Anyone into highspeed/stop-action photography? Cool pics!

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Anyone into highspeed/stop-action photography? Cool pics!

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:13:07 PM EDT

Was wondering if anyone was into this sort of thing. It's really kinda neat. I have taken a couple pictures so far.

Here's some exploding water balloons:

Here are some exploding balloons.

These are taken in my "workshop" garage sink. so please forgive the dirtyness.

I hope to get some pictures of a vibrating guitar string and a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun later this weekend(using a photogate trigger).

Basically the whole principle is this. You have a camera in a dark room with the shutter open. You have a flash unit from a camera, and you have some sort of triggering mechanism(ie sound trigger or motion sensor/photogate) that shorts the two terminals on the flash unit causing it to disharge when it receives the proper stimuli, with the flash mode on automatic you can get something like 1/30,000 of a second equivielant shutterspeed. Fast enough to stop even a bullet from a gun

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:18:51 PM EDT

[#1]

Very slick!

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:20:14 PM EDT

[#2]

I have an entire folder on my computer with high-speed photos.

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:21:04 PM EDT

[#3]

Take a picture of a piece of Bxxxd exiting a toaster!!!!

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:24:34 PM EDT

[#4]

Well i could use ideas of cool things to take pictures of. Loud or fast moving objects are the coolest.

I will have a photogate and sound trigger setup by satruday and would like to get to town on some very unique never done before pics.

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:26:56 PM EDT

[#5]

WHERE ARE THE IN-FLIGHT BULLETS?

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:28:39 PM EDT

[#6]

Very cool...

Got some more?

Posted: 5/19/2005 1:30:51 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Take a picture of a piece of Bxxxd exiting a toaster!!!!

I can't wait to see this one . . .

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:02:29 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
I have an entire folder on my computer with high-speed photos.

post the good ones here. I'd like to see them!

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:06:34 PM EDT

[#9]

Hey I have that knife. Kershaw rocks. Nice pics BTW

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:09:55 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

Basically the whole principle is this. You have a camera in a dark room with the shutter open. You have a flash unit from a camera, and you have some sort of triggering mechanism, a balloon in one hand and a knife in the other...

"hey, watch this! somebody hold my beer!..."

(cool pix)

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:42:45 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Quoted:
I have an entire folder on my computer with high-speed photos.

post the good ones here. I'd like to see them!

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:47:47 PM EDT

[#12]

cool!

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:10:25 PM EDT

[#13]

The coolest high speed photos on the planet are those of nuke weapons in mid-detonation.

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:11:23 PM EDT

[#14]

Nice!

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:14:45 PM EDT

[#15]

Use an ultra violet lighting and take picture of a toilet flushing with the lid up. you won't believe how much vapor is floating around . Kinda sick

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:20:06 PM EDT

[#16]

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:22:20 PM EDT

[#17]

cool!

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:35:33 PM EDT

[#18]

Posted: 5/19/2005 5:58:34 PM EDT

[#19]

There was a National Geographic a few years back on a guy named
Doc Edgarton

He did a lot of cool high speed shots in that spread. A bullet slicing through a playing card. A similar water ballon deal. A person kicking a football. A droplet of milk hitting a red pan (makes a 'crown'). Two streams of water intersecting. A bullet hitting a flame on a candle.

Not sure if he did the one of a tennis racket striking a tennis ball.

Posted: 5/19/2005 6:46:25 PM EDT

[#20]

Shoot, I thought I would be the first one to mention Harold Edgerton. He got his start by playing around like this, then did sequence shots of motion, and then hit the big time shooting nuclear detonations.

He went on to found a little company named E G & G

Edited to add: More history here.

Posted: 5/19/2005 6:59:11 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
There was a National Geographic a few years back on a guy named
Doc Edgarton

He did a lot of cool high speed shots in that spread. A bullet slicing through a playing card. A similar water ballon deal. A person kicking a football. A droplet of milk hitting a red pan (makes a 'crown'). Two streams of water intersecting. A bullet hitting a flame on a candle.

Actually, Harold "Doc" Edgerton invented the strobe light that made this photography possible. He took some really interesting pictures.

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:05:16 PM EDT

[#22]

it probably a dupe, but it is still pretty interesting.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/zaq12wsx/untitled.bmp

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:20:21 PM EDT

[#23]

Well, my host is apparantly dead.

