High Speed Photos- How To

rallysman · Dec 25, 2009

Recently I shared a few of my pictures and the high speed photo seemed to be a big hit so I'll share a few more and explain how I did it.

First, the method I used does not involve high shutter speeds or frame rates. I use the short amount of time that a flash is "on" which only exposes what's happening during that burst of light. The room is basically dark, or dim enough that it would take a while to make an exposure.

Here's a drunken explanation of the basics:

The actual circuit that controls the flash was built based off of this one:

(with a few minor adjustments)

Here's a picture of the complete, sloppy, circuit:

I attach the output of that to my SB-600 which is typically completely separate from the camera. The picture sequence is as follows:

1: open shutter (I use 1-2 seconds)
2: make noise (gun, splash, whatever) and flash fires almost simultaneously
3:shutter closes

To avoid boring you with the details, that's a very quick rundown of how I make this work. Please feel free to ask questions or suggest improvements.

Now, here are some results

Thanks for looking!

I'm still trying to get the technical side down so the composure may be lacking. It sure is fun as hell to do though...talk about some stress relief!

Jankster · Dec 25, 2009

very cool!!!

fokker · Dec 25, 2009

Awesome, I've been meaning to put my degree in electrical engineering to use and make a circuit like this for a while! Cool pictures too, I'm sure after a bit more playing you'll be able to produce some very impressive shots.