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12/5: Tennis ball being struck
From a gallery of high-speed photography, this is what actually happens when a tennis ball is struck: the ball actually compresses to about half its usual size.
To get the image, a flash unit had to be set up with an audio trigger so the photo could be shot via the sound of the racquet hitting the ball. It would seem that setting up the trigger is the key to this sort of high speed photography.
jet_silver Wednesday Dec 5 11:20 AM
A lot of these triggering problems were solved by Harold Edgerton, the E in EG&G for you physical sciences wonks. He developed this kind of stroboscopic photography, among other things.
There is a WGBH portrait of Edgerton that was shown periodically on PBS when I was still watching TV; it may still be making the rounds. Edgerton comes off as very charming and interested in learning how the triggers should work. The 'bat in flight' portrait where the bat is catching a worm is profiled in that show.
The transcript is at http://net.unl.edu/artsFeat/edgertontrans.html
IndyTone Wednesday Dec 5 02:37 PM
Re: 12/5: Tennis ball being struck
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Originally posted by Undertoad From a gallery of high-speed photography... |
Undertoad Wednesday Dec 5 02:45 PM
Well that would preclude me using another one of the images tomorrow 
but no biggie:
http://www.pacsci.org/public/educati...nt_photos.html
russotto Thursday Dec 6 03:18 PM
Re: 12/5: Tennis ball being struck
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Originally posted by Undertoad To get the image, a flash unit had to be set up with an audio trigger so the photo could be shot via the sound of the racquet hitting the ball. It would seem that setting up the trigger is the key to this sort of high speed photography. |
An electronic (e.g. LCD) shutter might work nowadays (or might not), but obviously didn't exist when Edgerton worded on this stuff. I believe he invented some of the flash tubes used to do it, also.
cgifool Friday Dec 7 11:06 PM
Edgerton book
If you're interested in this stuff, I recommend the book Electronic Flash, Strobe by Harold Edgerton. I got mine for just a couple dollars in the cutout bin at Barnes & Noble. He talks all about the circuits and triggering and other fun stuff. If you dont mind paying more, Mit Press has it too.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item...ype=2&tid=4740
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