So a few have asked about the sound trigger on my recent set of breaking glass shots. Basically a sound trigger is just that. Its a unit with a small microphone hooked to it. When the microphone picks up a noise it fires the shutter or flash (depending on how you set it) of the camera.

My first view of a sound trigger shot came from a guy names Steve Strawn ([link]) . I'm sure I have seen shots using a trigger before but these were the first that I ever really noticed. His work is brilliant. Here are some of his images (used by permission. Copyright Steve Strawn):








For years I've wanted one of these things so the hunt began.

I researched all sorts of triggers. Most of them are home built. If you do a search on the net you can find all sorts of information for DIY triggers. I'm an electronic dunce so building one myself is absolutely not an option. Then I found this company... ([link]) . I was in heaven until I saw the price so I put the purchase off for years.

About a month ago I decided that I couldn't put it off anymore so I ordered one with the sound trigger and also a motion detection trigger. I've always wanted to capture some colliding water drops with the crown showing and that's the trigger needed for stuff like that.

Once I got it I was amazed at how robust the unit is. There are so many settings. Multiple exposures, flash times and delays, shutter delays. Anything you could want to set with it can be.

So now I've done the glass dropping thing with liquid (images to come in the next few days) I have a pretty good understanding of how this stuff works and here's the skinny...

1) It's not about shutter speed. All the shots I've taken have been at 125-250th of a second. Pretty slow and with standard techniques the glass would be a blur.

2) It's all about flash duration!!!!!!! A standard camera flash has a duration (it's like shutter speed but instead of shutter duration its a measurement of how long the light lasts after a flash) is about 1/1000th. Good enough to capture most people in most situations but NOT fast enough for fast moving objects like glass breaking or water drops.

There are some flashes out there (Vivitar 283, Canon 430, 550 and others) that allow you to 'dial down' the power of the flash all the way to 1/64th power. When taking a standard Canon 430 and lowering the power to 1/64th you are basically setting the flash duration to 1/30,000th of a second or, in terms we can understand, quick enough to capture a hummingbirds wings in flight.

Now with that turning down of power comes much less flash output. So, in most cases you need more than one. Two is good, three is better and 5 or 6 makes things really fun.

So when you want to catch something that moves real quick (I'm not talking a person running here, I'm talking really fast) remember that it's flash durations that's important not shutter speed.

Well, this is what I've found out. Hope it helps a bit...

Here are some of my tests with it so far....