page_title: High-speed photography
section_title: Stroboscopy and laser applications
hierarchical_section_title: High-speed photography / Stroboscopy and laser applications
caption_attribution_description: English: Ultra-high speed photo of bullet fired out of a S&amp;W revolver photographed with an air-gap flash
context_page_description: High-speed photography is the science of taking pictures of very fast phenomena. In 1948, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers defined high-speed photography as any set of photographs captured by a camera capable of 69 frames per second or greater, and of at least three consecutive frames. High-speed photography can be considered to be the opposite of time-lapse photography.
  In common usage, high-speed photography may refer to either or both of the following meanings. The first is that the photograph itself may be taken in a way as to appear to freeze the motion, especially to reduce motion blur. The second is that a series of photographs may be taken at a high sampling frequency or frame rate. The first requires a sensor with good sensitivity and either a very good shuttering system or a very fast strobe light. The second requires some means of capturing successive frames, either with a mechanical device or by moving data off electronic sensors very quickly.
  Other considerations for high-speed photographers are record length, reciprocity breakdown, and spatial resolution.
context_section_description: Harold Edgerton is generally credited with pioneering the use of the stroboscope to freeze fast motion. He eventually helped found EG&G, which used some of Edgerton's methods to capture the physics of explosions required to detonate nuclear weapons. One such device was the EG&G Microflash 549, which is an air-gap flash. Also see the photograph of an explosion using a Rapatronic camera.
  Advancing the idea of the stroboscope, researchers began using lasers to stop high-speed motion. Recent advances include the use of High Harmonic Generation to capture images of molecular dynamics down to the scale of the attosecond (10⁻¹⁸ s).
caption: A photo of a Smith & Wesson firing, taken with an air-gap flash. The photo was taken in a darkened room, with camera's shutter open and the flash was triggered by the sound of the shot using a microphone.
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