In the blink of an eye.

September 11, 2007 1:29 PM

Teach me the ways of high speed photography.

I'd like to shoot cool pictures of glasses shattering, things blowing up, and droplets/splashes hanging in mid-air. What are some sanely priced and practical ways of doing this? How special equipment would work best to trigger the lights and shutter to capture split-second events?

Relevant: I'm working with a Canon 400D, and for lenses I have a 16-35 f/2.8, a 50mm f/1.4, and a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS.

posted by mullingitover to media & arts (8 comments total)

Sigh.
"How special equipment would work best to trigger the lights and shutter to capture split-second events?" should read:
"What special equipment would work best to trigger the lights and shutter to capture split-second events?"

My english are getting gooder every day.
posted by mullingitover at 1:47 PM on September 11, 2007

DIY high speed photography
posted by caddis at 1:47 PM on September 11, 2007

I read that as "high speed philosophy" and went "Wha?" for just a second.
posted by mrbill at 2:38 PM on September 11, 2007 [3 favorites]

I read that as "high speed philosophy" and went "Wha?" for just a second.

Hehehe... that made me smile!
posted by ReiToei at 4:00 PM on September 11, 2007

I love metafilter!
I've got a couple idead for a photo class this semester, and one of them required a sound trigger. So I come here and see this post.

So I just ordered one of these -
http://www.hiviz.com/kits/sk2-du.htm

I'll let ya know what I figure out!
posted by fnord at 7:57 PM on September 11, 2007

Check out Make for screeds of projects and details on various ways of doing this.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:21 PM on September 11, 2007

Well, I got the kit in, built it, and it works.
I'm going to do a photoshoot with it next week. I'll post a link to the images.
posted by fnord at 11:51 AM on September 21, 2007

Further update, in case anyone is reading this.
50 balloons, and the sound trigger works. Now the issue is with the flash power. I'm getting access to a studio flash today, so I'll try more tests this weekend.
posted by fnord at 9:54 AM on October 5, 2007