How to stop a bullet?

[cgipson1]

Shutter speed has nothing to do with it. Even at 1/8,000 you wouldn't have any luck at all. It's all about the light.

I have tried with normal speedlights..... Nikon B-600, SB-25, SB-28 etc, and none of them, even at their lowers power settings (shortest flash duration) are fast enough to even begin to capture a bullet in flight. That would translate to about 1/30,000th of a second burst of light.

I've circled the bullet here......

This was with a sub sonic .22 out of a handgun. The bullet speed on this was less than 500fps. If you are shooting anything of a harder caliber than that, it will be moving MUCH faster. .45 will be 800-900fps, 9mm will be moving 1,000fps or so etc. If ou get into rifle country, a pill from a .30-06 will be moving close to 3,000fps.... so you can see the issue here.

Unless you have absolutely no ambient light, and a flash capable of over 1/100,000th of a second burst of light ($3,500+ microflash), I say you don't stand a chance. Sorry!

You just said shutter speed has nothing to do with it, and then said that you would need a speedlight with 1/30,000 burst speed to capture it... Which would still require a shutter fast enough to capture it.

So, please elaborate how shutter has nothing to do with it?

Shutter speed only has to be wide enough to capture the burst of light... and sync with it. You may have notice that max sync speed on good bodies is at 1/250? (unless you go into High Speed Sync). If you shutter is open for 1/100, and the flash with a 1/30,000 duration goes off somewhere in the 1/100 of a second, you caught the flash. Get it? Shutter speed will capture Ambient light... so you can control ambient exposure and backgounds with shutter speed. For high speed photography, you want to minimize any ambient light exposure, as it will cause blur

Aperture is more important when using flash.. it determines how much flash hits the sensor!

EDIT: hahaha.. should have read further down.. already been said! I was hoping Strad would see this thread, since he has been playing with high speed photography lately.

 

[MLeeK]

Kevlar.



I am just interested in seeing what you come up with as you are experimenting!

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Kevlar.

I am just interested in seeing what you come up with as you are experimenting!

Best answer ever.

 

[MLeeK]

I couldn't believe that someone hadn't already said it!

 

[table1349]

Bullet Photography At Home | DIYPhotography.net

 

[Steve5D]

My first thought upon seeing the thread title was "with the body of someone you don't like".

Question for Strad: The explanation you gave made sense. How do you fire the flash, though, to ensure that you're firing it at the point-of-impact?

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Not possible without gear to sync the camera and flash to the trigger pull.

Your typical 9mm round exits the barrel at around 1200 ft/second. Even with the very best of luck, you're only going to get a very blurry bullet and completely uninspiring composition.

Now if you just want to catch some cool muzzle flash, that's fairly easy...

 

[Stradawhovious]

Question for Strad: The explanation you gave made sense. How do you fire the flash, though, to ensure that you're firing it at the point-of-impact?

Sound trigger. Takes some trial and errror to figure out, but they're hella fun.

 

[Steve5D]

Not possible without gear to sync the camera and flash to the trigger pull.

Your typical 9mm round exits the barrel at around 1200 ft/second. Even with the very best of luck, you're only going to get a very blurry bullet and completely uninspiring composition.

Now if you just want to catch some cool muzzle flash, that's fairly easy...

I was actually asking in regards to, say, the photos of the eggs shattering. They're not going to be shattering and expanding at 1,200 pfs.

I'm gonna' have to look into these sound trigger things. They sound like they could lend themselves to some fun...

 

[table1349]

That's why I like the Camera Axe 5 I posted the link too. Multi-trigger device that you can purchase built or build from a kit yourself and save money.

 

[revenater]

May not have stop a bullet but I consider the day a success. I had a blast shooting both my camera and my pistol and I got this great shot of my husband's pistol.

 

[Stradawhovious]

May not have stop a bullet but I consider the day a success. I had a blast shooting both my camera and my pistol and I got this great shot of my husband's pistol.
View attachment 16649

Nice! Glad you had fun, and glad you brought your camera!

 

[Animaniac888]

At least you managed to stop the shell.

 

[revenater]

Yes and that works for me. Since its impossible to stop the bullet I will settle for the casing.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Yes and that works for me. Since its impossible to stop the bullet I will settle for the casing.

Not impossible. Just interestingly improbable without the right tools.