as well. Great job overall.

    Reply
  • Joseph Ryan
    Sep 21, 2018 12:26

    This is a really cool picture. I really like how you can see both the surface and the bottom of the water, seeing the ripples distort the bubbles is really interesting. I also thought the explanation was really interesting. For some reason, it never occurred to me that the boiling bubbles were filled with steam rather than just air.

    Reply
  • Duncan Lowery
    Sep 21, 2018 11:02

    Great work, the contrast is striking! The flow fills the entire frame and only the inside of the black pot comes through. Is this your full image or did you crop some of it out for the sake of composition? My favorite part is the top of the image, where the surface becomes much more visually distinct from the bubbles rising underneath. I bet inverting the colors would create an image just as dramatic and interesting.

    Reply
  • Owen Brown
    Sep 20, 2018 14:42

    It think this image is just absolutely captivating. 1000 little frog eyes peering out to look in the camera. Great work!

    Reply
  • Winston Douglas
    Sep 19, 2018 12:49

    The bubbles kind of remind me of the eyes of a spired which I think was pretty awesome. also the bubbles occupy the whole frame and with a solid background. I think it would have been cool if there wasn’t a shallow/deep end to the pot only because the image isn’t all focused

    Reply
  • Brandon Gushlaw
    Sep 19, 2018 12:48

    Great photo! The bubbles are very clear and the black pot makes the contrast in every bubble stand out. Is the top blurred out section with the water swirl something you wanted to display with the bubbles?

    Reply
  • Eli Kopp-DeVol
    Sep 19, 2018 12:47

    I don’t think i’ve ever seen such a clear, close up image of boiling water, awesome job and great idea! I enjoy that you can’t even tell what the image is of and yet it is so visually pleasing!

    Reply
  • Morgan Benninger
    Sep 19, 2018 12:45

    This is really unique. I enjoyed the gradient from unfocused to focused and then back again. I think it gave the image perspective and depth. It’s something I could look at for a long time and think you captured the physical phenomenon well.

    Reply
  • Christopher McFadden
    Sep 19, 2018 12:45

    I like the motion of the bubbles and the framing. Its great that you were able to get most of the bubbles in focus. Inverting colors might be cool to try.

    Reply
  • Ivan Komodore
    Sep 19, 2018 12:45

    The focus and narrow depth of field are great in this picture. The ripple on the surface helps to give some perspective to the photo and helps to orient the viewer to the setting.

    Reply
  • Ross Cooper
    Sep 19, 2018 12:44

    This is a really powerful image. It’s very abstract in some ways, and that helps you really focus on the bubbles themselves. The sharp contrast is incredible and the depth of field also helps center your attention. I may try different lighting angles and see what happens.

    Reply
  • Peilin Yang
    Sep 19, 2018 12:44

    It’s a perfect combination of the science and aedthetic. The shape of bubble varies from shallow to the deep. And even the surface intention is caught!

    Reply
  • Gregory Collins
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    This would make a great computer background. I love the shine you were able to capture of the water. what is the aberration in the top center?

    Reply
  • Justin Truong
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    Woah, this photo is really cool! Its interesting to see the amount of bubbles that’s formed when boiling the water.

    Reply
  • Jeremy Aparicio
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    Great intuition tilting the pot so that there is depth perception in the photo. Image origin is unknown without photographer insight which lets the audience imagine what they will with the photo

    Reply
  • Garrett Gerchar
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    Really love the contrast of the photo almost looks like silver on a black surface or even stone cobbles. What kind of lighting did you use? Really love that you can see that some of the bubbles are still rising to the surface.

    Reply
  • Anna Lynton
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    This is super cool. I like that you can’t immediately tell what it is. I like how the colors came out. Perhaps there could be a bit more focus or cropping out the blurry sections.

    Reply
  • Noah Granigan
    Sep 19, 2018 12:43

    Interesting picture, the different perceived size of the bubbles is cool, and the colors enhance the picture. The black and almost silverish bubbles are a good combination. Well done.

    Reply
  • Michael Karns
    Sep 19, 2018 12:42

    I like how simple the picture is, but there’s alot going on with the bubbles. I really like the black background is makes a really nice contrast in the image. Great job!

    Reply
  • Maxwell Rodgers
    Sep 19, 2018 12:42

    The focus of the image is great! I like that the focus blurs out towards the top of the image. The different sized bubbles are very interesting and depict how a change in water depth affects the boiling bubble size.

    Reply
  • Matthew Finney
    Sep 19, 2018 12:42

    I like the bubbles against the black background. The vigorous boiling is clearly displayed. The depth of field variation is a cool effect.

    Reply
  • Chris Davidoff
    Sep 19, 2018 12:42

    After I read the description I thought it was very cool. Although I’m terrified of small holes and that is kind of what this looks like so I must run away now. Nice contrast!

    Reply
  • I love this photo and would not have known that it was air bubbles in boiling water. It looks like awesome water or bubble beads and is quite in focus. Probably one of my favorite images of the Get Wet! Great job and I don’t think it could’ve been any better!

    Reply
  • Ibrahim Alhajji
    Sep 19, 2018 12:42

    Great Idea. The bubbles are shown perfectly. The resolution on the picture can be better. But I think that not the best picture you have for this project. Great work.

    Reply
  • I think you did a really good job of capturing the bubbles – it almost looks like a bowl of caviar! You have really nice contrast between the light on the bubbles as well as the dark pot. Very nice image!

    Reply
  • Brent T Eckles
    Sep 19, 2018 12:41

    Like the nice clean appearance to the photo. The water boiling created a nice uniform surface of bubbles. Picture in cheerful.

    Reply
  • Charles Keely
    Sep 19, 2018 12:41

    I like how the framing makes the phenomenon seem alien even though it’s actually just boiling water.

    Reply
  • Dylan Crane
    Sep 16, 2018 12:04

    I couldn’t tell what the picture was at first until I read the description and then it made total sense. I think that’s a good thing. It’s a close enough photo that you can’t see anything other than the subject matter and it’s well focused so that you can really see it in detail. I wonder if there is a way to add some color to it? That could look amazing!

    Reply

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