WEBVTT - Slow Motion Film and High Speed Photography 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.840 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.680 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi there, kids, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.400 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pelette 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.920 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:28.200 Sitting directly opposite me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.800 Let me take your picture added to the mixture. There 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.519 it is. I got you now, really nothing to it. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.519 Anyone can do it. It's easy. And we all know 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:43.880 how today's podcast really lends itself to that quote. Yes, 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.479 today we wanted to talk about high speed photography and 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:52.080 slow motion. Both of these have to do with a 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.240 changing film speeds and shutter speeds and all this kind 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.200 of stuff. To really talk about how the stuff works, 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.000 we have to go a little bit more basic. We 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.800 have to actually talk about the principles behind photography and 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.080 how a camera works. And before we really get into this, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.640 How stuff Works has dozens of great articles about photography, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.000 including articles about how high speed photography works and how 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.759 burst photography works. Both of those were written by John Fuller. 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.240 But we also have how cameras work, how photographic film works. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.959 So if you want to learn more than what you know, 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.160 we're going to kind of cover the basics. But if 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.000 you really want to know the true science and chemistry 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.480 and physics behind how cameras work, I highly recommend you 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:39.840 check out those articles because they will answer a lot 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.679 more questions. We're gonna try and kind of cover the 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.120 basics here. So so let's uh, let's talk about what 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.360 a camera does. It's seemed kind of silly to say 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.800 because we're most of us really familiar with cameras. And 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.960 by the way, I should point out also that we're 0:01:55.960 --> 0:02:02.280 really focusing on film phil it was completely not on purpose. Um, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.720 we're talking about film cameras mainly in this podcast as 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.960 opposed to digital. The two different methods. You know, you 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.560 get the you get a result that's similar using these 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.240 two methods. You know, you get an image of a 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.280 moment in time in both ways, but the actual mechanics 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.400 behind film versus digital are very different. So we're specifically 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.239 looking at it's gonna say, focus again looking at film 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.440 cameras because well, to to to try and cover both 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.639 would require a like a podcast that's twice as long 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.520 as what we normally do, and we only do that 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:43.760 for Google Plus well, UH cameras in general though, UM 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.280 and speaking of both film and digital, you're you're you're 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:54.440 using a series of UM devices to capture that image. There. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.919 On both film and digital you of course you've got 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:02.280 a lens um and there is UH, the principle behind 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.200 it is to capture the image. On film, you're using 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:10.680 a a piece of essentially plastic celluloid to that's treated 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.720 with chemicals they captures that image, and in a digital 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.919 camera use an image sensor. UM. But you know, and 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.480 and there are some similarities of course. It It has 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.880 to do with how fast the camera is firing UM 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.519 and how much light you're letting in through the lens 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:34.160 um and after that they do differ considerably. So with 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.800 a with a film camera, you know, Chris was just 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:38.960 talking about it a second ago. But what you know, 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.000 the main the medium upon which you are capturing these 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.000 images is film, and film is really just a strip 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.480 of plastic that's been treated with UH, with chemicals that 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.320 are photoreactive. Yes, that means that the chemicals will undergo 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.480 some sort of change when exposed to light, so they 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.400 turned into monsters. If you've listened to our solar If 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.320 you listen to our Solar Panel episode, you know that 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.560 we have discovered materials that react when light hits it. 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:11.680 The photons from the light transfer energy to whatever that 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.000 medium is and you get a reaction. In this case, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.480 the photons are able to change the chemical properties of 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.120 the stuff that's on this film. And I really get 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.800 into that would be diving deep into science. We do have, 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.880 like I said, the article on how photo, how film 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.719 photographic film works, and that explains it. But UM, to 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.719 be honest, if I were to try and go into 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.360 it right now, I'm sure I would mess it up 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.880 because you know, my my chemistry is only goes so far. