Food Dye in Milk

Help from: Will Tse, Chris McFadden, Steven Li

               The purpose if this image was to capture an image of the classic experiment of putting food dye, dish soap, and milk together.  We wanted to be able to capture multiple images as the liquid was moving.  The first few times we added to much milk or to little food dye are were not pleased with the physics and images that were being produced, but after a few test runs we were able to nail down the correct portions and produce images that we all liked.  Thanks to the help from my teammates, Will, Steven and Chris we were able to produce multiple images that we liked.

               In order to capture this image, we used a paper bowl, milk, 3 colors of food dye and dish soap.  First, we added milk to a blue line in the bowl that we were using to keep the amount constant throughout trials, then we added 3-4 drops of each food color around the outside of the bowl and to start the flow a drop of dish soap was added to the middle of the bowl.

               The physics behind this flow is a chemical one. The milk which was mostly water, fat and proteins are sensitive to changes to its surrounding.  Once the dish soap was added it dropped the surface tension of the milk around it and forced the food coloring to start to move.  The higher surrounding surface tension then pulled the milk and the food coloring from the bottom of the bowl and then forced it back out again.

                 Food dye was added in order to see the effect of the dish soap dropping the surface tension and forcing the milk to move.  The lighting used to capture this image was that of the room we were in and a phone flash light. With this lighting we were able to reduce glare and focus on the movement more.

               In order to capture this image, I used my roommate’s Cannon SL1.  I had the F-stop set to f/5, exposure time at 1/60 sec, ISO at 400 and a focal length of 41 mm.  I chose all these setting because after playing with the camera for a little I found that these setting helped me produce the best image possible.  In post processing I turned the blacks darker are whites brighter as well as cropping it in a circle.

               I feel like this image reveals a lot.  It helps show what can happen when different fluids mix and how they interact.  I like the final image that I was able to produce. I feel like in the end the image looks good and shows the flow well.  If I were to redo I would use a Q-Tip to add in the dish soap, that way we would be able to better control it.