Photographer creates clever, low-tech, high-speed lighting rig

 

 

Snapping pictures of high-speed action —  like these diabolical exploding cameras —  usually requires some fairly extensive equipment. You generally need laser triggers or high end components to fire your camera with enough speed to catch such fleeting action. But photographer Oriol Domingo figured out an ingenious DIY hack to do the same with much less gear.

Talking to DIY Photography, Domingo’s process involved stripping and modifying a shutter cable. One way to fire the cable is to create a circuit between the shutter and ground wires.

Domingo soldered a pin to each of these two, and angled them together so they were very close to touching. He then attached this new trigger system to a drop arm, and rigged it up above a water balloon. Once the arm is dropped, the needles both pierce the balloon and touch tips, making the circuit and firing the photograph.

The result? A low-tech, but high-speed rig designed specifically for shooting popping water balloons. While the results might not happen at speeds fast enough to catch the water still in its perfectly spherical shape, the resulting photos (see one to the right) are stunning. Domingo does have to crop out the trigger when it’s still in frame.

 

 

Read more about it at DIY Photography. Also check out the video below showing the rig in action.