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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
The Crayon Shot
Ric Tapia, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Los Angeles | CA | USA | Posted: 8:58 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> Due to the emails I received I wanted to post information about my contest photo. First, thank you to the ss.com gods for selecting my photo for the front page today.
www.sportsshooter.com/rtapia
“With high speed photography there is always a lot of waiting.” –Rand Molar, Brooks Institute
The Crayons were shot with a bolt-action rifle with Stinger .22 LR @ 1640 feet per second bullets. The rifle is bolted to a steel table and the table is also bolted to the ground. The crayons are about 2 and 1/2 ft away from the rifle. You will need to know the exact distance for the delay. For the triggering of the flash unit I used the “Time Machine” (http://www.bmumford.com/photo/camctlr.html) with a custom motion trigger; Sound and laser triggers will also work.
The flash unit that I used was a “Homebrew Flash Lamp.” The light has 18,000 volts and discharges the capacitor at faster than 1/10,000,000 of a second! The light has a blue shift, I color balanced the light @ 15,000 Kelvin in Photoshop.
I arranged the crayon and made sure they were lined up so the bullet would hit all of them. The camera was put on a tripod pointed at the crayons, a Canon 5D with a Canon 70-200 f/4. Then I preset the focus and turned off the auto focus and set the camera to the above settings. I used a cable release so I could be in a safer area off to the side. The light was camera left and up, pointed at the crayons. Then we tested the motion trigger and set up the time machine with the calculated delay (about 0.001520 of a second).
With the help of my fellow classmates we started to shoot, literally. Safety First, Eye protection and hearing protection is a must. Once the shooter is in place and ready all the lights go off so I have a pitch black, dark room. The shooter counts down. 3, 2, 1; at 2 I open the shutter to allow the light of the flash to expose the censor. Then at 1 the rifle is fired. Once the flash goes off I release the shutter to go back. This way in a dark room the only exposure that the censor sees is the flash that freezes the action. It is not the camera it is the flash!
Basically a dark room with a high flash duration is how to do high speed photography.
If you have any questions please ask. |
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Mike Strasinger, Photographer
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Nashville | TN | USA | Posted: 9:13 PM on 10.01.08 |
| ->> What did the crayons do to deserve this ? |
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Josh Lehrer, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 9:21 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> Lot's of great examples of this technique by one of the pioneers, Andy Davidhazy, professor here at RIT...
http://people.rit.edu/andpph/
Enjoy.
JL |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 9:45 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> the hell with the crayons, you should see what he did to a poor defenseless penguin!!! 8)
(before you "huh" addicts out there fire off a "huh" go to ric's member page) |
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Wes Hope, Photographer
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Maryville | TN | USA | Posted: 10:08 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> re: the Penguin.
"Back, and to the left."
"Back, and to the left."
"Back, and to the left."
Thanks Ric for the story behind the scenes. Cool stuff. High speed has always fascinated me, but I've never played with it. |
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Christopher Szagola, Photographer
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Richboro | PA | United States | Posted: 10:10 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> I remember that class, it was a fun assignment.
Rand is the best!!! |
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George Bridges, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | USA | Posted: 10:11 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> Chuck,
The penguin probably posted here that he agreed with you and therefore deserved it. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 10:30 PM on 10.01.08 |
| ->> ouch! |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 10:58 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> Josh,
You go to the original inventor, Dr. Harold Edgerton of MIT. He invented the "modern" electronic strobe and caught bullets in flight.
Go here: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/edgerton.html
The guy was literally light years ahead of us.
As for the penguin, it bore a startling resemblance to Mr. Liddy .. I was concerned ;) |
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Garrett Hubbard, Photographer
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Washington | D.C. | USA | Posted: 11:12 PM on 10.01.08 |
->> Ric,
Nice work amigo! too cool. I wish I had taken the "shooting-stuff" class while I was at Brooks. |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 12:12 AM on 10.02.08 |
->> High speed trigger stuff is fun! Here's one I did awhile ago, using a laser trigger:
http://www.daveharpe.com/commercial/stock/dice_20050220_0001.jpg
Similar setup...laser trigger above the tank, delay calculated for the fall, black everything out and use strobes set to MINIMUM power (to get a shorter duration). This setup used two SB-800's in manual mode, each at somewhere between 1/64th and 1/128th power.
Cool stuff Ric! I wish I had a place around here where I could shoot a gun indoors in a studio setup... :-) |
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Myung Chun, Photographer
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Los Angeles | CA | USA | Posted: 2:10 AM on 10.02.08 |
| ->> Ric, you can trade that rifle in for a camera. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 4:08 AM on 10.02.08 |
->> What kind of room were you in? the local rifle range? something to reinforce the wall for the bullet?
I think it would be an important detail so no one tries this in there apartment or bedroom at home.
lots of people read the boards, you never know who is reading and might want to try this shot. |
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Alan Stewart, Photographer
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Corydon | IN | USA | Posted: 8:31 AM on 10.02.08 |
->> Awesome photo.
I'd like to know how many tries it took to get the shot you wanted. |
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Christopher Szagola, Photographer
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Richboro | PA | United States | Posted: 8:45 AM on 10.02.08 |
| ->> Louis, it's a room in on one of the Brooks' Campus, Montecito. It was set up for taking this style of images. From what I remember, the rifle is bolted to the table and is behind a heavy duty tarp. It passes though the work area, which is cleared of people prior to anyone going back to the riffle, I forget what the bullets hit , but it's a simple set up. Just need a test or two to get the bullet in sync with the flash pop. |
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Ric Tapia, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Los Angeles | CA | USA | Posted: 1:01 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> Louis,
Great Point. I didnt think that anyone would try it because most people dont have a time machine let alone the Flash unit.
The Photo was taken in a room in a basement. The room is not that big, and at the end of the "range" is a tube that the bullets go through and and stay there so there are less of a chance of a bullet hitting something else.
As for the peniguin...lets just say he lost a bet.
Thank you for everyone sending me emails and the kind words. |
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Jesse Hutcheson, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Newport News | va | United States | Posted: 1:13 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> Nice shot Ric!
First thing I thought of when I saw it was Edgerton. I saw a show of his work a few years ago....amazing what he was able to do with a strobe. |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 2:12 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> I met Harold Edgerton when I was a kid. My grandfather and he were in the Army Air Corps in WWII and flew photo recon missions together over Germany. I very well may have been his cool shots that started me on this bumpy road!
Very cool shot Rick, could you explain the flash lamp a little more?? Also, what did the bullets fire into? |
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Eric Isaacs, Photographer
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 3:22 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> Amazing shots, Ric! I am curious about the playing card shot - how was it suspended and how long did it take to get the alignment right on that one?
EMI |
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Jim Owens, Photographer
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Cincinnati | OH | usa | Posted: 4:53 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> "What did the crayons do to deserve this ?"
They made an off color remark on SportsShooter.
Ha ! I beat Walt to the punch line !
Ha! |
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Ric Tapia, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Los Angeles | CA | USA | Posted: 6:06 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> Eric,
Sorry, that is a trade secret. |
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Joe Morahan, Photographer
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Los Angeles | Ca | USA | Posted: 6:17 PM on 10.02.08 |
->> Eric,
This is what these shots look like before the photoshop step. So this is a raw image no photoshop
http://www.sportsshooter.com/morahan/highspeed/pages/1.html
oh ya...You look through the barrel of the rifle to get it on target...It only takes a few minutes to get it straight on-
Joe |
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