High speed photography
You may never have heard of Harold Edgerton, but we’re willing to bet that you know one of his most famous photos - the Bullet through the Apple.
Taken in 1964, it became a very famous image , not least because it was such an unusual photo based on a great achievement in high speed photography.
What you may not know, however, is that you can do a lot of high-speed photography stuff yourself, and much of it can be done on a tight budget, too!
One of the key figures in high-speed photography is Andrew Davidhazy, who has created what passes for a bible on high-speed photography. It is very thorough and rather complete work, but it’s also a bit on the dry side.
A much friendlier, and more hands-on approach is offered by Hi Viz, who have written a guide for teachers and students here. Apart from being rather complete and offering a lot of good tips on the process of high speed photos, their articles on how to create high-speed triggers is extremely useful.
Another great guide goes into a higher level of geek-ness, by involving computers in the timing and controlling of the shutters. This guide by Ian and Robert has the additional benefit of being made at my old university (Liverpool John Moores, if you are curious, although I wouldn’t suggest you study journalism there (or any other uni)), and contains a good introduction, a facinating gallery, and a good links section for further reading, too.
For more inspiration, check out the high-speed galleries on Flickr, or the alternative introduction on Wikipedia.
Enjoy, good luck, and if you capture any particularly hot photos - remember to leave a comment with a link!
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This entry is © Haje Jan Kamps / Photocritic.org, and was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
#1 - April 4th, 2006 at 16:04
really quite funny my friend mentioned that photo to me today (because its my icon on msn messenger… and she was saying he stole the idea from some fella called nick bantock, so i came back with the classical…
‘harold edgerton invented the electronic flash, he pioneered SO many elements of modern photography’
her: ‘ok so nick bantock stole the idea off of harold edgerton’
:) high speed photography is a refreshingly bright angle on the world around us.
#2 - January 23rd, 2007 at 20:22
Something which I feel is brilliant, I love high speed photography. I’d love to see more stuff like this!
#3 - August 6th, 2007 at 08:57
now i know exactly how to diss that materialistic wannabe buddhist that think shes knows everythign on Photogrpahy and Art please she’s such a pathetic human it’s sad. THANK YOU GUYS! I NEEDED Harold Edgerton’s name and now i gots it. thank u so much