The recording of the patterns made by static electricity date back to the invention of the technique in 1777 by Georg Lichtenberg. Since he was the first to observe the patterns they are referred to as Lichtenberg figures.
By using a simple mechanical oscillator attached to a plastic cup, a number of unique standing wave patterns can be created. The resulting photographs are similar to geometric mandala patterns and thus are popular subjects for photography students.
The Mitutoyo long working distance objectives are popular in macro photography, but often difficult to mount to a camera.
Originally, the geometric chuck was a device to make ornate patterns on a lathe. Invented in the 1860s, the device could have up to 8 layers—each driven by a central shaft.
Each year I update experiments in the collection of the High-Speed photography lab at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). One of this year’s additions is an air-powered water bell.
A simple ripple tank is the mainstay of every physics teacher's demo collection. The typical demonstration is done with a point light source of a little tungsten light bulb a few feet above the ripple tank. The ripple tank is in reality a shallow pan of water with a clear bottom. The ripples are observed by placing a sheet of paper a foot or so below the pan of water.
Schlieren imaging is a fairly standard optical technique for visualizing heat, sound, or pressure differences in air. Technically, a schlieren system is able to see clear disturbances in air due to slight differences in the speed of light in the air. The technique can be sensitive enough to see the heat rising off a human hand at room temperature.
A few years ago, I saw an article on water-damaged film that claimed the damage was due to bacteria and fungus eating the film. Having a bit of experience with fungus and bacteria from various scientific projects over the years, I thought I would explore this topic. Could I speed up the process? I also wanted to know which film aged the fastest, and was bacteria or fungus really responsible for the damage?
We came up for the idea to do this shoot when we saw someone on Instagram who was dropping flowers into milk and just manually trying to get the timing right. Although they were able to get nice photos of the splash some of the time, they would miss the splash just as often as they were able to capture it. We knew we could build a rig that let us capture the perfect flower splash moment every single time. In all, we took about 70 photos and successfully captured the splash every time.
This past month, a student showed me an Instagram post with floating scrabble letters and asked me how it was done. After a few moments of reflection, I decided there was a number of ways to photograph floating letters and it would be a great idea for a student lab. To explore different techniques would be a great lab. The students evaluated the techniques to see which was best for creating floating letters.
I often hear my students lament about how if only they could travel to the rainforest they would find something really interesting to photograph. I tell students “look around where you live – there are wonderful things to photograph everywhere”. The photographers that work with local species often obtain shots that are unobtainable from casual travels.
There are still a few very unique and interesting things that can be done with film but not with a digital camera. One of these experiments is the recording of sparks on film.
Are you stressed? What better way to de-stress is there than to break things while making cool photographs at the same time? You can break anything, from spaghetti to fancy glassware, there is no limit. It will take you about half an hour to build the Arduino circuit and write the code for this sound triggering photographic system.
Polarized light is light that has waves oscillating all in the same direction. There are two basic ways to get polarized light: from reflection or by using a filter.
Many materials show internal stress when illuminated with polarized light and photographed with a second analyzing polarizer. This unique property of materials is called birefringence. Some of the more common material that exhibits this property is glass, ice, and most plastics.
A .22 caliber bullet moving at 1,200 feet per second slices through an apple in the classic high-speed shot. This photo was created recently by Nasser Albahri at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
In 2002, a renegade science photographer, Martin Waugh, was playing with high-speed photography and discovered he could image two drips of water hitting each other.
The Coffee Drip Printer is a curious contraption created by RIT photography professor Ted Kinsman. It can print out your digital photos, but instead of buying pricey ink for the prints, all you need to do is give the machine some coffee.