JBRIII

Definitely wear air protection. I set off an explosion in my basement as a teen and have ringing in my ears to this day, 50 yrs plus, a small firecracker may he ok, but not worth the risk. I'd recommend video using the highest frame rate you can find. Early GoPros went to 400 fps I believe, now lower, but much faster than any DSLR I know of.

An idea would be to place fire cracker in a divet in the ground and put water balloon above. Mass of water should show effect, but move slower.

Krontech makes a camera which goes to 18,000?. Data transfer within camera becomes an issue. Kronos fill 16gb in ten seconds at highest speed I believe.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

I would try 1/8000 of a second in a burst and adjust my iso and apeture to work out the exposure. I feel bulb will be to much time. If I can get 10 frames a second at 1/8000 it should be interesting.

Bob Werre

I had a commercial assignment to capture an explosion that sends a very sharp ended bullet into a rock formation typically called preforating. In the drilling of a well, you have to penetrate the drill pipe (really thick stuff) generally a several levels. Those bullets will travel several feet into the rock. All this allows the oil (in our case) to seep into the pipe and travel upward. We ended up working in a concrete bunker, with an explosive expert, who made up various charges that were loaded into the gun--magesseum (flash powder)was one of the components. I worked in total darkness, prefocused with the shutter locked open with simple verbal commands. I was able to do a couple of test shots, then a handful of finals but with varying degrees of explosive power. I then superimposed one of the bullets as if it was leaving the gun. A really fun job.
Later on I also had to shoot an ad showing how well industrial safety glasses would withstand impact. The ad agency chose a 22 cal bullet--apparently the glass were tested that way. So I borrowed a 22 from and a handful of shells. I drove the end of the city near where is had lived a few years back. It was an underpass where some guys had been shooting turtles back when I lived there. I knew the glasses would show an impact scare from the 22--this wasn't Super Man stuff! So I stuck the glasses in a pile of sand with another mound of sand beyond that. I backed off 20' and fired a round. As expected, the glasses showed a 'wound'. I then shot a second and third round into additional subjects, so I could pick the best looking. All of a sudden I had three patrol cars sweep down on me. The area I had once determined to be open country was now within the city limits of a small city, despite not having any culture nearby. They ran my borrowed gun, my driver's license on their puters but really had no choice to accept my word. Why else would I try to shoot at safety glasses!

Bob Werre

I forgot to mention that the ad agency ran the final ad through some 'legal eagles' and it was determined that--somebody was going to put those glasses on somebody, back off 20ft and try to redo the ad. It was pulled, & probably rightfully so. Some people will try anything! However, I did get paid and didn't have to pay a city fine, nor was the borrowed gun used in any felony, and I didn't have any warrants under my DL either. So all was good. We ended up with the ad showing a male model with a bruised eye socket. I hired a really good makeup artist for that and we had a great time bashing his eye!

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

Aren't grandsons wonderful. My grandfather taught me how to make gunpowder when I was 12 or 13. Of course you have to test it after you make it. That spiked my lifelong interest in pyrotechnics then chemistry and other sciences.

You state the firecracker is small so I assume it's like a 1 1/2" black cat or a lady finger. Other than common sense precautions the issues you have doing it in your shop are smoke and magnified noise. I might like to do the experiment more than once so the smoke might build up and reduce visibility. If fireworks are legal in your area you might want to move the set outdoors. If you wanted to start a fire with a small firecracker it's extremely difficult without an accelerant. Fire pits, charcoal grills and discarded cigarettes are higher risk.

Without buying specialized equipment I would try two techniques. First I'd trigger a high speed burst after the fuse is lit. My second option would be starting a video sequence when the fuse is lit. I would make repeated attempts using different exposure settings. Sounds like a "blast".

williejoha

MIOPS makes a specialty trigger for all kinds of modes such as noise, lightning, laser trap, movement etc. for around $200-250 it can be yours. Mine works great.
WJH

skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

I would think that it wouldn't be a problem...after all, we photographed 300 pounds of ANFO making a Chevy S10 into little bitty pieces!

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...finally some level-headed *experience*! Haha, understandable that some would be skittish around *a* firecracker, but, really, any of you guys shoot real guns! That said, I'd take it outside, maybe try to rig a flash, buy a triggering device and shoot it like fireworks. Sounds like a few tries to me...not like here, where I only had one shot (haha, well, plenty of "ammo" so coulda done a few!)...that's a bomb made out of 2 pounds of C4 wrapped around a TNT grenade. Part of the job, folks. ;0)

SonyDoug

Thanks for all the replies. I don't know what it is about kids, but explosives are a major interest to some (or most). Both my brother and I ended up in the hospital after playing with homemade gun powder. For me it was relatively minor burns on the backs of my hands when a pile of gun powder ignited unexpectedly. For my brother it was much, much worse, a glass marble accidently shot through his foot with our homemade gun. So I do have first hand experience in stupidity.

I have a shutter sound triggering device, maybe we'll try that outdoors. My first thought was it wouldn't react fast enough, but we'll see. Maybe a safe test like dropping a steel ball on a hard surface and see if at what point it catches the rebound.

Several posts have mentioned that what I want to do has been done many times. I just want to do it myself though. Unbelievable how pleased I was when I got a sequential shot of my arm moving using the strobe function on my flash.

The firecrackers are left over from a purchase several years ago at a nearby indian reservation. They're 1/4" diameter, about an inch long. No where near as powerful as we used to get back in the '50's.

JBRIII

One night at a scientific meeting a group of mostly male chemist got to talking. To a man, we all got into chemistry through interests in explosives, etc. Don't know what motivates young people today to become chemists. What I did then was probably illegal in my state, but today, the FBI, ATF, etc. would show up at your door, probably as soon as one tried to source the starting materials. I made gunpowder using sulfur and potassium nitrate bought at the drug store! Try that now, although I have been surprised at what Amazon sells.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I expect that is the same as the lightning triggers. I suppose it might be tricky if the camera responds too slowly.

RolandDieter

Follow the safety tips above. And then why not shoot a video and clip a frame?

promfh Loc: Redwood City, CA, USA

I would approach this as a multi-part image. You want an image of the firecracker with its fuse burning as well as one of the explosion. I've done a few of these types of projects in my distant (and not always wise) past. One even involved a small structure and some high grade explosives in a military situation.

There are several ways to approach this project:

1. Working in the dark, shutter open, you'll get a flare from the burning fuse. Then fire a flash to fill in the firecracker and any background. Finally wait for the flash from the explosion and close the shutter.

2. Do three separate exposures and combine then in post processing.

3. Have some low level light to expose the scene (5-10 seconds) with the explosion ending the exposure.

4. Put the firecracker in some talcum powder or colored chalk dust, then fire a flash when the explosion happens. Time isn't super critical but you want to capture the cloud of powder along with the flash of the explosion.

5. For some real fun try putting some small, lightweight objects nearby. The delay of the flash firing might catch them being propelled outward.

Obviously there are numerous safety issues and precautions involved here so read all the previous warnings that have been posted here. I still have scarring from multiple skin grafts following a "Make your own Flash Powder" high school experiment.

Good luck, and put aside some "Bail Money" in case something doesn't really work out.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I didn't read all the other replies, but I think you'll need several attempts using continuous shooting on your camera.

More -

https://www.google.com/search?q=photographing+explosions&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS925US925&oq=photographing+explosions&aqs=chrome..69i57.19799j1j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Nathanielross Loc: Northeastern Maryland.

Only about 100 years ago there was something called flash powder that was popular before we had flash bulbs