Here’s an interesting look at what the aperture blades on a Canon 18-55mm (the kit lens for many DSLRs) look like. The video above shows the blades moving into position at 120fps. This happens every time you shoot a photograph and in the blink of an eye.
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Melbourne-based design studio Betty Wants In captured some skydiving footage using a GoPro HD camera and then slowed it down with Twixtor for an ethereal faux slow-motion video of skydivers floating through the heavens.

Here’s a video comparing the mirror and shutter curtain mechanisms of the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, Nikon D700, and Nikon D7000 DSLRs. It’s pretty surprising how much the Canon mirrors bounce compared to the Nikon ones…

(via Foto Actualidad)

The Roman philosopher Seneca once said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” This clip from the BBC documentary “South Pacific” shows Rudi Diesel capturing a once in a lifetime shot of surfer Dylan Longbottom in a massive 12-foot wave using a Typhoon HD4 high speed camera. It’s the first shot of its kind ever recorded, and one of the most amazing surfing shots you’ll ever see.

The pseudo-slow motion surfing video we shared yesterday compared to this one is like comparing 2D to 3D.

(via f stoppers)

Here’s an idea: find a bunch of photography-lovin’ friends, borrow their DSLR cameras, and shoot your own Matrix-style bullet time videos from home! The above video shows a workshop where they were able to bring together 24 cameras for this awesome purpose.

This reminds us of the video we shared a while back in which 52 Canon Rebel DSLRs were used to shoot bullet time videos of surfers.

(via f stoppers)

Devin Graham shot this beautiful surfing footage using a Canon 7D and a couple lenses (70-200mm and 100-400mm) with a 2x teleconverter, so much of the footage was shot at 800mm. The slow motion is actually “faked” (here’s another faked 7D video) using software:

To get the “super slow motion”, after I filmed at 60fps, I through it into the program “After Effects”. I used an effect that comes with the program called “Time Warp”. This allowed me to make the 60fps, to 1000fps. The way this works is the computer processes/adds frames in between the frames that are already in existence. It took several days for the computer to process the clips into the super slow motion that appears as well, so it does take a lot out of the computer, as far as processing goes.

Using After Effects or Twixtor to create fake slow mo is becoming a pretty popular technique. Beats shelling out big bucks to rent a high speed camera for many purposes.

(via Gizmodo)

Here’s an interesting glimpse into what a DSLR’s aperture blades and shutter curtain look like in super slow motion. Specifically, it’s a Nikon D3 shooting at 11 frames per second with 1/4000 shutter speed and f/16, all captured at 5,000 frames per second. What’s amazing is that the shutter curtain moves so quickly that you can’t see the sensor at all, even at 5000fps!

Last year we featured a pretty neat slow motion video shot from a moving train. British band SixToes decided to use the same idea for a music video, placing people all along the platform doing various things, and slowing down 7 seconds of footage into an entire music video.

The idea could be improved on by having what’s happening on the platform reflect what’s being sung in the song, but would require tons of planning and perfect timing — though the end product would be totally mind-boggling.

(via Small Aperture)

Tom Guilmette was doing a project in Vegas that involved a Phantom Flex high speed camera when he decided to experiment with 2,564 frames per second in his hotel room. This is the resulting video showing his random experiments.

Even ugly things in life (like dropping your phone) are beautiful in super slow motion.

(via Engadget)

Here’s a quick tutorial on how you can fake a slow motion effect with only still photos using Adobe After Effects.

(via Photoxels)