Spontaneous Combustion
(Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/640 second, f/4, ISO 100)
What you are seeing is a capture of a lightbulb in the process of burning out. To create the shot, my friend Harley and I removed the glass enclosure of a standard household lightbulb (while leaving the innards intact) and powered it up in a pitch black room. The result was an immediate burn-out, which we were all too ready to photograph. The red hue on the smoke was added in post-processing.
Here's one more I did inverting the shot:
(Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/1000 second, f/4, ISO 100)
For detailed instructions on making a similar shot, visit DIYPhotography.net.
UPDATE: For those requesting (here and on Digg), here is the top shot with minimal adjustment (contrast, crop and noise reduction):
(Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/640 second, f/4, ISO 100)
Labels: tutorial
57 Comments:
That's incredible. That's such a great photo, the textures and colours are wonderful.
Very kewl. Fantastic idea and excellent execution.
It's a fantastic shot - although I'd love to see the un-colorized version.
yeah, how about a picture before you made it fake
neat, but how about one that shows off the original untouched scene. I want to see what it actually looked like.
Another vote here for an un-colorized version. Nothing beats authenticity.
Post-processing does not make an image "fake". It is a common technique in real photography. Excellent picture, great job.
was the shot taken by hand, or was it triggered?
This isn't spontaneous combustion. Wikipedia defines it as "The self-ignition, or apparent self-ignition, and burning of any mass; often of highly flammable materials, such as a pile of oily rags; see combustion". This doesn't happen by itself. You must initate the rapid oxidation by forcing sufficient current through the filament. Great photo though.
I shot these on a tripod using a remote release. The camera (Canon 30D) was in drive mode shooting at 5 frames per second.
Great shot! I did this a few years ago, was a pain cutting the glass off, I actually wrapped them in tape and used a dremel tool. Yours definitely turned out better than mine.
http://www.pbase.com/adspigot/image/28361445
Jason
Great work! I'ld like to see you do some more. Also, the "fake" naysayers - grow up. It's for your own good, no one elses.
Fantastic work!
Wow you survived digg, who are you hosted with?
is it me or does the 2nd pic look like a pecker?!?!?
Nonetheless great pics...
Gorgeous shot (Original and photochops).
Nicely executed, man. Damn the nay-sayers.
We deturmine what is fake, not you. This is a fake with not original color. PERIOD.
What kind of lens did you use?
Gorgeous image to be sure. However, photography in this day and age no longer depicts objective truth. Within a photo, one cannot be sure a specific object is in a specific place at a specific time. Nonetheless, very beautiful.
"What kind of lens did you use?"
This was shot with a Canon 30D using a Canon 24-105 f/4L lens.
I did this a few years ago, was a pain cutting the glass off, I actually wrapped them in tape and used a dremel tool.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work! This is how we did it.
photography in this day and age no longer depicts objective truth.
There's a whole philosophical debate behind that one. 8-) I'd say photography never depicted objective truth. It's always been subject to what the photographer decided to include and not include, frame, etc.
Fantastic shot!
These are quite beautiful! Painters used to call photography "fake" art. Now, people call manipulated images fake photography. What's next?
Nice photographic feat. Any chance you would want to post a high-res version so I might use it as a wallpaper?
"Any chance you would want to post a high-res version so I might use it as a wallpaper?"
The full-res versions are available on my Flick account, though you will have to sign-in with a Flickr membership (free or pro).
Here's a link to the smoke set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richlegg/sets/72157594501895154/detail/
"The result was an immediate burn-out, which we were all to ready to photograph."
TOO READY TO PHOTOGRAPH*
Sorry!
Like always, great photo!
what f-stop and shutter speed did you use?
Cool picture.
Really great....I want to do with with my new HD video cam...but I doubt that the frame rate is high enough. of course it won't compare to this, but I'm going to give it a try.
----
John
http://www.monomachines.com
Cool shot, but Harley is such a lame, trendy name.
