Water droplets (0.55 or 1.3 mm diameter) were photographed as they impinged on a stainless steel surface. The droplet impact velocity (10–50 m s−1) and the average roughness (0.03 or 0.23 μm) of the test surfaces were varied. The stainless steel substrate was mounted on the end of a rotating arm, giving linear velocities of up to 50 m s−1. Different stages of droplet impact were photographed by synchronizing the ejection of a single droplet with the position of the rotating arm and triggering of a camera. Finger-shape perturbations were observed around the edges of spreading droplets. The maximum diameter to which a droplet spread and the number of fingers formed around it were measured. The size and number of fingers increased with impact velocity and droplet diameter. At sufficiently high velocities, the tips of these fingers detached, producing satellite droplets. By increasing surface roughness, both the number of fingers and the maximum extent of spreading were decreased. At high impact velocities the spreading liquid film became so thin that it ruptured in several places. A mathematical model, based on linear Rayleigh–Taylor instability theory, was used to predict the wavelength of the fastest growing perturbation around a spreading droplet. The corresponding wavenumber agreed reasonably well with the number of fingers around the droplet.