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.960 My chemistry food is weak chem But at any rate, 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.159 what this this stuff is designed so that when light 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.719 hits it, it has a chemical change. Then when you 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.599 treat it with other chemicals, that's what allows you to 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.000 create a negative image of whatever it was you were, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.000 whatever light hit it. So this is why when you 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.520 have film, people say, you know, make sure you don't 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.520 expose it to light before before or after you take 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.240 a photo, because if you do, it's going to ruin 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.880 the image, right because um, the film is going to 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:22.719 record the light from the that that is coming to 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.760 it through the lens. So of course, when you put 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.240 the canister a film inside your camera and load your camera, 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.760 you close the door which blocks off any light. Um. 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.680 And then of course you have to advance the film 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:36.880 after you've taken a photo. If you if you've ever 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.039 exposed film more than once, double exposure, you get a 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.920 really bizarre effect. Yeah. Yeah, And it can be very 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:46.920 very cool if that's what you're going for. It can 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.080 also be really frustrating if you were trying to capture 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.640 one thing in particular and forgot to advance the film, right. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.679 And and we've even seen that double exposures go into 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.320 uh the realm of people thinking that something supernatural roles 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.000 going on, because you do get kind of a ghostly 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.279 image if you double exposed film. Yeah. So there have 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.000 been times where people have had just a double exposure, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.200 that's all it is, but because they didn't realize it 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.640 was a double exposure, they think, Wow, I took this 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.160 photo of my buddy Bob, and there's this ghostly face 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.000 that's appearing over his left shoulder that's so creepy, and 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.000 not forgetting that, oh before I took the photo of 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.320 Bob I took a photo of Liz. It's just that 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.920 Bob's photo was exposed over Liz's photo, and now Liz 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.359 looks like she's a ghost. Actually, I thought it was 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.359 because Bob worked at that leaky nuclear plants. Because we 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.320 took all those photos over that Indian burial ground. That 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:43.760 was a mistake we made anyway. Um uh. The the 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.640 the idea here is that the camera gives you a 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.920 very controlled way to expose that film to light. And 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.240 the way this works is that first you've got the lens, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.320 and the lens is purpose is to direct light to 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.800 the film, So the lens is allowing light to pass through. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.200 When light passes through a lens, that actually the speed 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.120 of the light changes. You know, speed of light is 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.440 a constant, but it's a constant that's based upon whatever 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:17.800 the medium it is that it's traveling through. For example, air, Yeah, air, 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.360 it's going to travel through it. Light travels through air 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.200 much more quickly than it will a lens. And the 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.160 curvature of the lens, the thickness of the lens, that's 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.160 all going to make the light travel at at slightly 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.360 different speeds. The point being that you focus all that 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:36.240 this light onto a point so that it exposes just 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.960 the right spot on the film. Now, behind that, you've 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:45.240 also got a device called the aperture. Now the aperture 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.480 is essentially a hole. It's a it's it's a disk 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.640 that can expand or contract and allow more or less 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:57.440 light to pass through the from the lens to the film. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.200 So it's it's a barrier between the lens and the film. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.120 And you adjust this in order to uh to really 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.360 kind of tweak your photo settings, like with a with 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.160 a manual camera, a manual single lens reflex camera or 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.600 SLR manual SLR uh by the way, in case you're curious, 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.240 for those of you who are only familiar with digital cameras, 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.240 a manual single lens reflex camera is not electric at all. 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:26.840 It's it uses chemicals and it uses mechanical little gears 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.400 and things, but there's there are no electric components necessarily 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.240 in a true manual single lens reflex or at least 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.680 you don't have to have any electronic I think that's 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.360 so in other words, it's kind of interesting because we 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.520 we take it for granted now with digital cameras. Right, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.720 digital cameras, you have lots of electronic components, but with 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.080 a a an old manual single lens reflex, you're just 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.200 you're just turning little dials, which is advancing the film. 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.000 You might turn a little crank to rewind film, but 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.559 there's nothing necessarily electronic in it. Um. Of course, there 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:04.280 are hybrids that as well, But anyway, this the aperture 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.040 helps you determine how much light can enter through the lens. 