First attempt at high speed flash photography

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Name
Steve
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Hi all,

I've wanted to try high speed photography for a while. I'm hoping someone could help advise me as to how I can get my background totally black. I imagine if I could get the background far away, it would help but my problem is this was taken over the bath and as such the wall was only 30 cm's behind the balloon. I lit the shot with a single undifused flash to the left of shot. I could have used a softbox but needed the run the flash at 1/128th and it was eating too many stops of power.

Is it possible to maybe use a snoot and grid? I think that's what they are called, to point the light just at the balloon or will I still need the background further away for fall off not to hit it?

Maybe in the garage next time as I have walls further back from where I would have to shoot.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Regards,
Steve

Bang! by Steve Babb, on Flickr
 
Thanks Frank, how did you light it and how did you burst them? Looks like some sort of projectile?
 
Awsome shot. I plan on doing something similar this week. I'm loving the triggertrap.
 
OK, got a bit more time now. Here's a few from my flickr page to whet your appetite.

Now to make an omelette! by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

One hundred and eighteeeeeeee by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

Trying to stay dry....(1) by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

More mess(3) by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

How was it done? It takes a bit of setting up, and is better if there are two of you.

Done in the garage which can be messed about and made completely dark.
Balloons, eggs, small mixer cans of pop, plastic champagne flutes filled with coloured pop...you are limited only by your imagination.
Camera set to manual. 2 secs. Iso 800. f8. All settings are changeable to suit conditions. You are better with a 70-200 lens so that you can shoot from far enough away to avoid getting gunge on your gear.
Focus with the lights on, then switch to manual focus and switch the lights out.
Pray that the man with the air pistol can shoot straight!!!
You need a long exposure, because in the dark the camera records nothing.
The balloons are burst by an airgun pellet. The sound of the gun firing is picked up by a microphone attached to a trigger from these people:-

www.versatrigger.co.uk

Not very expensive, and a bit basic but it does the job just fine.
I then connected two lights to the outputs (Ask him for a second cable!) with flash units set at 1/128power.
When the flash goes the camera records what is visible.
Needs a bit of practice to get the timings and delay right: we practiced on wafer biscuits as they are cheap and we could eat the unused ones with our coffee!
Then you see why two of you are better...one is by the camera triggering the shutter and the other is down the far end of the garage with the air pistol. You can do it by yourself, but it's much harder, and it is so much of a hoot if there are two or three of you.
Cans of pop are better if you keep them in hot water until you need them - then shake vigorously and they will rip the cans apart.
The eggs are done with the flash set to multi flash to capture the movement. If you look closely at the egg picture you can see the actual pellet used.

If you are anywhere near NW England we could fix a meet, if you know somewhere that can be made totally dark.
We had a day in early November. 5 of us were at it from 9AM till 4PM. Haven't laughed so much for years.


Messing with Mike24 by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

Making a mess by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

Edit...there will undoubtedly be other ways of doing this. I'm no expert but this works for me.
Others will be along shortly to tell me I'm completely wrong!!!
 
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