High-speed Photography
Capturing events too fast for the eye, using very brief flash durations or specialised high-frame-rate cameras.
Measured in
µs
In depth
For still images the freezing is done by the flash rather than the shutter: a studio strobe at low power can emit for under twenty microseconds, which stops motion no mechanical shutter could. The technical problem then becomes triggering — a sound, light-beam or vibration sensor firing the flash at the right instant.
Examples in practice
A sound trigger fires a 1/20,000 s flash burst as a balloon bursts, freezing the rubber mid-tear.