If I was good at photoshoping, I'd add the face of jesus and then you could make millions.
My sister woke we up to check out this shot. It was totally worth. Absolutely beautiful.
I actually thought that it looked more like the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb explosion. It definitely does not look much like male anatomy unless it is deformed anatomy. You know, Freud did a study on human behavior and those who were obsessed with these types of observations or thoughts, but that is a whole other dissertaton that can be elaborated on in a different forum other than here. And some people just take things too literally rather than metaphorically as the title implies in their comments. This pic is really beautiful and fascinating how it was obtained. I enjoyed it. I hope you both were wearing safety glasses when doing this.
I love the second one with its very clean and simple colour-combination. Cheers!
i love how the camera can capture the beautiful elegance of such a fantastic burst of energy.
very nice.
I love the shot! Very, very well done. Congrats! I'm going to try something like this for my site. Excellent idea and wonderful photography!
i never thought i could see like this , but its really wonderful
Great shots !
Did you try pouring some chemicals on the filament prior to firing it? I think that Potassium (K) could give the purple color without Photoshopping.
K is a strong oxidizer, so the filament might break earlier. It is also toxic...be careful, in case.
Ciao
This deserves to be on one of those de-motivational posters. I'm sure you can fill in your own punchline. :-)
I like the idea and your photos. I am very impressed, especially the second photo. Great work!
Brilliant photograph! love the cloud of smoke.. almost looks like the mushroom cloud! super stuff..!
Fantastic work, very cool processing. The 15 year olds who posted the negative comments obviously know nothing about photography. Virtually every photo you will ever see has been processed in one way or another.
I think the addition of the pink was 'faking' the picture not enhancment. OTOH, the removal of the lens flare just above the base of the bulb is reasonable.
BUT, The second picture clearly shows additional detail in the smoke, if you can use color to make that detail more visible than the unprocessed image that would make this already brilliant image even better.
Inability to spell the word "determine" disqualifies you from judging whether or not a piece of art is fake.
Great shot. I too, prefer the untreated version. Nice work.
I work for Philips. This is not how a light bulb normally burns out: it can be much more "exciting". Part of the filament becomes too thin (the metal slowly evaporates over time), and the filament breaks. At that moment, the current arcs across the gap, creating a very bright flash, and a surge in temperature. When this happens in a lamp under pressure (eg some Halogen lamps) it can even explode the glass (Philips lamps are fused to stop this, and we use "hard glass" which is stronger).
Oh, and one more point. In labs, a lamp is artificially aged to bring the filament to the point of failure not by removing the glass, but by using a laser focused on the filament to burn it out. So try that at home -- the photo will be better :-)
wonderful photos! incredible if you ask me..
Боян
This is not new idea at all:)
http://www.photosight.ru/photo.php?photoid=614681
http://www.photosight.ru/photo.php?photoid=462962
This is not new idea at all:)
http://www.photosight.ru/photo.php?photoid=614681
http://www.photosight.ru/photo.php?photoid=462962
He doesn't say it's a "NEW" idea. In fact, he cites the source where he got the idea from (DIYPhotography).
so pretty!
I finally got around to filming and posting mine. Thank you for the inspiration!
Any chance of getting a copy of the full-res image for home use? I have no intention of using it for anything else. If so, please post here saying so and I'll email directly. Thanks! :)
"Any chance of getting a copy of the full-res image for home use?"
Contact me via email and we'll work it out... (rich - at - leggnet.com)
Wonderful exposure.
It;s beautiful! A wonderful capture of the colors and light, but a bit to phallic if I do say so myself.
I love this ! I have used this idea as part of my college photography project. The brief is Similar but different using three shots in Monochrome. Ive done the clear bulb in holder then same shot with a dimmer switch to make it glow. Then this shot for the third. Id like to thank Rich Legg for putting the tutorial up here, it helped me hugely. I will be referencing this site and Rich's shot in my college work. Kind regards Rick.
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