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.839 And then you have something else called the shutter, and 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.640 the shutter determines how long the film is exposed to 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:20.079 that light. So if you were to take a photograph 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.839 with a shutter speed that is a you know, it 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:27.360 allows the shutter to be open longer, then your photo 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.280 is going to be a little more blurry, unless the 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:35.120 subject of your photo is incredibly still. So if the 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.040 camera is still and the subject is still, and you've 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.400 got a decent amount of lighting, and the shutter is 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.559 open longer, theoretically, as long as as long as the 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.320 light's not too great, you will actually get a very 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.760 clear image because it's it's really capturing that uh, that 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.280 moment um. Now, if something is moving, then you're gonna 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.400 get a blur. So if you've ever looked at some 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.400 nighttime photography especially or like city scapes where you can 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.040 see where traffic is moving through and it's like beautiful 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.280 red streaks on one side of the road and white 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.000 streaks on the other that you know, that's obviously the 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.000 traffic where cars are coming and going. That's usually using 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.440 a camera with a shutter speed where the shutters remaining 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.840 open longer. Sometimes it can be as long as you know, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.440 minutes or or more, and that creates that streaking effect 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.400 because all that light is hitting the camera over an 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.360 extended time, so instead of seeing individual cars, you're seeing 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.480 these streaks. Yeah, this this has basically it's a combination 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.040 of things. It's a combination of the aperture setting that 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:43.360 you're using to expose the film, uh, the shutter speed, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.400 and there are cameras that you can manually hold the 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.840 shutter open uh as long as you want to. It's 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:55.040 often better and creating the photos like Jonathan was just 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:56.920 talking about, where you leave it open for minutes to 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.800 have your camera on a tripod and use a cable release, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.240 you know, just so that you don't nudge the camera 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.559 because otherwise you're going to uh jar the picture and 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.040 distort things. So yeah, it also has to do with 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.960 the speed of the film. And uh, it's funny because 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.360 that's sort of a misnomer. You know, there aren't little 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.280 canisters of film moving faster than others. It has to 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.440 do with the chemical properties actually the film. UM. And 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.760 again we're not going to get into the chemistry behind 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.560 it so much. UM. But uh, you know, depending on 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.920 the speed of the film, you would be able to 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:35.680 capture uh photos in darker environments or lighter environments. UM. Also, 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.720 the speed of the film has is depending on on 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:41.920 this the type of photography you're doing. If you're trying 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.040 to capture high or fast motion photography, you're gonna want 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:51.319 something that you can expose um to light more frequently, 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.160 like a higher speed film. UM. You know, you want 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.840 something that's going to to just from a very brief 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.840 exposure be able to capture an image. And and by exposure, 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.920 we're talking about exposing to light. You know, just keep 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.600 that in mind that that exposure has everything to do 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.320 with the amount of light and the duration of light 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.360 that hits that film. So a high speed film can 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.280 capture an image with light hitting it for a shorter 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.600 time frame. And we're talking fractions of a second. Here, 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.040 you know, when we talk about a short time frame, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.079 we're talking really short. We're not talking like, oh, well, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.320 you know a woman thousand two one, now you would 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.440 be able to take hundreds of photos in the mount 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.520 of time. It took me to say that depending on 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.800 the speed of the film and the shutter speed and 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.319 all of this kind of stuff. So so high speed 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.880 photography kind of leads us into this. High speed photography 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.600 is all about trying to capture, uh an image of 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.319 something that's moving at an incredible speed, something that that 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.360 is moving so fast that to the naked eye it 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.560 may be either a blur or perhaps even you know, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.679 practically invisible because it's going so quickly. But you want 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.640 to be able to capture that moment in time so 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.920 that you can see a very distinct image. Well, this 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:10.880 is a challenge. You have to figure out how are 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:12.840 you going to do that, and a couple of different ways. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.400 Perhaps I hesitate to say the easiest way, but perhaps 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:22.280 the simplest way is to set up your camera in 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.400 a perfectly dark room and you just leave the shutter open. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.120 Because remember, even though the shutters open that film, if 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.160 there's no light, the film is not being exposed. So 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.920 you've got this film that's just sitting there. Nothing's happening 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.439 to it. It's not reacting chemically at all because there's 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.600 no light coming into the camera. You set up whatever 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.640 the thing is you want to take a photo of, 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.240 and then you have it timed out so that the 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:55.600 instant that thing happens, there is a flash of light 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.880 that is up and down in a fraction of us 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.520 can and just that fraction of a second is going 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.440 to be long enough for the light to go through 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.560 the camera and uh and to expose the film. Then 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.959 you could advance the frame and do it again. Now, 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.599 this is a very slow, painstaking process, and it requires 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.960 an incredible amount of timing, and there are a lot 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.560 of different ways of setting up a shot so that 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.280 the uh, the the light will trigger at the right moment. 