In this shot we take a close up look at shaving gel. I’ve spent a decent amount of time staring at my shaving gel, primarily because I really liked the refraction and the way it emphasizes the curves and ripples. Shaving gel has some rather neat properties, high viscosity, high transparency, and high refraction. All of these make for a great subject for macro photography and filming (at least in high-speed). In the thousands of times I have used shaving gel I never really appreciated exactly how solid it is once it is out of the can and reacting with the air. In the video you can notice it maintaining the splash pattern instead of collapsing down to nothingness as a less viscous fluid (water, milk) would. You can also notice the way this allows it to cut paths through itself. My favorite bit has to be the curling of the gel as its forming, the shapes are interesting and pretty. It is also interesting to note the change in transparency over time. The change in transparency is caused by the formation of bubbles as the gel reacts with air, part of what makes it foam. When you just let it sit there the bubbles tend to form on the outside vs when you are smoothing it out in your hands and it all becomes foamy. This makes for some (in my opinion) very pretty photos. The camera on this shot was roughly 8″ from the subject. Once again, sorry for the strobing, hopefully soon we’ll receive some better high-speed lighting rigs.
Stumble it!
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