Tips for Delayed Flash Photography

I recently had a lot of fun playing around with the delayed flash capabilities of my camera. The basic idea is that the camera takes a long exposure and then flashes at the very end to capture the action and give you a crisp picture, with the most pronounced lights being blurred. If you have ever seen a photo of a car that is in perfect focus, but you see a trail of light from the brake lights, you have seen the results of this trick. I thought I would have some fun and try it out by giving my son a bunch glow bracelets, and letting him jump around on the bed. The result is something like this:



If you want to do something similar, here are some tips that I learned in the process of doing this:

1. Use a tripod. Since you will be taking a pretty long exposure, using a sturdy tripod is essential



2. Set your camera to use a delayed flash. On Olympus E-Series cameras it is called slow2. Most DSLRs should have this capability so look at your instruction manual to find the right setting.



3. Find a very dark area. We tried it at first outside, but there was enough moonlight for this to not be effective. Using a dark backdrop also helps the colors pop out.



4. Open up the aperature. A higher aperature (lower number) will let light in easier and help your light source (in this case glow bracelets) show up better. Most of these shots were shot at f2.8.



5. It is okay to overexpose your shot in these instances to get longer exposure times. Most of these shots were shot at +1ev - +2ev to give Charlie more time to jump around.



6. Turn on noise reduction (if you have it) on the camera. Long exposures will most certainly add a lot of noise to the photo. Using noise reduction will get rid of most of that noise.



7. You can buy a canister of 15 glowsticks at Michael's for $1! :)



8. Have fun!

My Latest Find and a New Project

Angie hits the nail on the head when she talks about how much I love technology. I have what seems to be an endless array of projects. So many things that I would like to do, and so little time. So what does one do? Add another project! Why not? :)

A couple of weeks ago Angie and I went to a community wide garage sale. Angie and I have been perfecting the art of garage saleing. Its all about the hunt, the possibility that you might find that one thing that makes getting up at 5:00 in the morning and driving all over the place worth it. Sometimes you find it, and sometimes you come back empty handed. This time I struck gold.

For the longest time I have wanted to make an arcade cabinet that is actually a computer that emulates all the old arcade games. I never really got started, since making such a cabinet from scratch is quite a task, and I have just never had the time.

As we drove down one of the streets, it was suddenly like one of those scenes from a movie, where everything goes into slow motion as a girl walks by and looks at that guy. I glance over into a garage and see an arcade cabinet! We quickly pulled in, and I almost fainted when the guy told me that I could have it for $10! But we had a problem. The morning had already been quite successful, and the car was quite packed with junk. It's not every day that you have an opportunity like this, so we totally unpacked the car, put the arcade in and re-packed the car again. I couldn't believe that we got everything in there. I would have taken a picture but my camera was somewhere in the middle of everything. I have to thank Angie for being such a great wife for not just letting me get it, but for finding a way to make everything fit -- even to the point where she had to ride all the way back with a child's couch sitting in her lap.

So now I have a Rolling Thunder arcade cabinet that is in pretty good shape. The game even works thanks to a friend at work giving me a power supply and a little tlc. And now my next project begins! The plan is to turn this cabinet into a MAME cabinet. There is still a lot of work to do, and a lot to figure out. Off to the drawing board!

Before I go, here are some photos of the cabinet in all of its glory:

Angie Update

Angie is back home after having her tonsils removed this morning. The surgery went very well, and without problems. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers, and please continue for the next two weeks as she recovers. I'm off now to get drugs and ice-cream and I'm sure Angie will post more once she wakes up later and is feeling a bit better.