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Thread: Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    As anyone who has followed my posts is painfully aware, I am a big advocate of creating and controlling the light which is responsible for making our photographs, both in the studio and out in the wilderness.

    It has always worked better for me than jerking around with the development to attempt to compensate for random crummy lighting.

    Electronic flash is possible to use in some outdoor situations. But flash bulbs are superior in some ways. Since they have a much longer duration, flash bulbs have the effective light output of very expensive and prohibitively heavy studio electronic flash packs.

    Apparently, spelunkers use flash bulbs all the time to illuminate cave photography. The technique is to open all shutters in total darkness, then fire off an enormous bare bulb in the middle of the cavern.

    JandC is selling old flash bulbs for a while until the supply runs out. Because of age, not all will actually fire (I know the feeling). And I believe I read somewhere that someone, I think in Ireland, was still manufacturing them (?).

    But I was thinking just the other day of a tv commercial I worked on (part of the crew) many moons ago, which featured an old-time still photographer using flash powder.

    So I did a web search and came up with several hits, including this:

    http://www.skylighter.com/mall/special_effects.asp#fx1060?OVRAW=flash%20powder&OVKEY=flash%20powder&OVMTC=standard

    Who knew, in this modern age of exploding Muslims and extremely vigilant authorities, that all this stuff was still available?

    I could really make some wonderful night photography with some of these products.

    And what a great way for a lonely old man to insure having some of the nice boys from ATF over for tea. Real soon.

  2. #2

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    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Doing some stage effects 10 years ago, we had a performance of the Wizard of Oz where we wanted a big entrance for the WW of the West.

    Our tech made a metal slot 48" long and filled it with flash powder. (I think he overestimated how much he needed for tha actual performance).

    Long story short - a 4 foot wide, 8 foot high curtain of flame, and a very blinded audience... Wish I'd had a camera up for it. (The Witch screamed and almost didn't go out on stage).

  3. #3

    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    John,
    the Irish company you refer to are http://www.meggaflash.com .They still make 3 types of bulbs.

    Please drop the coments about exploding Muslims - it's not funny.

  4. #4

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    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Exploding muslims aren't funny, except when a peice of them gets stuck between your teeth and you don't know it.

  5. #5

    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    The ones doing the exploding aren't Muslims, they are psychopaths and murderers.

    More to the point, to use flash powder, I think you'd have to do quite a bit of experimenting as to amounts to use to get a given exposure value. Also, unless you had some sort of reflector setup, a good bit of the light produced by the burning of the powder would be wasted. Not to mention the need to measure out portions of powder, and find a safe and reliable way to ignite it and the necessity of carrying a fire extinguisher whenever you were taking pictures, and explaining to airport security, the FBI, and finally the federal judge, and then the appellate judge, that you're just using this stuff for photography.

    Stick with the flash bulbs. Worked pretty well for O. Winston Link.

  6. #6

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    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Mark, I apologize if you find offense in the term “exploding Muslims”. It is intended solely as a space saving, more concise term for “radical fundamentalist Muslim extremist suicide/homicide bomber evil-doer”.

    As the old saying goes, “all kangaroos are Australians, but all Australians are not kangaroos”.

    I’m sorry but can’t recall a single incident involving an exploding Presbyterian...

    But then, the point of this thread is that an old-time replacement for flash bulbs is surprisingly still apparently available.

  7. #7
    Scott Davis
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    Re: Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Quote Originally Posted by John Cook View Post
    Mark, I apologize if you find offense in the term “exploding Muslims”. It is intended solely as a space saving, more concise term for “radical fundamentalist Muslim extremist suicide/homicide bomber evil-doer”.

    As the old saying goes, “all kangaroos are Australians, but all Australians are not kangaroos”.

    I’m sorry but can’t recall a single incident involving an exploding Presbyterian...

    But then, the point of this thread is that an old-time replacement for flash bulbs is surprisingly still apparently available.
    I think Presbyterians explode only when they've had too much beer and sauerbraten. Either that, or when they find out their teenage daughter is pregnant by the kid from the other side of the tracks.

  8. #8
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    Re: Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Please note that this thread was started back in 2005. Since then, John Cook has passed away.

  9. #9

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    Re: Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph Barker View Post
    Please note that this thread was started back in 2005. Since then, John Cook has passed away.
    Having worked with John at an un-named commercial studio years ago, I can only say that the world truly lost a unique and talented individual, who will be sorely missed. (He had a bitchin' sense of humor, too)



    erie

  10. #10

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    Outdoor Lighting with Flash (Boom!)

    I dont know of any suppliers for flash powder, but I have used smokless shotgun powder for the same. Any place that sells reloading supplies will have it. I used volumn measurements to get consistant results. A reflector of some kind is a good idea. A 6 volt flashlight battery and some wire can be rigged for an ignitation system.
    Do NOT use blackpowder or its substitutes, they leave a hugr cloud of smoke. If using the shotgun powder, light it in a loose pile, do not compress it at all, dont even put a piece of paper over the top of the pile, it will become explosive.

    Flash paper from a magic shop is another option.

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