So I figured I would try some water droplet shots, splash pics, call them what you will. These were taken in under an hour, including setup. All handheld, manually focussed, metered and flashed. All flashes set to very short duration. I was holding the droplet dispenser and firing the camera manually too – no automated timing or triggering at all………

The images are ok, but not great. In order for greatness, things need to be set up much more carefully, so events can be controlled, and repeated, with precision timing and placement. Click on an image to enlarge it, then click on the Back button to return to the post.

I have nearly completed all the flash duration and power level measurements I mentioned in a previous blog. I will up them here in a couple of days, and probably put them on my website too.

Feel free to ask questions, comment and/or criticize, and I will feel free to respond or not…..

Several parameters are of interest if a flashgun is to be used in high speed flash applications. First and foremost, is it fast enough? If the flashgun cannot produce a flash duration of 1/10,000th of a second or less, it will not be included in the table. 1/10,000th is what I consider to be the minimum flash duration for anything remotely high speed. Not written in blood, but just a good figure of merit. It will not freeze a hummingbird wing in mid-flap for example – there will be a little blur at the wingtip, but a duration of 1/15,000th will generally be enough to absolutely stop it.

Which brings me on to flash duration – how is it measured, and what does it mean? I will answer that in time on my website, along with how the power of certain flashes is measured. A short duration flash typically does not have a lot of useable power – to wit, the working distance between the flash and the subject must be very small, and lens apertures must be opened up, or ISO increased. There are usually two figures quoted for flash duration – t0.1 and t0.5. Some folks argue that one is always better than the other, but in fact both methods have advantages and disadvantages (flash manufacturers obviously migrate to the figure that puts them in the best light – pun intended). I will explain the difference between these parameters, when it is important, and when you can ignore it.

A common question among folks who deal with hotshoe flashes is how the Guide Number (the figure of merit for the output power of a hotshoe flash) is related to joules, or watt-seconds, that the big studio flashes are specified in. I will even go into detail about Guide Numbers themselves.

High speed flash is fun to do, and relatively simple, given even a modicum of gear. To get really high speed flash, with useable levels of output power, you need high voltages. That’s physics, and there ain’t no way around it – at least for the near future. LED technology is advancing quickly, and in time we should be able to pulse white LEDs with enough current to produce enough illumination for exposure in microsecond bursts. We are a long way away from that as yet, but it will definitely happen. Meantime, we are stuck with either gas-discharge tubes, or spark-gaps, both of which require lethal voltages to be of use.

So, back to the measurements. I will be including detailed measurements for several ‘standard’ hotshoe flashes and hammerhead flashes, along with some dedicated high speed flash systems. Systems I have include, but are not limited to:

1) EG&G Microflash – two heads, one supply, sub-microsecond flash duration. This thing will stop a supersonic projectile enough to exhibit no blur in an expsed image.

2) Fotronix StopLight SL-80 – this is the dedicated high speed flash that I created when I was running Fotronix. Built specifically for wildlife photographers, this unit is portable, powerful, weatherproof and fast. Some of my best hummingbird images have been taken with these, and they are in use all over the planet.

3) VHSF – this is a full-custom design that I created for a client of mine. It is a central power supply, with up to 4 remote heads, very powerful, but with a flash duration (settable) down to 20 microseconds. When I built the unit for my client, I built a parallel unit for myself. This is the mainstay of my hummingbird photography, and although somewhat temperamental, produces the softest high speed flash illumination on the planet, bar nothing.

4) Metz 60Ct4 – a high power, high performance hammerhead flash gun. I have two of these, and will measure both for comparison.

5) Canon 580EX – the prior state-of-the-art Canon hotshoe flash. These are supremely portable and convenient, and can be used (with limitations) in a number of high speed flash scenarios. I have 4 of these, and will measure them all.

6) Sunpak 383 – used by some for hummingbird photography, though with a minimum (published) duration of 1/10,000th of a second, are borderline high speed flash.

7) Sunpak 422D – very similar to the Sunpak 383.

I foresee the following agenda:

1 hour tutorial on hummingbirds, high speed flash, setups and techniques, followed by 3 hours of shooting at 3 different stations (1 hour each). The class size would be 3 students. The first station would be equipped with Fotronix StopLight SL-80 high speed flash units – these are purpose built for hummingbird photography. The second station would incorporate state-of-the-art hotshoe flashes, such as Canon 580EX or Nikon SB900. They will be operating manually, so any type of camera can be used for any setup. The third station would use simpler, cheaper manual flashes that prove that excellent results can be achieved with all three methods.

Students would bring their own camera and flash cards. Tripods or monopods would also be beneficial, but not essential (you will get tired!). I have lectured on High Speed Flash extensively, and have spent hundreds of hours photographing hummingbirds, so am confident that students will at least learn something, as well as go away with some ‘WOW’ images. I will put up some more details on my quickblink website as I develop them, but if you are interested, or have any comments, feel free to add a comment below….

4 harmless colored drips

We then carefully align an air pistol, camera left, to fire a pellet right through these guys, and Presto!!!

Mixed fluids!

You can see that the pellet skips a bit in this case, thus the red is not completely ‘blown’, but you get the idea. Pretty effective, actually.

How on earth did you achieve this shot? I hear you ask….

With careful use of an air pistol, ballistic sensor, Time Machine, several xyz retort stands, two EG&G Microflash units, some high impact acrylic (substrate), a Newark catalog (a big, heavy, printed catalog – perfect for stopping air pellets…), a Canon 40D, Sigma 150mm macro lens, USB tether to laptop, and the Canon camera control utility software. This just makes it easy to drive the camera from the laptop, so I can also reach the trigger of the air pistol.

If folks are interested, I will describe the setup.

I have started this blog to become a forum for photographers who play with high speed flash. I say play, because it sure isn’t like work.

I have done quite a bit of HSF work, but am most noted for my hummingbird images. That doesn’t stop me from playing in the lab though – just today, I was firing air pistol pellets across the top of fluids, and capturing the action at less than a microsecond!

Air pistol pellet hitting fluid at 460 feet per second

This is pretty interesting – the air pellet is actually ploughing (plowing!) through the liquid, and is pointed down at about 30 degrees, right at the front of the plume.

This was the first image I shot this afternoon, and it looks like it might be the start of some fun in the lab. Let’s hope so.

With regard to this blog, I will update it as frequently as I can, with news and info on high speed flash. If you come across this site, feel free to subscribe to it. Some folks may know me through my previous company – Fotronix Inc. We used to produce high speed flash (HSF) units called StopLights, specifically for the wildlife photographers who wanted to shoot birds in flight.

More soon,

Roy.