Burning light bulb

That's a cool shot. The slower shutter speeds generate nice thick smoke trails like this which makes for great shots. Love he wisps of smoke out of the left side.

I like it alright! The fine details are remarkable. Would love to witness and experience someone doing this...

I played with this technique a bit last wknd. I bought a small glass drill bit and was able to successfully drill a small hole in the bulb so I could better catch the smoke. It worked well but i have no shots to share. I also thought about stripping some copper wire and wiring a single copper strand to the electrodes in a bulb for a multi-use setup.

schlagle wrote in post #15859222
I played with this technique a bit last wknd. I bought a small glass drill bit and was able to successfully drill a small hole in the bulb so I could better catch the smoke. It worked well but i have no shots to share. I also thought about stripping some copper wire and wiring a single copper strand to the electrodes in a bulb for a multi-use setup.

I really wouldn't go with the copper wire idea, your likely to blow the fuses/circuit breaker in the house rather than get the copper burning. If you want a multi-use setup you should maybe try fuse wire (smallest you can find, 5 amp?) but I suspect that would burn instantly. You would need to limit the current through it somehow to allow it to burn slowly though.
I suspect that's why the bulb filament is coiled, to produce impedance and limit the current.

Very good shots and a cool idea!

Biker010 wrote in post #15864750
I really wouldn't go with the copper wire idea, your likely to blow the fuses/circuit breaker in the house rather than get the copper burning. If you want a multi-use setup you should maybe try fuse wire (smallest you can find, 5 amp?) but I suspect that would burn instantly. You would need to limit the current through it somehow to allow it to burn slowly though.
I suspect that's why the bulb filament is coiled, to produce impedance and limit the current.

The filament is normally double-coiled. I.e. if you look closer at the coil, you can normally see that the wire there is actually a coil of even finer filament.

The filament must have enough resistance to balance the temperature, when running at rated voltage.

So I got around to busting open the bulbs I got the other week and got one that I'm happy with. What do you think? Too abstract?

I like it, Smokey.

Great shot! I want to see more!

Great shots

Well I'm at it again. I'm trying a new set-up to produce a cleaner image, better overall lighting, and less post production time. Very little was done to this image so I think I'm on the right track. I also took the time to shoot a tutorial video of how I prepare the several different styles of bulb I like to shoot; just need to find the time to edit it.

The black card blocks out the unwanted reflections while the white card reflect the bulbs light back onto itself giving better overall lighting inside the bulb and a nice glow around the outside.

Back at it again but with a 5D MK III..!

Wonderful stuff
Brian V.

Does wattage of the bulb matter?