The use of agricultural chemicals is essential to meeting the increasing food and energy demands of the world's growing population. To reduce environmental impact, maximizing the pesticide application effectiveness in the areas of deposition/retention, spreading, penetration, uptake, and rainfastness becomes one key focus in pesticide formulation development. Scientists in Dow AgroSciences have established in-house capabilities to study the foliar application effectiveness and efficiency of a liquid spray using high speed digital imaging of single droplets on model and real leaf surfaces. Formulation properties, such as surface tension and viscosity, were investigated systematically. The effects of substrate surface, droplet velocity, impact angle, and formulation components on droplet retraction and spreading are reported. The results from the high speed imaging of single droplet retention agreed well with data from green house spray. Our findings provide understanding and guidance for optimization of agrochemical delivery.