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Method and Setup

 

 

Equipment

  • Sony DKC-FP3 Digital Still Camera

  • Vivitar 283 Flash Unit w/0 ohm resistance

  • Sound Trigger with cable to flash

  • 760 Crossman Pumpmaster Pellet Gun

  • Copperhead .117 cal. BB's

  • Assortment of Food courtesy of the PFM and Little Debbie Snacks

 

Camera Settings

Initial settings were:

  • Aperture f/5.6

  • 1 second shutter speed

  • Normal focal length

  • 1344x1024 picture resolution (.TIF file)

  • 400 film speed

Settings were changed shortly after we started to achieve the best results.

  • Aperture f/4.8

  • 2.8 seconds shutter speed

  • Normal focal length

  • 1344x1024 picture resolution (.TIF file)

  • 400 film speed

The combination of having a f-stop of 4.8 and having a film sensitivity of 400, provided the perfect exposure for the pictures we were taking. Seeing how we were both males and not perfect, we had to leave a 2.8 second time frame so we wouldn't miss our picture. This worked out well, in that we were able to capture the BB as it passed through the picture frame, but it also burdened us with tons of thermal noise in our images.

We took all of our photographs by using a "low-powered" air gun sitting still on a gun mount, and impaling various munchies with a speeding BB. The sound of the releasing air pressure, as we pulled the trigger, set off the sound trigger causing the flash to be released. The  camera's "film" is then exposed with the image of our beloved Little Debbies dying. The camera sat about 3 feet  to the side perpendicular to the path of the BB. The sound trigger was sitting around 6 -9 feet from the gun, depending on what stage we wanted the picture to be taken.

We derived a counting down method where we would both count down from five. Stew would press the shutter button at two, and I would fire the gun at one. A pellet trap was placed at the end of our set-up to catch the BBs, so that we "shouldn't" have broken anything such as a window. However a certain incident happened that will not be disclosed, and we wanted to play it safe. This is when we proceeded to shift our setup to a different location within the room.

This didn't discourage us at all. We kept investigating ways to improve our pictures after a few were taken at a time. A layout of our recently taken images on a computer screen would provide us with the photos all lined up ready to be critiqued. Darker images led us to open the aperture more with a smaller f-stop, and we realized that the zero ohm resistance we had our flash on was perfect to capture such high-speed brutality, without all the blurriness.

Our diabolical mindset soon forced us to continue destroying food over and over with this simple method. We were able to capture our deeds for all of you totally  rad  web-surfer dudes out there to see.

Here is a diagram of how we had our photography station setup:

 1337 Project Setup

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