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Thread: Magnesium Powder Flash

  1. #11

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    Sep 1998
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    For wet plate portraiture in-studio, photographers typically use an electronic flash like a Speedotron 4803, which - as you've probably guessed - delivers 4800 watt-seconds of light. This is pretty much the minimum of light you need if you are going to use any kind of light modifier (to produce flattering light) like a softbox or a beauty dish. That is a LOT of light. The light produced by a Magnesium (or perchlorate) flash is likely far less than what a Speedotron 4803 puts out. And lets bear in mind that the materials are extremely dangerous to handle and use, and I believe you have to have a license to own and use "mixed binary explosives". What's the point in pursuing an extremely dangerous technique, solely for the sake of being "authentic"? Your plates will be authentic, regardless of which lighting technique you use. Nobody but you and the subject of the photo is going to know how you lit the scene.

    I once tried lighting a studio still life with a Vivitar 283 set on maximum output. I used a Petzval lens with an aperture of f3.1 and I popped the flash at the subject 30 times from no more than 24" away. How did it turn out? Zero exposure. Thirty pops from 2 feet away didn't even begin to register an exposure. Just FYI.
    Actually the capacitors can store 4800 WS.. since WS are not output you can never get that many out of it.

  2. #12

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    Jun 2017
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    Actually the capacitors can store 4800 WS.. since WS are not output you can never get that many out of it.
    Noted. Thanks.

  3. #13

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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Unfortunately, the book "Cyanide and Spirits" by Bill Jay is a scarce book now, it should be required reading by those ready to embark on using 19th century processes... The reprints online usually just cover the spirit photography aspects, but the other half of the book outline how hazardous processes were in the "bad-old-days"...

    After the hazards of wet plate transitioned to safer forms of dry plate, flashpowder came in to vogue and accounted for new forms of death and dismemberment for photographers...

    The "future" couldn't come fast enough back in those days...

    Steve K

  4. #14

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    Jun 2016
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    San Diego
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by Dugan View Post
    Nobody has mentioned the huge cloud of smoke and soot generated yet, either.
    Oh, wait...I just did.
    Hasn't anyone else seen the old movies where everyone is singed and blackened with soot after the flash goes off?

  5. #15

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    Jun 2016
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    San Diego
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    Actually the capacitors can store 4800 WS.. since WS are not output you can never get that many out of it.
    At least he correctly stated "watt-seconds" and not watts or watts/second like most people

  6. #16

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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by gnd2 View Post
    At least he correctly stated "watt-seconds" and not watts or watts/second like most people
    Could have said joules as well.

  7. #17

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    Collinsville, CT USA
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    When I was a student at RIT in the mid 1970s, one of the professors wanted to do a demonstration of using a Magnesium Powder Flash at night. Remember it had to be done outside in a part of the parking lot that was roped off. He had to have the local Fire Department present, so arranged it with them to be a training exercise on their weekly meeting night. Ignition had to be done remotely per the Fire Department. When the whole thing came to fruition, and the magnesium power went off, the power company dispatched a repair truck thinking that a transformer had blown up... no one thought of alerting them to the event.

  8. #18

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    Aug 2000
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by Two23 View Post
    The flash powder is magnesium. Flash bulbs are magnesium wire encased in a glass bulb with oxygen gas. Even the small #25 bulbs put out a lot of light.


    Kent in SD
    A #25 bulb puts out more light than any hand held electronic unit. Probably even more than most amateur priced 110V units.
    I used flash powder in the 1930's when it could be bought at any camera store. IT IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. EVEN A SMALL EXCESS CAN EASILY SET A CEILING ON FIRE IN THE AVERAGE HOME. EVEN OUTDOORS IT MAY EXPLODE PREMATURELY CAUSING SEVERE BURNS. Don't even consider it.

  9. #19
    Drew Wiley
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    Sep 2008
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    SF Bay area, CA
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    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    Even outdoors? That's how entire towns get burnt down in dry weather, and not just your ceiling. Ordinary fireworks are bad enough. Sounds like a formula for getting hauled off to prison.

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Feb 2013
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    332

    Re: Magnesium Powder Flash

    I'm going to agree with Drew on this one. This sounds like something that's going to end badly.

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