13 High Speed Photography Images
SPLASH! BANG! WHIZ! CRASH! Today we present 13 high speed photography images for your viewing pleasure.
I’ve you’ve got some of your own – stop by our forum and share some of your shots there.
We’ve included a few high speed photography books on the topic at the end of this post.
Don’t miss out on future posts like this at DPS – become a DPS follower here
Learn How to Do it with these 5 High Speed Photography Books
- “In the Blink of an Eye: The World as You’ve Never Seen It” (John Brackenbury)
- “Split Second: The World of High Speed Photography” (Stephen Dalton)
- “High Speed Photography and Photonics (SPIE Press Monograph Vol. PM120)” (SPIE Publications)
- “Caught in Motion, High-Speed Nature Photography” (Stephen Dalton)
- “Stopping Time: The Photographs of Harold Edgerton” (Gus Kayafas, Estelle Jussim)
92 Responses to “13 High Speed Photography Images” - Add Yours
September 4th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
This has always fascinated me.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
amazing.. images
September 4th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
WOW , haven’t seen such pictures for long time. Great collection!
~LC
Btw I am buying Canon EOS 50D soon!
September 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
This is really amazing…thanks for the post
http://www.dialac1.deviantart.com
September 4th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Some beautiful photos there, but should it really be called “high speed photography”? Maybe “stop motion”, or something similar would be more fitting.
The photo of the pomegranate was taken at 1/200s and the boy and the shaver were 1/60s! Not exactly break-neck speeds in digital photography.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Fascinating stuff! I’ve always wanted to try this out – but I don’t think my current camera can cut it.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Or maybe “high speed photography” is exactly the same a freeze motion regardless of the shutter speed… how misleading! Not your fault DPS, you didn’t make up the term
September 4th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
just magnificent! love them all.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Here are a couple of flying birds that my brother took in our garden…
http://www.mattbl.com/2006/03/blue-tit-in-flight/
http://www.mattbl.com/2006/03/robin-in-flight/
September 5th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Just like macro photography, top action photography shows us stuff we normally don’t see everyday. It’s always amazing.
I like all the images except the beer exploding. That is just wrong
Rosh
New Media Photographer
September 5th, 2008 at 12:04 am
These are a few classical examples — splashing water caught at high shutter speed, plus cans, egg, apple, etc. pierced by some bullet or similar stuff.
With some exceptions, I found those pictures rather repetitive and boring. The last one was kind of neat, though.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:30 am
These are all great shots. High Speed is relative.
The second balloon one and the hummer are my favs.
Pete
http://www.petelanglois.net
September 5th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I’ve always been a big fan of high speed photography. However, with all the talent and expensive equipement involved, why do some many photographers simply shoot bullets through things. The first several hundred of those I saw were interesting.
It’s time to move on. There’s an entire universe out these. Don’t waste your talent and time on bullet shots. No more bullets.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Absolutely brilliant! Thanks
September 5th, 2008 at 1:20 am
AC Says:
“Fascinating stuff! I’ve always wanted to try this out – but I don’t think my current camera can cut it.”
Sure you can… Even a small compact digital camera can do it.. The only thing you need to know is : Darker your room is, Easyer it is to freeze the movement and flash is absolutly necessary
Good luck!! And have fun
Christine
September 5th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I wish they move away from the cliche’ high speed photos of milk/water drops and “stuff being shot with a bullet”.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Amazing shots, all of them!
September 5th, 2008 at 3:09 am
My goodness! Amazing stuff there. Thanks,
Roger
September 5th, 2008 at 3:12 am
I really like the water ones best even the Norelco. The hummingbird is awesome and since they are a miracle of flight engineering it is amazing to see such a photo! My son does lightening photogrpahy and I’m not sure if its similar method or not… link to his site from my blog address.
At any rate I like the crisp clearness of your pics! Awesome.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Wow, stunning photography indeed.
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
September 5th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Great collection of photographs. Thanks!
