centre of attraction

Apologies if this is the wrong gallery for this. Please move it if it's in the wrong place (I'm new here)

1. I used my new (this was the first shot with it) Raynox 250 macro clip on (I was doubtful when someone recommended it, but it's very good for £40) on the front of a 45-200 Panasonic lens for my Panasonic G1 4/3 camera. Here is the Raynox http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raynox-RADCR-0250-DCR-250-Macro-Attachment/dp/B000A1SZ2Y

2. Mixed equal quantity of olive oil and water in a plant spray bottle. Spray onto the silver side of a CD/DVD. IO selected one single drop, which is the one in the shot. The oil drop you see is about 2mm across, so the Raynox gets in very close.

3. Lighting is a single studio flash with softbox positioned at 45 deg above and pointing down.

4. In Photoshop I boosted colour a bit and tidied up dust on CD. Then selected an area around the drop with the marqee tool, then feathered and inverted it so the whole area outside the drop was selected. Then applied a plugin called Ripples Magic from Redfield, which is excellent. http://www.redfieldplugins.com/filterRipplesMagic.htm

So, everything outside the drop gets distorted by the plugin, but not the drop itself. The feathering makes a gradual transition.