47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

manofhg - ignore this curmudgeon. Pictures posted to verify a solution or not to an original posting are entirely "appropriate."

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Sure it is when they are part of a topic or follow-up. They might readily not be Gallery or Photo Analysis images to begin with. The Main section is not just for Arguing.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Not sure if ANY section is appropriate for argumentation ...

Photographs posted to verify a position - are entirely appropriate ...

But, if you just want to contribute a photo exposition - The Gallery is the place to post them ....

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I love the Photo Posting Police on a Photography site...

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Thank you all for your helpful advice and ideas.

Shutter lag is in all cameras as this link shows (https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM), regardless of how new camera is, it does take some time for the mirror to move, etc. That said, the smarts of the camera need to coordinate with the firing of the flash. With the MIOPS, it sends the signal (I assume) to both at the same time and therefore, the flash goes, then the shutter releases after the mirror has moved, etc.

I may be wrong, but I thinking that if the MIOPS were to send the info to the camera and the camera were to trip the flash, then they would be in sync, but delayed by the 59 ms or so and possibly miss the balloon's popping. For lightning, the flash isn't used and the amount of time that the lightning is striking is longer, I assume. I assume that because I have shot lightning successfully with just triggering when I saw the lightning, but that is based on a lucky longer strike. MIOPS says that the shutter lag isn't a problem with lightning capture.

Even though capturing the bursting of balloons has been done forever, it hasn't been done by me and I would at least like to see if I can accomplish what may be "old hat" to others. Therefore, I will seek to try and capture a few this week, maybe even tonight. As I get something worth displaying, I'll post some probably in the gallery or in the critique area because I love to have folks tell me how to improve or what might work better.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

As I said earlier, if someone says an answer solved their problem I wouldn’t insult them by asking them to prove it.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

If it helps the discussion it certainly is.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Is your flash set to ETTL or ETTL II?

If so, switch to Manual flash. You may need to do some tests and make some adjustments to arrive at a correct exposure. I'd also try to use the lowest flash power possible, since that will probably make for the shortest flash duration.

ETTL/ETTL II is essentially an "auto exposure" mode. It fires a lower power (1/64) "pre flash" that's used by the camera and flash to determine the correct flash output, then fires the "full" flash at that pre-determined power level. This happens so quickly it often seems like a single pop of the flash... but it's not. This can mess with syncing the flash with any triggering device or event.

You mention using the camera in manual exposure mode and also using manual focus.... both of which are correct. If the lens is a stabilized one, I'd also recommend turning that off. Metering and auto exposure, auto focus and IS all can cause slight delays that might mess with your efforts to sync with the triggering device.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Flash will be in manual mode as well. The sync thing is just something I will have to shoot in bulb mode for sound activated shots. Yes, the lens will be prefocused and put in MF, stabilization off. I'll shoot some preshots to verify correct exposure at lowest possible flash level, then go for the real thing.

therwol Loc: USA

Doc Edgerton also created the Rapatronic Camera in 1940s for photographing nuclear detonations. The photo in this link was taken at 1/100,000,000 sec. If not for this man, we'd probably be still using flash bulbs.

https://petapixel.com/2014/03/05/rapatronic-camera-atomic-blast-captured-11000000000th-second/

larryzplace Loc: Elk Grove Village Illinois

The advice you received was correct... With high speed photography the attempt to get everything synchronized just won't happen automatically... Do some youtube searching and just about everyone will tell you that it is necessary to do it in bulb mode in a dark room... No matter what camera and flash you have that is the way it works... With lightning you will find it is possible if your trigger senses infrared properly because the IR will hit your sensor first triggering the shutter, I use about a 250ms shutter open time and then the visible light from the lightning will make it to you...
You will also find that the lightning is made up of multiple flashes... Youtube is your friend and there is a wealth of info there... Good luck in your quest...

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Since when? Especially when it is an example of the problem

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

clickalot Loc: Chicago area

There are several beam/sound triggers available but I like a challenge and decided to design and built a light beam/sound trigger. Being a retired electronics engineer made this possible. My primary purpose was to do water drop/splash photography. Placing a light beam trigger to activate when the drop was about 18 inches above the water pool provided more than enough time to cover the camera shutter delay. I had the flash triggered by the camera in manual mode with the camera shutter release triggered from a cable connected to my adjustable time delay box. Camera on a tripod set to manual mode, manual focus. With this set up I was able to work in low ambient light since the flash, even at 1/32 power, was able to dominate over the ambient light. I made an adjustable time delay circuit that triggered from the time the drop passed a led sensor. Sound sensing was also included but I have not used that feature yet. Obviously, you will need something to give a trigger signal at least the amount of the camera shutter delay for this to work as it should. For example, to capture the burst of a balloon, I would drop a match stick pin dart from 2 feet above the balloon and use the led beam trigger just after the dart release. I would then fine tune the adjustable time delay circuit to match the time to impact of the dart with the balloon. This way you get reliable repeatable shots of what you want.

If you need sound as the trigger, then one needs to generate a sound (or light signal) a few hundred milliseconds ahead of the time when the shot is to be taken. The sound of the event to be photographed will normally not be useful as a trigger since the camera will trigger a few hundred milliseconds later and for many events, this will be too late.

Good luck to all with automatic triggered shots.

Good luck.

jcboy3

You need to put a lag into the balloon burst to account for the shutter lag. Eliminate all auto functions in the camera (focus and exposure) by using manual focus, fixed ISO, manual mode (for aperture, shutter). But there is still a lag from the time the shutter is released and the first curtain has fully opened. The events are (1) open shutter, (2) burst balloon, (3) fire flash, (4) close shutter.