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.160 Some of them are acoustically triggered so that there's a 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.200 noise and that noise causes the light to flash, which 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.160 automatically exposes the film in the camera. You don't have 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.200 to do anything to the camera at that point, right, 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.000 You're not pushing a button because the camera shutter is 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.720 already open. It's only after the light is flashed that 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.520 you have to advance the film so that you can 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.480 take another photo. Otherwise you're going to have a double exposure, 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.640 high speed double exposure on this this film, which I 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.440 think would look really weird. Um. So that's one way 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.520 you can do it. But of course, if you want 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.360 to take a high speed photo of something nature, for example, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.160 the the an example that a lot of people use 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.920 as a hummingbird, because a hummingbird can beat its wings 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.760 so quickly that with most cameras, if you took a 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.440 picture of a hummingbird with a standard camera, it's gonna 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.320 look like a bird with two blurs next to it, right, 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.400 you won't be able to see the wings. Um. But 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.280 if you use a high speed camera where it's able 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.760 to move the shutter at a really fast rate, and 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.480 you have a pretty well lit environment, then you might 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.720 be able to capture an image of a hummingbird where 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.280 you've got its wings perhaps in the upper down position, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.120 and you can get a really clear look at that bird. 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:40.920 But it does require that you have a camera that 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.440 can move that shutter speed at a really really fast rate, 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.280 and that you have a high speed film that's capable 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.720 of taking light for a incredibly brief exposure time and 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.160 convert that into an image. Yeah. You know, UM, if 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:02.960 you're a text a listener normally UM that we like 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.480 to get into the history of things. And I wouldn't 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.680 necessarily have have thought of high speed photography is I 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.040 would have thought it was a more modern UM, something 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.320 that was more modern phenomenon. But really the history of 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.200 high speed photography goes back just about as long as 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:24.640 the history of photography itself. UM. The first example that 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.480 I I read about UM from a a uh AN 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.520 article by Lincoln l Endelman, which was William Henry Fox 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:40.720 Talbot's uh trial where he basically exposed a piece of 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.880 the London Times newspaper that was on a wheel that 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:45.960 he attached it to, and he was using a wet 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.840 plate camera, which is basically a piece of glass that's 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.760 treated with chemicals rather than a film camera. Interesting. I 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.600 had never heard of that before there was one, and 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.840 heard of the camera obscura, which, by the way, you 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.160 can actually build one of those yourself if you or 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.480 wanted to, But I've never heard of the wet plate camera. 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.199 That's interesting. He uh and for a flash he was 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.399 using laden jars elimination from laden jars. This is like 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.399 the coolest camera ever. Yes, and cumbersome because you know, 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.320 you don't really take this thing out to go take 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.240 shots at the family on vacation. I'm out to the 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.639 high school football game. Let me carry my laden jars 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.960 and wet played caral with me. But but I need 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.800 the team's help setting this up. But he didn't manage 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.639 to get a readable photo of the newspaper at the 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:38.520 shutter speed of one of second unexposure speed. Let's say 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:44.400 that actually used. But you also probably remember Edward Mindbridge. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.879 I remember the name. Yes, yes, he had a famous 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.639 experiment where um, he had set up a series of 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.800 cameras too, because there was a challenge. Um, you may 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.280 have heard of this guy, uh um Laden, I'm sorry, yeah, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.800 I'm sorry. He may have heard of this guy at 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.399 Leland Stanford. He was the governor of California and he 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.160 was that that was the challenge was does a horse 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.520 pick up all four of its feet when it's running? 