Burning bulbs

[Muscat]

I haven't done this for a while so when I found a load of small bayonet bulbs in the garage I just had to have a play.

Taken with 5D3 and 100mm f2.8L macro lens, ISO 320, f11, 1/640, one small LED lamp positioned above and pointing down to help illuminate the smoke.

Comments welcomed.

[Wrinklyrocker]

Re: Burning bulbs

Very interesting images, well taken and processed.

[Alan_H]

Re: Burning bulbs

Excellent never seen this before No 2 is the pick for me, would like to know a bit more on how you did it, how careful you have to be when breaking the lamp to keep the filament intact and how long des it last when switched on?

Alan

[digiman]

Re: Burning bulbs

Excellent never seen this before No 2 is the pick for me, would like to know a bit more on how you did it, how careful you have to be when breaking the lamp to keep the filament intact and how long des it last when switched on?

Alan

Would like to know also!

Really like these,

Garry

[Muscat]

Re: Burning bulbs

Excellent never seen this before No 2 is the pick for me, would like to know a bit more on how you did it, how careful you have to be when breaking the lamp to keep the filament intact and how long des it last when switched on?

Alan

thanks for looking and commenting, the hardest part is as you have implied is the breaking of the glass around the filament, I have found that I get best results (fewer broken filaments) if I make multiple score marks on the glass with a glass cutter to weaken it and then gently tap the lamp with a tacking hammer to create a small hole in the glass then carefully break the glass away from the filament using a small pair of pliers. You will still not save every filament as they are very delicate, particularly as I am using small bulbs.

Taking the images is much like water splash photography in that you never know what you will get. I place the broken bulb in a simple lamp holder with the switch turned off. To enhance the smoke and flames I either spray the filament with a little WD40 or drip a small amount of olive oil onto the filament. The camera is on a tripod pre-focused on the filament and set to high speed burst. I use a radio trigger which I activate a fraction of a second before I flick the power switch.

My camera has a burst rate of ~5 frames per second and the actual flames typically last about a second, so if I am lucky I will get 2 or 3 different images that I can work with. By placing a small light above and pointing down you tend to enhance the smoke. The higher the watch of the lamp the more impressive the flames and smoke tend to be.

If you do try this then please use some form of bag around the bulb when breaking the glass and also some form of gloves, I use Kevlar work gloves as I have learnt the hard way it is very easy to end up with shards of glass in your fingers from pressing a broken bulb into the light fitting.

Have a play you can get 20 small globe light bulbs from eBay for ~£10

[Alan_H]

Re: Burning bulbs

Thanks for the info, might just have a go at this cheers

Alan

[Jonathan Teatime]

Re: Burning bulbs

Great work

[Cyberman]

Re: Burning bulbs

Very interesting images.

[digiman]

Re: Burning bulbs

Thanks for the great detail. This is definitely on the to do list of "Images to try and capture!"

Thanks very much again,

Garry

[tesarver]

Re: Burning bulbs

Excellent work Ian

Tom

[Muscat]

Re: Burning bulbs

Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment guys

[Parsen66]

Re: Burning bulbs

Never seen this type of shot before and really like them. Thanks for the explanation too Ian.

Don't tell the H & S peeps though hey

[AlexR!]

Re: Burning bulbs

Amazing, Ian, particularly the first two, which look almost painted, and I mean that in a good way. Will definitely have a go, I can see a bulk order of filament lightbulbs coming...