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:22:32 PM EDT

[#24]

Where do you get such a device?

Off to google ...

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:25:59 PM EDT

[#25]

www.stereoscopy.com/faq/stopaction.html

Do it yourself ... I want to buy one ... still looking.

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:32:27 PM EDT

[#26]

Nice pics. And you're very "brave" to be swinging a sharp knife at your hand in the dark!

Oh yeah and tag for more great photos.

-yj

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:40:30 PM EDT

[#27]

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:45:40 PM EDT

[#28]

Question. What sort of camera allows you to leave the shutter in the open position so you can do things like this? That stuff is fascinating, but I don't believe my digital is up to the task :/

Posted: 5/19/2005 7:59:17 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
www.stereoscopy.com/faq/stopaction.html

Do it yourself ... I want to buy one ... still looking.

Basically your standard flash discharges when a short circuit is introduced across the terminals of the flash unit. So you have something like an scr an amplifier and a microphone. The microphone picks up the sound which is amplified by the amp, which gates to the scr to set off a flash unit. There are a number of different types of sound triggers. Piezo style ones work well for collisions and loud impulse type noises, like pops,claps, etc. Photogate basically uses a phototransistor and a led (both infrared). Kits and schematics are available at www.hiviz.com/ They sell components and bread board kits. You need a really sensitive SCR for something like the piezo or photogate. The SCR/AMP/Mic doesnt require as sensitive scr.

They also sell delay units.

Each kit with breadboard is like 12 dollars. Which is pretty good considsering commercial triggers are hundreds-thousands of dollars and not much better. With the delay circuit on there you can set delays in magnitudes on the order of 10^-4 or .2 milliseconds all the way up to .5 seconds.

On an interesting note we are going to use this to capture the motion of a vibrating guitar string. It vibrates at 440 hz from f=1/T we know that this means it has a period of 1/440. Dividing by 11 means that we can get 11 different shots in 1 period of the wave. Pretty spiffy. Of course calibrating it might be a pain in the ass.

edited to add: Here are schematics if you have the right components www.hiviz.com/tools/triggers/triggers1.htm

Posted: 5/19/2005 8:18:12 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:
www.stereoscopy.com/faq/stopaction.html

Do it yourself ... I want to buy one ... still looking.

Basically your standard flash discharges when a short circuit is introduced across the terminals of the flash unit. So you have something like an scr an amplifier and a microphone. The microphone picks up the sound which is amplified by the amp, which gates to the scr to set off a flash unit. There are a number of different types of sound triggers. Piezo style ones work well for collisions and loud impulse type noises, like pops,claps, etc. Photogate basically uses a phototransistor and a led (both infrared). Kits and schematics are available at www.hiviz.com/ They sell components and bread board kits. You need a really sensitive SCR for something like the piezo or photogate. The SCR/AMP/Mic doesnt require as sensitive scr.

They also sell delay units.

Each kit with breadboard is like 12 dollars. Which is pretty good considsering commercial triggers are hundreds-thousands of dollars and not much better. With the delay circuit on there you can set delays in magnitudes on the order of 10^-4 or .2 milliseconds all the way up to .5 seconds.

On an interesting note we are going to use this to capture the motion of a vibrating guitar string. It vibrates at 440 hz from f=1/T we know that this means it has a period of 1/440. Dividing by 11 means that we can get 11 different shots in 1 period of the wave. Pretty spiffy. Of course calibrating it might be a pain in the ass.

edited to add: Here are schematics if you have the right components www.hiviz.com/tools/triggers/triggers1.htm

Cool link. I might even scrap my design for one and just build one of those instead. Of course, mine was overkill, since I was looking at my collection of microcontrollers and LCD modules when i started designing it.

Posted: 5/19/2005 8:52:12 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
www.stereoscopy.com/faq/stopaction.html

Do it yourself ... I want to buy one ... still looking.