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.440 And he was the one my bridge and a lot 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.080 of people have seen this, uh seen this series of 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.560 photos where they proved that the horse was picking up 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:22.160 all four of its feet because he had a series 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.399 of cameras and that the horse was tripping it as 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:28.040 it ran by, and so each camera took photos a 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.520 different a different way of doing it, but they captured 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.600 a series of still photos because as the horse was 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.760 running by, it took you know, each camera in turn 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.800 took a still photo, and when you put them all together, 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:42.280 you get essentially slow motion of this horse running. Yeah, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.520 and yes it does pick up all of its feet 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.080 when we'll get it, and we'll get into that in 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.240 a little bit, because of course the photography does lead 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.760 into cinematography. But before we do, I, before we jump 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:56.920 into that, I just wanted to mention one other kind 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.879 because I did mention burst photography when we were for 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:05.280 introducing this podcast, and that that John Fuller, Editor Extraordinaire 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.920 UH wrote the article on how burst photography works. First, 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.720 photography works on a similar principle of high speed photography. Now, 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.520 with high speed photography, you may be talking about taking 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.719 a single image and then setting up and taking another 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:24.000 single image, right right, That's like I'm pointing, I'm pointing 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.080 my camera at a hummingbird and I take one photo. Right. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:28.919 The point of the high speed photography here is to 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.240 capture a very accurate still. Yeah, yeah, something that's going 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.520 to be. It's really used a lot in things like sports, 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.480 you know, trying to catchure, capture that dramatic moment where 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.560 the quarterback is releasing the hail Mary pass. I'm saying 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.760 that right, right, because I don't know anything about football 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.359 or you know, the people who absolutely positively have to 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.320 have that shot of the water balloon after the balloon 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.800 is broken and the water is still in the balloon shape, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:55.600 but for the apple with the bullet through it. But 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.040 clearly this sort of that has to happen, this sort 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.520 of this sort of event is of course really hard 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.840 to capture on film, not just because of the nature 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.679 of the mechanics where you know, you've got to have 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.960 a camera with that proper shutter speed and film with 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.800 that proper um photochemical reaction speed. You also have to 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:19.000 have insane timing, and even by setting up an automated 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.840 system where everything's going to happen automatically, you know, as 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.000 soon as the event happens, it triggers the camera. Even 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.920 that is really difficult to do. So perhaps what if 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.160 you could have a camera that could shoot a series 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.760 of photos in a very short amount of time using 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.560 that same kind of principle. Well, that's what burst photography 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.400 is all about. These are cameras that have not just 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.520 the really fast shutter speed and not just the special 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.680 film that's going to to react quickly to a very 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:53.960 brief exposure, but also the ability to advance film rapidly 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.760 as you're taking photos. So with a burst photography camera, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:02.199 it's pulling the film through very quickly and the shutter 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.680 is opening and closing, causing multiple exposures, but you're not 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:07.960 not a double exposure because you're you know, the films 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.080 being pulled through as you're as you're doing this so 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.359 that you can take a series of photos in a 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.000 brief amount of time, so like in a second or two, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:21.520 you might take dozens or more photos. And this way, Uh, 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:23.520 the nice thing about this is that you can point 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.639 your camera at whatever the event is and just start 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.199 shooting photos until you're out of film and you have 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:34.160 a better chance of capturing that iconic moment you're after 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.040 as a photographer. Yeah, this is uh, this is one 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.159 of those times if if you haven't really done a 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:46.159 lot of work with people who are professional photographers, and 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.479 you might be going Last time I bought film, I 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.720 only had twenty four exposures on a roll. You can buy, 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.960 you know, if if you are interested in doing this, Uh, 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:59.560 you can buy whole magazines of film and you know, 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:01.439 attach them to the back of your camera where you 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.879 have a very very long roll. Or you can of 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.479 course make your own, uh, if you're so inclined and 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.879 are good in the dark. I used to have to 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.080 actually I was a newspaper report for a couple of years, 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.720 and um, you know, we'd have a big roll of 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.320 film and we'd load the magazines are are the cartridges ourselves. 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.040 And after a while you get pretty practiced at it. 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.840 But the first few times, uh, I wasted some film. Um, 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.520 but yeah, I mean so so this is sort of 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.520 one of those times when digital cameras sort of have 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.359 an advantage because now that we have bigger memory cards 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:39.840 and better digital photography. Um, the digital cameras are are 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:44.440 so much easier and more cost effective uh than than 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.760 film cameras in this regard. But the burst photography is amazing, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.480 especially if you are you know, it allows you to 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.439 set up and have a much better shot at getting 0:22:55.440 --> 0:23:00.040 your shot than than just just clicking and hoping that 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.879 you got it. Yeah. Yeah, Well this kind of leads us, 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:10.000