Week 14: High-speed photography - Water drop photography

Today I would like to tell you about phenomena that are too fast to see, if photographed, give very interesting results, admired in arts, and often used in advertising but at the beginning I must say that the whole project was created by Armand Stańczak, Sergio Cosentino and me of course. We spent with this topic 2 years(finally the project is done) or even more so I hope it will be at least “ok” for you J

Water drop photography is one of examples of events that could not be seen at all without a camera. High speed photography allows capturing such fast and amazing phenomena. There exist tools for high speed photography and, in particular, dedicated tools to photograph droplets of water, or milk, or other liquids but I will tell about tools and hardware in the second or third part of this presentation.

History

High-speed photography has now about 127 years and it all started with photography made in 1887. Someone captured shock wave which is generated by a bullet; these were first tests of new technology. Then after 44 years we had the first photo taken using similar technology that we are using today(a flashgun + a camera) and we can see it here:

1931 - Edgerton Eugene

Present

Nowadays we have multiple ready, out of box solutions which give even not an experienced user a chance to take beautiful photos with minimal effort. Tools available on the market include the photography trigger Camera Axe:

CameraAxe – 900 zł at least

and the SplashArt kit:

SplashArt – 750/2000 zł depends on version

However, even such a simple device is not so easy to use, as it's software requires adjustment of various values and settings, which can be difficult for a user. What is more, such tools cost a few hundred dollars and are expensive for amateurs. CameraAxe, which is the least expensive and best solution for amateurs, allows connecting a camera, flash lamps, and sensors.

Therefore, we decided to build a system at a fraction of this cost, to make water drop photography available to anyone interested in capturing water splashes, without investing in a professional studio. This solution can also be used by professional photographers (That was the plan :D )

The SyncBox synchronizer

Ok, so boring stuff is almost over (if you are interested in hardware go to the next part) . Now I will show you what we accomplished with our magical device. Of course, these photos are only a small fraction of the whole collection which contains around 8000 photos taken during the whole experiment:

And finally a video made with the assistance of SyncBox. The video  contains at least 350 photos taken 1ms after 1ms to get more information about the behavior of a drop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noAj7rIq4MA

Here are some examples of photos made by Tobias Bräuning, photos which can be done using the equipment similar to ours.

The SyncBox synchronizer – hardware

Our solution is based on Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform, which can be connected to a computer with Windows, Mac OS X or Linux system, and it costs only about 20 Euros. It allows to control electric signals. The device is basically not a really complicated synchronizer which allows you to take a picture when a water drop hits water surface, series of pictures can also be taken. The complete system also includes a water container, a piping, a valve for releasing drops, a water pump, and altogether it costs about 50 Euros.

Arduino Uno R3

How it works and looks

The controller triggers electric impulses of the desired pulse length and frequency at the precisely defined instant.

The Arduino board has analog and digital inputs and outputs, and it is connected to the host computer via the USB connector. Computer  is used for programming integrated circuits. The synchronizer can be connected to any digital camera. The camera is placed on a tripod, and two flashes can be attached to this system.

The drop kit consists of a rectangular 1 liter water container, piping attached to  an aluminum frame, a water pump to maintain pressure in rubber ducts, and a solenoid valve. The position of the camera is important, since it must be close enough to water in order to get a high quality picture, but if it is really close, it should be protected from water drops and there it is J nothing special but still the result  is nice I must say. Here a few photos of the device:

Questions:

1. Have  you ever tried high-speed photography? If yes, what was the result?

2. Have you ever tried any specific type of photography? 

3. Do you have any ideas how to use such a device? Besides taking pictures of drops?

Sources used in this article:

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