High speed photography is a creative photography technique concerned with photographing subjects moving at a fast speed. It doesn’t necessarily mean the use of a high-speed shutter as the circumstances and equipment used during high-speed photography will determine the camera settings.
Some examples of high-speed photography include water droplets hitting a body of water, bullets or arrows moving through a balloon full of water, apple or other item, insects and birds on flight or the freeze-frame capture of a sports car as it moves swiftly along a racetrack at close range. It can be a very creative genre.
TO LOVE HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY IS TO LOVE CREATING NEW THINGS
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Shutter speed
Getting back to why this type of photography doesn’t necessarily require a super-fast shutter speed. The most common high speed photography images that will appear in a Google search of high-speed photography will overwhelmingly include water in one way or the other.
A lot of water shots are created using relatively slow shutter speeds of 1/10 of a second or faster. By shooting water droplets in a dark room and introducing flash into the equation – it is the flash that provides the image frozen in time, not the shutter speed.
For example, the set up and settings to shoot high speed photography of a water droplet may be this: The setup is in a dark room, with camera set at 1/50 second, f11, ISO200 or lower and focussed manually on the location of where the water droplet will hit a body of water. A flash is introduced at the lowest power setting. It is the fast burst of flash that freezes the frame. A flash on a low power setting may provide a burst of light at up to 1/25000 of a second or higher – more than enough to capture the intricate detail of the water droplet.
High speed photography doesn’t necessarily mean the use of a high speed shutter; the circumstances and equipment used during high speed photography will determine the camera settings.
Examples
Occasions where a high shutter speed is used during high-speed photography could be where you want to capture the wings of a bird in flight or the detail of a racing car as it whizzes by at close range. A hummingbird’s wings cycle about 80 times per second, so to capture the detail of the wings without blur you would need a fast shutter speed of at least 1/2000 if shooting in daylight without using a flash.
Super-fast capture
To capture the shockwave, flame and bullet as it exits the barrel of a gun during an outdoor sports range event where flash would be ineffective and dangerously distracting, a shutter speed of at least 1,20000 may be required. Most of the fastest mechanical shutters on DSLR’s are 1/8000 sec which is way too slow to capture the moment.
However, DSLR’s with an electronic shutter can have incredibly fast shutter speeds of up to 1/64000 such as the mirrorless Canon EOS R3, or the Nikon Z9 and Sony A1 at 1/32000 sec. Depending on the device, a bullet will travel between 200 and 1500 metres per second, so the only way to capture a moving bullet in detail in an outdoor setting and without the use of flash is to use an extremely fast shutter speed.
The capture of a fast-moving air force jet at an air show or a racing car on a racetrack would ideally require a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 and zoom lens. Taking into account ISO and aperture and with some experimentation this genre of photography outdoors can be both a challenging and extremely rewarding genre of photography.
The creative art of high photography
Create a website portfolio for your high speed images, and maintain social accounts such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram to reach a broader array of followers.
Have fun with high speed photography!
High speed photography can be a great creative outlet for you.