High speed shots
 

Here are a few shots (not very good yet, still practicing) of some balloons bursting, the 3rd one, I filled with water and burst it over the bath.
If anybody is interested I will post the method and the equipment used.

Yes please!

Very interesting, Lello.

Please post some more, the water balloon is excellent.

Lello,

That water balloon bursting is brilliant. More information please.

Water burst is great - more info please.

About a month ago I saw a photo of a balloon bursting, I was so impressed by it I decided to give a go, As I had a MB-D10 (Nikon vertical grip) that allows bust mode at at 8fps fitted with ni-mh batteries, I thought how hard can it be:( I found half a packet of balloons (about 10) in a draw that had been there since I don't know when. So blew up the first balloon set it up on a shelf, D300 set on CH (high speed burst mode) with remote cord attached (so I could reach the balloon with needle) All set to go, hit release on remote while attacking balloon with needle, looked at result and missed with all shots from that burst :confused: so blow up another balloon and tried again still no luck, well got through all the ten balloons with nothing to show for it:mad: So me thinks, this is harder than I first thought!! Went on the internet and found this site > LINK <
Then realized that I was going about it the wrong way DOH, you need to have the camera on BULB setting in a dark room and it's the flash going off the gives the result, but for that you need a sound trigger to fire flash, as you can see on the site they have all sorts of triggers. I printed off a list of components and went to Maplins to try and buy and make my own sound trigger, Maplins could not supply all the exact parts needed, so I decided to buy the sound trigger with delay kit from HI-VIZ. About 10 days later the kit arrived, and as I thought I was buying the kit already made up you can imagine my shock when it all arrived in a plastic bag for me to build, well 4 hrs later I manged to build the kit, (will post photo after weekend) I managed to find a packet of balloons at work (for some open day we had six month ago) with the first shots taken, the flash seemed to fire to late and all I was getting was the fragments of the balloons flying through the air, and although my kit has a delay part to it, this was not going to help me! so after moving the trigger further away and trying different aperture settings I'm nearly there, so as I have now run out of balloons I will carry on after the weekend, As I am doing my very first wedding shoot :eek: (shadowing the wedding photographer) for a Friend on Saturday and maybe Going to Duxford Sunday/Monday, So blowing up balloons will have to wait for now.
P.S
I found that filling the balloons with just water and bursting them, the trigger switch was not picking up the very low sound, So I half filled with water and blew them as as well.
There are a few more shots.

The water filled ones in particular are fascinating. Would be good to see the result with the string and needle cloned out. Oh, and when you get round to capturing a bullet bursting the balloons do post the shot! :D

I could borrow a shotgun, but I don't think that would work somehow:D

We would need a picture of your wife's face as she saw what was left of the bathroom! Then you would have to disappear like a high speed flash! :D

Absolutely brilliant, lello. Thanks for the explaination, I must have a crack myself.

I think you have started something Lello we will all be having a go.:D:D

Shame we all live so far away from each other! if we were closer we could have shared the Sound Trigger (at least trying mine out to see what it's like)
with a view to either making one or buying one :)

Thanks for the explanation Lello. I'd guessed that you'd need to use bulb and flash, but couldn't figure out how to synch it all up. The sound trigger is a great idea. I too find the water filled shots to be fascinating. Keep up the good work.

Here are some shots of the built sound trigger, The shots show it in a large matchbox,mainly to protect it and for ease of carrying around.
You can also see that I have spliced the trigger wires on to an old PC cord.
The yellow Ponentiometer (switch) is to control the sound coming from the Mic, and the blue switch is for delaying the flash.

If there was a section for the best post on the forum I think this should be in it!....great Lello, and inspiration

Interesting a mention of a bullet hitting a balloon was made......way back when, the A'level Physics text book had a photo of such. Was fasinated by it and remember it well (that and a london bus on top of 4x unbroken glasses, but that's another story)was made using a specially adapted Nikon, and IR light trigger, due to sound travel being so much slower in the field.