September 5th, 2008 at 6:03 am
“high speed” photography often depends *not* on a fast shutter speed, but a strobe to freeze the action.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:04 am
WOW! so original! I’ve never seen ANYthing like it! WOW
September 5th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Really coool images! And amazing cameras!
September 5th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Alright for all you who think this is something other than High Speed, you’re wrong. (I’m just correcting) It’s highspeed regardless of the shutter because once the shutter opens the flash lights the shot for an extremely small fraction of a second. (the long shutter is used to be certain the flash will go off during the time it’s open) And “stop motion” is a type of animation technique(Read: claymation), not photography.
Love the apple shot and the kid.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:40 am
The shutter speed setting of the camera does not dictate the length of exposure when you are shooting with studio flash type lighting. The camera is set so that it captures a negligible amount of ambient light during the 1/250 or 1/200 or 1/60th second that the shutter is open. The actual exposure comes from the 1/2000 second or less that the studio flash fires.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Could have at least placed captions on the pictures to describe what each is.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Very interesting. These are great.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:07 am
It just looks like a bunch of drunk guys got together and bought a really expensive camera and started taking turns shooting random junk while the other took pictures….. Sounds like my kind of weekend!
September 5th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Shameless plug here: http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/md/gallery-show?G_ID=G0000HSibPSWld4w
Kristarella – the shutter speed is often irrelevant with high-speed photography. In most cases it the duration of the high-speed lights used to take the photograph. Some of my high-speed images have shutter speeds of 5 seconds, but actually are taken at 1/50,000 of the second.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Thanks for the definition Michael (and everyone else who repeated what he said
).
September 5th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I agree with Sam B – if only there was a caption telling us what each shot (‘scuse the pun) was of. By reading the comments on the yoghurt/bullet shot I was able to find out what was happening. I live in Australia and using guns is only for the defence forces and police so bullets are not something that immediately spring to mind!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
In my state, the Forensic Scientists have purchased $100k worth of photographic equipment to do this, so they can better understand gun-shot wounds.
They practice by shooting dead pigs and watching how the wound erupts from the skin and it’s incredible.
http://www.mindweed.org
September 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Wow, these are awesome.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
These are just about the coolest thing you never did see except for the camera.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Cliche or not. High speed or stop action. These are nice shots. The two balloon pics are my favs. The one with the hole in the side but still holding its shape is a critical timing shot and the other balloon is just wierd. {:-) I have not figured that one out yet. It is wrinkled up on the side and the soft BB right next to it. Is the BB going in and there is a “wind” leading it and that is what is pushing on the balloon or is the BB exiting the balloon and then why the wrinkles?
Thanks, I like them all
Mike
September 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
The egg one is interesting … the exit “wound” is smaller than entry wound. Not what I would have expected
September 5th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Ok who wasted a can of PBR? PARTY FOUL.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
We had a photography assignment to do with high speed photography this weekend, and we got a great shot.
http://snurl.com/3n7lk
Not to bad I don’t think, seeing as we just starting out with photography
September 6th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Hey, cheers for the feature! My photo just got like 2,000 views in the last 24 hours and I was well confused as to where they’d come from. Thanks again, I really appreciate it
September 6th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Also, for all the people saying that you need a really expensive camera to take photos like this, you really don’t. I took mine with just a regular point and shoot..
September 6th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Great photos! I am buying a Canon EOS 50D next week. Going to start my website then. Look forward to the next Ansel Adam, ecerybody!
September 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am
You might dig this Schwepps commercial with high speed exploding water balloons – it’s really beautiful…http://twoifbysee.blogspot.com/2008/03/schweppes-burst-in-slow-motion-ballet.html
September 6th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Marvelous…
http://cutestwallpapers.blogspot.com/
September 6th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I took me a second to realize the one was a balloon!
I always loved the “bullet through the cards” pictures – http://web.mit.edu/Edgerton/6.51s/2003/
September 7th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Great shots – I love high speed photography
September 8th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
The water seems to freeze in the moment that the balloon explodes.
Very well done !
September 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Simply Superb.
