This image shows a bag of black tea being diffused in a glass of hot water. Tiny tea particles diffuse through the bag into the water, leaving trails dictated by a Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
Sander Leondaridis Get Wet Vis 1 2022
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Flow Vis Guidebook
- Introduction to the Guidebook
- Overview 1: Phenomena. Why Does It Look Like That?
- Overview 2: Visualization Techniques
- Overview 3: Lighting
- Overview 4 - Photography A: Composition and Studio Workflow
- Overview 4 - Photography B: Cameras
- Overview 4 - Photography C: Lenses - Focal Length
- Overview 4 - Photography C: Lenses - Aperture and DOF
- Overview 4: Photography D: Exposure
- Overview 4 - Photography E - Resolution
- Overview 5 - Post-Processing
- Clouds 1: Names
- Clouds 2: Why Are There Clouds? Lift Mechanism 1: Instability
- Clouds 3: Skew - T and Instability
- Clouds 4: Clouds in Unstable Atmosphere
- Clouds 5: Lift Mechanism 2 - Orographics
- Clouds 6: Lift Mechanism 3 - Weather Systems
- Boundary Techniques - Introduction
- Dye Techniques 1 - Do Not Disturb
- Dye Techniques 2 - High Visibility
- Dye Techniques 3 - Light Emitting Fluids
- Refractive Index Techniques 1: Liquid Surfaces
- Refractive Index Techniques 2: Shadowgraphy and Schlieren
- Particle Physics: Flow and Light
- Dilute Particle Techniques - Under Construction
- Particles 2: Aerosols
- Particles 3: In Water - Under Construction
- Art and Science
- TOC and Zotpress test
- Photons, Wavelength and Color
21 Comments. Leave new
Including the rim of the jar that has the water droplets adds the phenomena of condensation and adds the dimension of heat which provides context to the tea bag in the water.
You did a great job capturing the fluid physics! I am wondering if trying different water temperature would make any changes.
I like how you used a jar to show the vertical drop in the darker particles of tea.
I really like the way you captured contrast! It can be tricky with browns like you said, but it really works out well in this case!
I love the aspect of gravity pulling the tea down. Obviously, it is diffusing, but the diffusing flowing down shows the density of tea particles. The condensation at the mouth of the jar, along with the golden tea color makes this image vibrant and warm, very receptive.
Why did you choose to have the whole system captured in the image? Did you consider a closer focus to just the diffusion rea?
Did you experiment with different water levels? What made you choose this amount for your final photo?
I really like the timing that the photo was taken in. I think that it was a great time to take the photo as the tea is not completely diffused into the rest of the water and you can see the stream of the particles of the tea.
What was the inspiration behind using a mason jar as opposed to using a glass cup, mug, bowl, etc.?
I was wondering how you controlled the reflections and set up lighting. I was struggling with getting too many reflections while still being able to see the subject and it seems like you did a really good job with that. You mentioned a t-shirt over the light and I was wondering if you did that for all of the lights and how many lights you had.
I like how you captured the fluid physics of an everyday activity. The concentration of tea under the teabag has a nice difference in color to the less-steeped tea. Also, the color difference shows an interesting diagonal gradient across the middle of the image.
My favorite part of this image is the glowing light reflecting off the water at the bottom of the jar. I think it provides a wonderful bright contrast to balance the dark tea bag at the top of the image. It also helps to produce a unique color gradient that I find beautiful.
I love the flow you’ve captured coming from the teabag! Did you attempt to zoom further in or crop your image to see how it would look with the tea particles taking up a much larger portion of your image?
How would the effect look different with different teas? I would love to see this again with the image taken at different times after placing the teabag in the hot water too.
I’m impressed with the contrast you were able to achieve when the picture has many like colors. Between the lighting and editing, you did a good job making the particulates stand out against the other warm colors.
I really like how you avoided having reflections in the important areas, I know that can be really difficult. I also really like the spot right under the tea bag where you can see the tendrils of the particles as they come out of the bag, I think it’s very detailed and there is lots of cool movement in that spot.
I like the capture of the tendrils of tea coming down from the bag, and I think the moment during which you captured this is great. In response to your question of what could be done better, and as my “opinion on improvement” is I think the focus could hopefully be placed a little more on the tendrils of tea coming from the bag, whereas now it almost seems like the focus may be on the front of the glass (condensation) or even a little bit closer than that, so if possible I think some precision focus could really make the tendrils pop. My last neutral question would be how could you make the figure of the teabag more distinct and visible within the image?
I like that you can see the condensation at the top of the jar, I think it adds a nice texture and cooler-toned contrast to the rest of the image.
I appreciate the visibility at the area of interest. There is no glare where the particles diffuse and that shows good positioning and lighting. I think the contrast is also very solid, since we can see where the particles are in the fluid. It seemed like perfect timing as well.
I really enjoyed the depiction of the tea particles’ weight. You can see the collection of dense tea particles towards the bottom and the process of diffusion as the smaller particles move higher in the jar.
I really enjoy the contrast between the varying colors in the photo. The tea contrasts incredibly cleanly with the background. The bag suspended in the liquid creates another nice color difference within the tea itself.
Great job controlling the reflections. You avoided the most important part of the image.