Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

I thought about throwing a plate of salad in the air and photographing it.

105mm Macro f/2.8 lens, 1/160 sec @ f/11, ISO 200
Pluto Trigger and three speedlights

Thanks for stopping by for a look
Steve

Busbum Loc: 85367

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Beautiful, I'd clone out that one piece of lettuce under the plate

Dannj

Clever😂

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

So that is how tossed salad is made. Very creative.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I guess that's why it's called a "tossed" salad??? I'm wondering how you got to the camera and snapped such a nice image before the salad fell back into the plate!

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

This is the catapult I built for this project. The arm or the part that the bowl is setting on is in the up position. You push the arm assembly down and an electromagnet holds it down. There are four springs that are ready to pull the arm assembly up when the magnet is turned off. When the arm assembly stops the plate and the salad are tossed into the air about 8 inches off the platform.

I used a Pluto infrared trigger that triggers the camera. When the arm assembly is released it crosses an infrared beam and trips the cameras shutter and speedlights.

You can adjust the Pluto trigger delay so that when the plate hits it's peak and just start to fall it trips the shutter. I think about 10-15 millisecond delay was needed.

I've tossed water, flour, bowls, cups and a variety of other things. The worst was using a dart to burst a balloon filled with flour. I do have 1 photo of the dart bursting the balloon and flour going everywhere. However, The effect was not very good and I forgot to clean up the water from the last failed project. What a sticky mess that was.

Steve

(Download)

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

That is quite the set up. I’m impressed.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

That's quite a setup. How do you keep from breaking plates?

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I'm totally impressed Steve. The contraption you made and the beautiful final Photo. If for a client I don't think it could be any better. The real deal, remarkable.👏👏👏👏👏

Have one question. Is the picture taken on while salad is going up or coming down? Also is this the winner out of how many shots that went in the trash so to speak?

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thanks for the thumb up

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

thanks for the comment. About 2 weeks to build & test

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Plastic

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

Thanks Jim. Coming down. I think this is the 2nd best shot out of about 50+. The cool thing is once you nail the timing, it's repeatable. Now your looking at placement of the tomatoes, lettuce & plate.