We are in Videosurveillance IP cameras business and like such kind of beautiful images.
Can we backlink to you ?
best regards and congratulations.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Amazing! one of a kind. Congratulations!
September 20th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Great images..I really like all the images.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I gotta look in to that. I thought of a couple great things to shoot.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:23 am
Love this stuff. What speed does a dedicated flash fire at? I think I read that if you lower the output you can get a faster exposure? Also what speed does a point and shoot flash freeze at.
Great website!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 am
Noooooooooo!
Not the beer!!!!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 am
Although they are all very nice, I would not consider the hummingbird shot high speed.
The wings are blurred as they are in the hummingbird shots I get, most of which are shot in daylight without a strobe.
Still a great feature, thankZ!
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:18 am
Well I don’t really care what it’s called (I am kinda partial to the name Bob), I think these pictures are great! As it was said by another poster, this kind of photography shows us a world we don’t often get to see.
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
These are great captures! I’ve never tried one of these shots before! I hope to try this type of photography soon. this has inspired me.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Playing with some petrol at an airsoft weekend, please don’t try this at home.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksk/3521658788/in/set-72157617865744649/
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
This was a flash bag going off.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksk/2938252410/in/set-72157607557738087/
October 6th, 2009 at 12:33 am
My best image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silaslenz/3117814276/
October 7th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
good images
October 10th, 2009 at 12:04 am
The third image looks like the BB was bouncing off the balloon. Pretty neat.
May 13th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Airsoft is the name of our game. me and my 3 brothers always play airsoft in closed quarter battles.-~*
May 13th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
amazing..
November 19th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Simply awesome. Defies words.
December 7th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Hi,
Just to let you know I wrote a note on my blog about high speed photography with a link to this page (and more)
http://photographiclizard.blogspot.com
Cheers,
January 18th, 2011 at 7:38 am
Pretty good shots. With a 10-microsecond flash you can capture images like this:
January 21st, 2011 at 6:10 am
I think these are amazing! I was just thinking about wanting to try something like this but didn’t really know where to start. Now I do!
I know that anything can become cliche after awhile but for someone like myself who has never shot anything like this before, it’s definitely fresh and exciting. I’ll have to try something without bullets though!
January 21st, 2011 at 6:13 am
wow, awesome shots! stuff you never get to see!
this is not nearly as good as those but its of a hummingbird mid flight in costa rica
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50432810@N05/5229954117/in/set-72157625397482381/
January 21st, 2011 at 6:33 am
Well these are absolutely lovely but how do they contribution the the mission and purpose of this web site? E.g. to educate. We come her not to see what CAN be done but to learn HOW to do it.
January 21st, 2011 at 6:35 am
So, how does this fall under the rubric of “tutorial”?
January 21st, 2011 at 7:02 am
I only liked the pomegranate in water, child and razor. The rest were just okay.
January 21st, 2011 at 7:21 am
I could look at those kind of pictures all the time – they are amazing!
January 21st, 2011 at 7:22 am
breaking stuff is cool!
I wish I had a location to use live ammo!
http://timsdigitaldarkroom.com/High-Speed-Strobe-Photography/Sound-Trigger-High-Speed/5147741_5iZfF
January 21st, 2011 at 8:53 am
seeing as the chdk program can make my point&shoot take photos of lightning, doing this with relatively strong lighting and really fast shutter shouldnt be a problem.
another assignment to add to the list i guess…
January 21st, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Absolutely awesome shots!
Would you consider the image below a high speed photography?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=154676807916096&set=a.153035784746865.40397.152830668100710
January 22nd, 2011 at 3:51 am
Hey!! Fantastics shots!!!
That’s mine..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bielbc/5212343191/in/set-72157625859068456/
January 22nd, 2011 at 10:28 am
A buddy and I built the sound trigger and photogate from HiViz.com. the directions were very good if you follow them!
our first attempts with the triggers are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/onefaller/sets/72157625631252545/
January 22nd, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Woow , really cool images. This site is so awesome.
