How bright a flash is safe for the human eye?

[dsphotog]

bounce-flash?

[Mark Sawyer]

bounce-flash?

A possibility, though I'm more likely to use a softbox with a diffusor.

[Amedeus]

Lasting eye damage with commercial available strobes at typical use distance is not very likely but yes you will see the colored balls etc.

Operators though can get blinded for longer times if flashed at full power while handling equipment ... The startling effect is much more dangerous ... Like falling from a ladder or getting burned

There are optical guidelines for all high brightness sources manufacturers have to comply with. This includes lasers, xenon arc lamps and even high brightness LED.

There are industrial flash lamps out there that will give you instant sunburn but it is very unlikely you have access to them ;-)

Edgerton didn't use standard flash lamps for motion stopping bullets ... Spark gaps are much better at it because of the extreme short flash duration .. Well under a microsecond ...

[patrickjames]

Mark, you should post a reading from the flash to give people a better idea. If it is f/50,000 at 20 feet then maybe you have a problem...

Personally after spending untold hours in the studio I no longer like flash that is direct without a lot of diffusion being aimed at me so I am pretty reticent about aiming it at anyone else, but that is just me.

Since you are doing wetplate you could block some of the visible light (thinking blue filter) to mitigate the effects of the bright light on their eyes.

Try throwing Tinkerbell in front of the light. If she melts then, yup, it is too bright....

[John Olsen]

Ditto, with some black gobo paper too close to a 2400ws. Luckily, I saw it before the smoke alarm went off. If it burns paper, it might be too hot for a model's eyes.

[John Olsen]

Lasting eye damage with commercial available strobes at typical use distance is not very likely but yes you will see the colored balls etc.

Operators though can get blinded for longer times if flashed at full power while handling equipment ... The startling effect is much more dangerous ... Like falling from a ladder or getting burned

There are optical guidelines for all high brightness sources manufacturers have to comply with. This includes lasers, xenon arc lamps and even high brightness LED.

There are industrial flash lamps out there that will give you instant sunburn but it is very unlikely you have access to them ;-)

Edgerton didn't use standard flash lamps for motion stopping bullets ... Spark gaps are much better at it because of the extreme short flash duration .. Well under a microsecond ...

Egerton's spark gaps require hearing protectors. Trust me, I've staggered out several times from inadvertent spark gap firings.

[Tony Karnezis]

When I was in the USAF and doing aerial reconnaissance on 10" roll at night our flashes were aerial bombs rather then strobes.

Not a technique I'd recommended for models.

[Drew Bedo]

Jerry Spagnoli said at a workshop that he used a large bank of studio strobes (don't remember the specifics) to do Daguerreotype bridal portraits . He remarked that most girls wouldn't sit for more than two exposures.

[Bob Salomon]

Not a technique I'd recommended for models.

You would also call them flares.

[Peter De Smidt]

Google "Kleig Eye".