Stopping a bullet

[DivotDan]

So in one of my local Flickr forums a dude was trying to take a shot with a DSLR of a bullet breaking a wine glass full of wine. He is still in the planing phase, and hasn't attempted any shots. If he actually pulls it off then I'll share, but it made me wonder if anyone here has tried anything like that.

Share your shots or thoughts.

[shucklak]

Awesome idea, I'd love to see if he can pull it off. I think a bullet travels something like 1200 fps, so I'm guessing he's going to push his shutter to the limit.

[DivotDan]

He will actually use a 30 second exposure with high aperture in complete darkness and use a sound or light or some kind of trigger to fire a strobe to catch it.

[Matt Grunau]

Hey Dan, there is a device used for recording the speed to things like arrows, bullets and whatnot. It looks like a couple of antenna rabbit ears on a board about a foot apart. I have seen it many times on Mythbusters. If there is something like that which can send out any kind of signal at all, be it to a speaker or stopwatch or something, you can rig THAT up to fire the strobe, and every time the bullet passes through, it will set it off.

[DivotDan]

Yeah, we have had a lot of theories on how to do it. My suggestion was to use a tin foil trigger in front of the object he was shooting. It would basically be 2 pieces of foil very close together and when the bullet went through the foil it would cause the 2 pieces to touch, thus completing the circuit. Then he would just have to move the foil closer or further away from the object till the timing was right to catch it (figuring you have to account for a delay between the circuit completing and the flash firing). Figuring a bullet can move anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of feet per second, dude does not have an easy task in front of him.

I was actually more interested to see if anyone here had any stop motion type stuff. Water drops or frozen in time type shots. Share 'em if ya got 'em!

[Starmapper]

The foil idea is great...Way to use the old noodle:)

[DivotDan]

Wish I could take credit but I'm about 100% sure I saw it or read it somewhere. I have no idea where from, but it was stuck in the back of my head somewhere.

Edit: A quick Google search found the source (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVUxKnNMW44&eurl=http://www.diyphotography.net/shooting-balloons-diying-high-speed-photography) that was swimming in my head.

[egproductions]

Back in artschool I did a few multiple exposure shots. Take a look at Harold Edgerton, he was the first to really play with strobes and the idea of freezing a shot with a flash of light rather then a mechanical shutter since its a lot faster. a lot of his work is bullet time and also multiple exposures using a strobes. You are correct with the method; dark room, long exposure, flash triggered by noise of small light.

One time I took a shot on tri-x but I never printed it (its still on the negative) Basically the idea was to have subject moving around leave the shutter open and rewind a roll of film back into the roll while the strobe was going off. This basically created a hand cranked movie on 35.

[Jokerswild]

Take a look at my website. Excuse the pun but on the splash page, there is a "Splash Shot" I did for Narragansett Beer.

www.sjbaraophoto.com


It is not easy. I used a specially made acrylic water tank and used a laser trigger that works by the object breaking the light beam, or it can also be used with sound. The beauty of it is that you can program it to have a very slight delay in the hundredth of seconds. This was critical in my "dropping bottle scenario" because I did not want the flash going off as soon as the bottle hit the water. I wanted it to submerge into the water first. I used some modified strobes that were used on low power but still gave me adequate light to light the product. All the strobes have to fire at exactly the same speed or there will be some unwanted ghosting. Therefore you cannot use a mixture of different types of strobes.

Now this is fine for dropping a bottle in the water but stopping a bullet is a very different matter. In that case you want to use a sound trigger in total darkness and I would suggest a few portable strobes like the old standby, the Vivitar 283. They must be used on low power realizing that the shortest burst is only achievable on low power. Then you have to determine if that will provide enough light. AND be careful! I also shoot guns and have seen some people that are not accustomed to being around weapons, have some close calls...Maybe practice with a pellet gun first. It is a lot safer.

There are special strobes made for this purpose but they are very very expensive.
Good luck with the project. If you Google hi speed photography, you should get some informative links that may help.

[alwayslearning]

Very nice stuff Jokerswild. Good input too.

A bottle of wine? Well, if it's cheap wine it won't be a cool label for the shot. If it's expensive, is this wise? :) Joking of course .....

Several good ideas here. I have experience building circuits used for triggering various things. I'm wondering if he would want to use the sound of the gun to trigger the flash? It'd be relatively easy to build in an adjustable delay so that with some trial runs first (use a cheap plastic bottle), one could adjust it to trigger the flash right when the bullet is getting there. Using the same gun/ammo to adjust should ensure some awfully close timing on the real thing.

Larry

[DivotDan]

Sounds like you had some nice equipment to use Jokerswild. That shot of the bottle going in the water is just awesome! I'm not actually doing this, but I appreciate the safety warning. I've been around and used guns my whole life. As a card carrying NRA member I appreciate you taking the time to say that. I can assure you that was the first thing I mentioned to the gentleman who is looking to actually do this.

[DivotDan]

I'm wondering if he would want to use the sound of the gun to trigger the flash? It'd be relatively easy to build in an adjustable delay so that with some trial runs first (use a cheap plastic bottle), one could adjust it to trigger the flash right when the bullet is getting there. Using the same gun/ammo to adjust should ensure some awfully close timing on the real thing.

Larry

I thought the same thing. Although, my suggestion to make it even easier was to shoot a round that travels at the same speed of sound and keep the mic at the same distance as the bottle, and hopefully the delay in the flash going off from the trigger would be enough to catch it.......of course then you could just adjust the distance of the mic from the gun to control the flash timing. To be honest though, the whole tin foil trigger really has me interested. I have some law enforcement friends that I might have to talk to. Maybe they can get me into an inside range or something to actually test this out. I know I just said I wasn't actually going to do this but the more I discuss it the more interested I am.

[alwayslearning]

... but the more I discuss it the more interested I am. Yep! :)

I did do a very quick, cheap (inexpensive :) ) shot of an object falling into a glass of water. All I did though was set it to take continuous shots until I got one. If I find it, I'll post it.

Larry

[Jokerswild]

Yep, you guys are on the right track but to stop a bullet is quite another thing. You must consider the burst of the flash. Like I said the only "inexpensive" strobes that can do this would be the little Vivitars or similar, on LOW power. The lower the power the shorter the burst. Even at that, they may not be quick enough to stop the bullet's motion. I am sure their are formulas to calculate this but I am not that smart :)

Having the bullet coming at an angle would help rather than stopping the bullet's motion as it wizzes by from left to right in front of the camera. I think there were some folks experimenting with this at M.I.T.

Here is a good link I found for you and note that they use a small flash at 1/16th power.

http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_high_speed_photography_at_home