The reason I mentioned the bullet was that years ago there was a picture taken from the side of a bullet caught in mid flight having just neatly cut in half an edge on playing card. This was in pre digital days so have no real idea how it was done. If genuine it would need a very special high speed flash to freeze the action and probably a high speed cine camera too. Anybody else remember the picture?

This one is fairly well known.......
http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/st...time-1964.html
Must have used a lot of film up, and apples, before they got it right.

Thanks Joe,
Most appreciated,
Now that I have the sound Trigger I'm looking for things to use, I'm trying to get hold of a BB gun (ball bearing gun) or an air gun to try and shoot a light bulb!
maybe a golf ball being struck by a club! Party popper, any other ideas? bring them on :D:D

Check this page out

http://people.rit.edu/andpph/exhibit-3.html

OMG, Thats going to keep me busy:D
Thanks for the link

This is a weird one! :confused: almost looks like 2 shots superimposed, I can only assume that the room was not dark enough, so with the the cam on "BULB"
it took an image before the flash fired.

A couple of ideas to add (getting progressively more dangerous);

a Jacobs cracker (or Ryvita) being broken in two?....those things never break cleanly! :)

A hammer hitting a wet surface?

A hammer hitting and breaking plate glass?

A firework starting (or rocket taking off)?

Another one, which I've thought about since the cricket is on at the mo'...
fitting the trigger with a zoom / tele mic....every single shot would be one with the ball hitting bat, pad or wicket!
Could sit as a spectator enjoying the game without head behind a camera...then leave at the end of the day, knowing you have all the winning shots in the bag! :)

Unless.................. the duration of the flash was greater than the time it takes for a balloon to burst. This would cause the effect you've shown.

How do I slow the flash down? If I set it to 1/4 power will that do it?:confused:

Reducing the power level will give a shorter duration burst. I'm not 100% convinced that my original suggestion is the reason you've seen the double burst/not burst image, it was an educated guess.

Hope Don picks up on this thread. He'd shed some light on things.

Below is from the Nikon SB-800 manual, as can be seen reducing the flash duration reduces power.

1/1050 sec. at M1/1 (full) output
1/1100 sec. at M1/2 output
1/2700 sec. at M1/4 output
1/5900 sec. at M1/8 output
1/10900 sec. at M1/16 output
1/17800 sec. at M1/32 output
1/32300 sec. at M1/64 output
1/41600 sec. at M1/128 output

Ah, I see 'my' card being cut shot is there amongst many others. They are fascinating.

This is a BRILLIANT thread Lello :cool: :cool:
In the mean time ................. smartie pants :)

I will read through it properly tomorrow.

Don

Hi Don
I see you've been busy as well!
Link
I took about 20 shots to get this one, moving trigger around, changing the flash power,and changing aperture. Most of the other shots showed 2 balls (like super imposed shots) but looks like I nailed this one.:D

Thanks Stephen
Changing the power output does make a difference.

Some great shots there Lello.

Superimposed shots are probably too long a flash duration. From Foxys post I would be aiming at using 1/128 output ( 1/41600 sec ) for maximum freezing of the action.
I guess the D300 is quite clean to allow setting 1600 ISO to allow for a reasonable aperture.

As for firing bb's or pellets then choose pellets. BB's are the more dangerous option as they are steel balls. Try for an air pistol rather than rifle as they are limited to 6 ft pounds which is half the power of an air-rifle.

Thinks .........................

I have an antique Webly air pistol. .............. try a bit of kitchen foil as a flash trigger ....... mmmmm :rolleyes: . Another diversion ????????? :)

Don

Some great shots Lello and I have to say I admire all the enthusiasm BUT have you noticed one of the specs on one of the photo's - one millionth of a second exposure with strobe lighting - I know Nikon and Canon are good but I do not think any of our cameras can match that.

