Speed Photography 101

[rt80639]

I entered this subject in the contest, but I wanted to add a bit more detail.

Speed Photography is the art of capturing extremely fast motion at that perfect instant, like this picture of a water balloon shortly after a bullet has passed through it:



Two myths about this shot:
1. Fast shutter speed
2. Thousands of dollars in camera equipment

Fast shutter speed is FALSE. The Flash Duration plays a much bigger role than shutter speed. The shutter speed on that shot was actually 5 seconds. The flash duration was about 1/15,000 second, much faster than most DSLRs can do. To set the flash duration, you simply lower the power setting of your flash. For example, the Canon 580exII has a flash duration of about 1/1000 second at full power, but only 1/30000 second at 1/64 power.

The other myth is also false; it does not cost thousands of dollars to do this. For these shoots you need:

1. Tripod
2. Camera
3. External Flash Unit
4. Flash Trigger (explained below).

If you don't have an external flash unit, I'd highly recommend one! I personally prefer the Canon speedlights because I have Canon Xsi, but some other brands like Promaster and Vivitar will work just as well.

What is a flash trigger? A flash trigger is a device that senses an external input (like sound or light) and fires the flash. There are several different types of flash triggers, two of which are sound and light (aka infrared).

Sound triggers use a microphone, and trigger the flash when a certain sound level is reached. These are most commonly used for popping balloons or firing a gun (the photo above was triggered when the gun fired).

Light, or infrared, triggers use a small beam of infrared light. When that beam is broken, the trigger fires the flash. These are commonly used for water drops, like the photo shown below.


Both the sound and light triggers usually have a time delay circuit associated with them as well. This allows the photographer to adjust the timing of the flash based on the event. For instance, the water drop picture above used a time delay to capture the exact moment the water hit the apple.

Where can you get a flash trigger? If you or someone you know is good with electronics, Hiviz (www.hiviz.com) sells flash triggers for as low as $7, and will add the delay circuit for an additional $6. It comes with a catch: you have to build it.

You can also buy flash triggers from Universal Photo Timer (http://www.universaltimer.com/home.html), but they cost substantially more. There are also several other suppliers and DIYers out there.

Now that we know all of what's involved, let's talk about the actual photo shoot. Let's say we wanted to spray down a balloon with water and see what it looks like the moment we pop it. Here's what we'd do:

1. Set up your flash near the balloon and set it to a low manual setting (I usually start at the lowest setting and work my way up)
2. Set your camera to a 5s shutter speed and f8.0.
3. Turn off or dim the lights (A dark room is essential. You only want your camera to pick up what the flash illuminates.)
4. Open the camera shutter.
5. Pop the balloon.
6. Once the shutter closes, turn the lights back on.
7. Check the photo. Too dark? Turn up the flash power or adjust your f-stop.

Tip: Don't use black balloons with a black backdrop.



Feel free to post any comments or questions.

[archersdad]

Very cool. I'm going to have to try this out.

[mrsifuentes]

awesome tutorial! thank you for sharing. always wanted to learn how to pull these kinds of shots.

[JerInTheBox]

This is an excellent tutorial, I hope it makes the front page because it's got lots of useful info, especially the links for the light and sound triggers. Can you explain why you wouldn't want to use black balloons? I watched a video on Chase Jarvis's site of him using this technique and they used black balloons with pretty nice results.

[rt80639]

Originally Posted by JerInTheBox

This is an excellent tutorial, I hope it makes the front page because it's got lots of useful info, especially the links for the light and sound triggers. Can you explain why you wouldn't want to use black balloons? I watched a video on Chase Jarvis's site of him using this technique and they used black balloons with pretty nice results.

Thanks!

Black balloons are actually okay, depending on what you are going for. The black balloons tend to blend with the background, which can be good or bad. If you don't want to see the balloon, black is the way to go.

On the picture where I popped the water-covered balloon, the balloon would probably have still been visible which might have made for a more interesting shot. In fact, I only use colored balloons in my balloon shots now, just to add a little color

Btw, eggs are fun to shoot too

[nsaplayer]

I am curious about the sounds trigger... how much is enough to trigger it? I saw that you shoot some sort of pellet gun, and that makes the sound that triggers the flash..

I also assume that an air filled balloon pop will trigger the flash, but does a water balloon make enough noise when you pop it with a pin?

I am trying to figure out how to trigger the device without having to get some sort of gun, lol.

Thanks!

[rt80639]

The amount of sound required to fire the trigger depends on the trigger you get

The Hiviz sound trigger is cheap, but kinda crappy. It uses a piezo buzzer as a microphone, and isn't very sensitive. Snapping fingers, clapping hands, and firing a gun will set it off, but talking loudly or yelling won't. So popping a water balloon usually will not set it off.

Also, there's no latch to the circuit, so multiple loud sounds could trigger the flash more than once. For instance, a friend and I were firing paintballs at a piece of plywood, trying to capture the impact. Several times the trigger fired on the sound of the gun firing and the impact of the paintball on the plywood (only microseconds apart).

I'm an engineer by trade, so I'm working to tweak the sound trigger and make it work a little better. First off, I'm getting rid of the piezo buzzer and replacing it with a more sensitive microphone...which requires you to change out a couple of the resistors in the circuit. The second part (and most difficult), is trying to integrate a digital display into the circuit...I'm still working on that, but hope to have something built in the next few weeks. When I have a good design, I'll probably post the design on my blog.

[Ochman]

Very good and detailed steps, thanks!
One question though; you said Shutter @5s, Aperture @f8 - how/where do you set the focus?

thanks again.

[Silverz]

Originally Posted by Ochman

Very good and detailed steps, thanks!
One question though; you said Shutter @5s, Aperture @f8 - how/where do you set the focus?

thanks again.

I would guess you manually set it to focus on the baloon and with f8 all will be in focus

[PhotoJunkieJen]

This is awesome!! I've always wondered how to do these kinds of shots.

One question that I think someone mentioned earlier... is there any way to get these results without using bullets/guns?