Basically your standard flash discharges when a short circuit is introduced across the terminals of the flash unit. So you have something like an scr an amplifier and a microphone. The microphone picks up the sound which is amplified by the amp, which gates to the scr to set off a flash unit. There are a number of different types of sound triggers. Piezo style ones work well for collisions and loud impulse type noises, like pops,claps, etc. Photogate basically uses a phototransistor and a led (both infrared). Kits and schematics are available at www.hiviz.com/ They sell components and bread board kits. You need a really sensitive SCR for something like the piezo or photogate. The SCR/AMP/Mic doesnt require as sensitive scr.

They also sell delay units.

Each kit with breadboard is like 12 dollars. Which is pretty good considsering commercial triggers are hundreds-thousands of dollars and not much better. With the delay circuit on there you can set delays in magnitudes on the order of 10^-4 or .2 milliseconds all the way up to .5 seconds.

On an interesting note we are going to use this to capture the motion of a vibrating guitar string. It vibrates at 440 hz from f=1/T we know that this means it has a period of 1/440. Dividing by 11 means that we can get 11 different shots in 1 period of the wave. Pretty spiffy. Of course calibrating it might be a pain in the ass.

edited to add: Here are schematics if you have the right components www.hiviz.com/tools/triggers/triggers1.htm

Cool link. I might even scrap my design for one and just build one of those instead. Of course, mine was overkill, since I was looking at my collection of microcontrollers and LCD modules when i started designing it.

I'm interested. Can I see your design?

Posted: 5/19/2005 9:22:15 PM EDT

[#32]

About 30 yrs ago I took several B&W pictures of projos exiting the barrels of 105mm Howitzers, usually catching it about 4-5 feet out the tube frozen in mid air with the smoke billowing around them. Been a long time since I've done any other photography.

Posted: 5/19/2005 9:22:49 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
About 30 yrs ago I took several B&W pictures of projos exiting the barrels of 105mm Howitzers, usually catching it about 4-5 feet out the tube frozen in mid air with the smoke billowing around them. Been a long time since I've done any other photography.

Method?

Posted: 5/19/2005 9:27:47 PM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
www.stereoscopy.com/faq/stopaction.html

Do it yourself ... I want to buy one ... still looking.

Basically your standard flash discharges when a short circuit is introduced across the terminals of the flash unit. So you have something like an scr an amplifier and a microphone. The microphone picks up the sound which is amplified by the amp, which gates to the scr to set off a flash unit. There are a number of different types of sound triggers. Piezo style ones work well for collisions and loud impulse type noises, like pops,claps, etc. Photogate basically uses a phototransistor and a led (both infrared). Kits and schematics are available at www.hiviz.com/ They sell components and bread board kits. You need a really sensitive SCR for something like the piezo or photogate. The SCR/AMP/Mic doesnt require as sensitive scr.

They also sell delay units.

Each kit with breadboard is like 12 dollars. Which is pretty good considsering commercial triggers are hundreds-thousands of dollars and not much better. With the delay circuit on there you can set delays in magnitudes on the order of 10^-4 or .2 milliseconds all the way up to .5 seconds.

On an interesting note we are going to use this to capture the motion of a vibrating guitar string. It vibrates at 440 hz from f=1/T we know that this means it has a period of 1/440. Dividing by 11 means that we can get 11 different shots in 1 period of the wave. Pretty spiffy. Of course calibrating it might be a pain in the ass.

edited to add: Here are schematics if you have the right components www.hiviz.com/tools/triggers/triggers1.htm

Cool link. I might even scrap my design for one and just build one of those instead. Of course, mine was overkill, since I was looking at my collection of microcontrollers and LCD modules when i started designing it.

I'm interested. Can I see your design?

It was basically the schematic from the first link, using a digital pot controlled by an 8051. LCD was going to have a simple "level" readout so I would have a method of setting the threshold back to various points for different trigger noises. I think I fried the digital pot I was playing with, so it never progressed beyond bits and pieces of test code and breadboarded portions of the circuit.

Edit: First link being the one to stereoscopy.com

Posted: 5/19/2005 9:28:04 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
Quoted:
About 30 yrs ago I took several B&W pictures of projos exiting the barrels of 105mm Howitzers, usually catching it about 4-5 feet out the tube frozen in mid air with the smoke billowing around them. Been a long time since I've done any other photography.

Method?

------------------------
It was hit or miss using high speed film and 1/1000th shutter speed and watching the gunner as he pulled the lanyard on the gun.

Edit: Used tripod and syringe type shutter release.