Andy,
The key is flash duration NOT shutter speed. Camera on bulb in a dark room so the shutter is open. Even Stevies D100 can cope with that. As long as it is recognised that us mere mortals cannot get to flash durations greater than 1/50,000 sec then there are still lots of subjects that we can do. Rifle bullets cutting cards does require some pretty specialst kit in more ways than the flash dept alone though, I agree.
1 million/sec flash now that would be serious money. :eek:

Probably worth a mention on the flash front. Studio units are no good for this as you cannot get anywhere near the short burst duration that a decent camera flash on reduced power will give.

Don

Thanks for that Don - it's not a subject I've ever studied - makes sense though, do you need a very short, high intensity light for this then?

Neither have I Andy. Never even truely tested top speed of 1/8,000 sec to freeze motion to understand its limitations.

Think of normal camera shutters and a series of blades ( 4 ) mechanically linked moving at 1/8,000 sec is no mean feat. To get that speed up to 1/30k or 1/50k to match the fastest burst from a flash requires a complete rethink of shutter design to reduce the number of moving parts.

Faster shutters are only of value if direct lighting is used. If flash is used then if exposure is for flash only, then flash duration becomes the key. Turning the power down does reduce the duration of the burst but also reduces the amount of light. That can be overcome by placing the flash closer to the subject.
Now you have two things affecting the overall exposure. Amount of light from the flash burst and ambient light recorded while the shutter is open. In a dark room with the shutter open there will be no ambient light so no image will be recorded. If you now fire a flash then an image will be recorded purely from the light generated by the flash. Flash duration will determine the ability of that burst of light to freeze motion.

In digital I guess the next consideration is amplification noise on long exposures. So a bit of experimentation is probably required here. For Lello's ballons then camera connected by a remote and you can probably get away with a few seconds. Trigger ... ( shutter open ) - Burst ballon ... ( flash fires ) - Shutter closes.

I have found a couple of further links that may be of interest.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Samples:_...r_&_Flash-Sync
http://www.woodselec.com/index.htm

Don

I reckon the easiest (!) way would be in a darkened room with two synchronised flashguns set to lowest power for short duration of flash so would not have to have long exposure and noise worries. Without specialised equipment there will be a limit as to how fast an object could be 'frozen'. How about a dart? You would need just a little ambient light to see the target water filled balloon but with a fast shutter speed that would be irrelevant exposure wise.

Don, thanks for that and those links - very "illuminating":o . I know Lello is using a sound trigger but somewhere I have an old Nikon ML-3 infra red remote unit - I think I'll try and set it up so whatever bursts the balloon etc passes through the IR as a trigger and I'll post what I get here. It should work for a dropped ball or hammer on water - lets see.

My first attempt
 

You will be the death of me Lello, could not resist a go even though I do not have a sound trigger. :)

I dug out the air pistol and clamped it in my milling machine vice.
Pellet stop is a plastic bucket with 3 layers of 200mm rockwool roof insulation. Tests showed the pellet only just made it through one layer.

Without a sound trigger I thought to short out and so trigger the flash using kitchen foil. Two strips, one connected to each side of the old fashioned flash extension terminal.
NOTE IF YOU TRY THIS ........ depending on the trigger voltage of your flash you can get a bit of a shock if you close the contact with your fingers by accident. I did so I know. :eek:

I chose to use my old Vivitar 283 for this experiment. Trigger voltage is quite high but I could turn it down to give a flash duration of 1/30,000 sec.

First shot was to determine the distance the pellet would travel once it had triggered the flash. Triggering is by the pellet force closing the circuit between the two bits of foil.
As can be seen there is not much delay so I will have to work on that one for a pellet exiting the muzzle shot. Also 1/30,000 is not enough to freeze a pellet so it could be a case of exploding food shots.

Second shot was just to see that I could do it. First grape hit dead on but failed to trigger. Workbench and background suitably splattered. Second shot and time getting on so I made sure the flash would fire even though the foil would be visible in the end result. Bench even more of a mess now. :rolleyes:

Exposure info : Camera on remote 2 secs at f16, ISO200, Flash duration 1/30,000 sec. - workshop lights off but enough daylight for me to see what I was doing.

Don

Neat Andy. Never seen one in the flesh so as to speak so I will see if I have any info in my Nikon leaflet collection.

Don