I
January 23rd, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Maybe we can do an article on Fast Action Photography Basics for those of us wanting to try this technique out? I don’t really understand how you can capture these shots with a long shutter speed so an explanation of all that plus tips/pointers would be very much appreciated!!
January 24th, 2011 at 7:49 am
High Speed experiments are always impressing, it’s great to be able to see these images! Here are some other cool high speed photo experiments http://www.photographymojo.com/2010/03/exciting-high-speed-photo-experiments/
January 28th, 2011 at 2:49 am
I absolutely love these and have posted several of these on my photo blog and here is my collection on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34311699@N07/collections/72157625704586693/
January 28th, 2011 at 4:42 am
I have an idea for someone if they are looking for fresh notions to feature in a high speed shot or shots.
I once fired a bullet (I don’t recall if it was .22 or 9mm) round through a half full plastic jar of peanut butter (lid on). The result was utterly amazing, and I’ve often thought would have made for a stunning series of high speed photos. When the round entered the jar, the pressure of the shock wave moving through the peanut butter created a totally unexpected effect. I felt sure that the jar would explode, with bits flying everywhere and peanut butter sailing for many feet in all directions. Not so.
When I examined the jar (no camera that day), what I saw was so wild looking I could hardly believe it. Running from the top to the bottom of the jar were a series of about 12 equally spaced vertical splits in the plastic, through which roughly equal portions of peanut butter had been extruded. The pressurized paste ripped the plastic open and rapidly escaped the jar. While you might imagine peanut butter flying everywhere, for many feet in every direction, it didn’t. As soon as it had escaped the jar, it sagged back down around the sides, covering no more than about a 18 to 24 inch diameter circle. The lid was still in place. It looked more like a crazed sculpture than anything else.
I imagine that high speed photography would show that the paste in the jar ballooned the jar for a moment, just before it split down the sides. I suspect that 12 wedges of paste shot out from each of the splits, quickly sagging back down through some combination of cohesion, friction and a possible re-solidifying that can happen when soft solids are suddenly put under high pressure, momentarily liquefy, and then re-solidify just as quickly when the pressure is relieved. I also suspect that, without the lid, the effects would be different and certainly less curious.
So, if someone’s up for an experiment, there’s a free idea.
January 28th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Nice shots!
Here’s the only one I’ve done (at a club meeting demonstration)
January 28th, 2011 at 9:06 am
Wow these are amazing.
I did one of a waterdrop once, it colored drops falling in water which has a pretty cool effect. I had no flash, no remote trigger and no stand (my girlfrield was holding the tube with the colors) but it came out pretty good (IMHO).
http://martinsoler.com/2010/06/20/water-drop-photography/
January 28th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
I am at the dgital phot 101 stage. My question may therefore sound superfluous: What sort of speed are we talking about here?
January 29th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Pam Kennedy – This website will help you understand – http://www.pascalbovet.com/2010/09/highspeed-101-lesson-3/
You may need to read lessons 1 and 2 first to help you get a betterunderstanding.
Here’s 2 of my attempts using Pascal’s described technique.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/momilkman/5356565207/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/momilkman/5336549905/
January 29th, 2011 at 10:51 am
“Doc” Harold Edgerton, the man who created this art form, would be happy to see these photos. He was a kind man and generous with his knowledge.
January 29th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Sooo boring. No story being told. Just trick shots. Great compo, but no heart.
February 18th, 2011 at 4:23 am
You can find a sound trigger for high speed photography below:
http://www.pmgadgets.com/sound.html
February 18th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Breathtaking shots indeed.
I have a Sony Cybershot DSC T70 touch camera with me. I would like to know whether it is possible to take pictures using it, which would be atleast half as good as these pictures.
Keep clicking.
Regards
June 27th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
These pictures can be made with basically any DSLR, as long as the shutter lag is short enough. The only thing you need is a trigger unit and a manual flash. I started a blog about these pictures on http://www.shutter-lag.com.
January 19th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Generally I do not learn post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, quite great article.
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