Schlieren photography: seeing heat and fumes without ridiculously expensive equipment

Charleh

Charleh

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If I had money to blow I’d be doing all sorts of optical projects. Starting with this one. I wonder if this has any medical applications.
 
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Charleh said:
If I had money to blow I’d be doing all sorts of optical projects. Starting with this one. I wonder if this has any medical applications.
Click to expand...

Back in the day when I was doing research in hypersonics I used schlieren photography techniques to photograph shockwaves travelling over a model at mach 13. Our equipment was made from scratch using basic materials, I made up the photographic emulsion by hand coating a glass frame then processed in my darkroom. Some of my pics have made it to the internet I'll see if I can find one.

If you want to see schlieren photography in action go outside on a sunny warm day and light up a match, look at the shadow on the ground and you will see the shimmering waves of hot air.
 
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Laughing Gravy said:
Back in the day when I was doing research in hypersonics I used schlieren photography techniques to photograph shockwaves travelling over a model at mach 13. Our equipment was made from scratch using basic materials, I made up the photographic emulsion by hand coating a glass frame then processed in my darkroom. Some of my pics have made it to the internet I'll see if I can find one.

If you want to see schlieren photography in action go outside on a sunny warm day and light up a match, look at the shadow on the ground and you will see the shimmering waves of hot air.
Click to expand...
Yup and the effect is better with a zippo lighter or oil lamp :).
And I know you know this one tony, so this is to blow someone else’s mind. Fire doesn’t have a shadow

7C8FAFBB-E61A-48B1-B7A2-9ECF4191D73C.jpeg
 
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Charleh said:
Yup and the effect is better with a zippo lighter or oil lamp :).
And I know you know this one tony, so this is to blow someone else’s mind. Fire doesn’t have a shadow

View attachment 14493
Click to expand...

Yep, I just used the shadow example to highlight the differences to what you are seeing, not well put at all.

It wouldn't be very expensive to put the right kit together for the basics of photographing the effect.

We eventually moved to Kodak Tri-X Ortho film which saved us a lot of time not having to make our own emulsion. The difficult part was getting the light source to illuminate the target at the same time that the shockwave hit the target. An Argon spark light source bounced around the tunnel room via several mirrors to arrive through optically perfect glass panes built into the sides of tunnel itself which was was high vacuum. A very dangerous job as I had to trigger all the kit while the rest of the staff were either outside of the facility or hiding behind blast walls.

Over 5 years only twice did it come close to going very badly wrong, I still have nightmares
 
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Laughing Gravy said:
Yep, I just used the shadow example to highlight the differences to what you are seeing, not well put at all.

It wouldn't be very expensive to put the right kit together for the basics of photographing the effect.

We eventually moved to Kodak Tri-X Ortho film which saved us a lot of time not having to make our own emulsion. The difficult part was getting the light source to illuminate the target at the same time that the shockwave hit the target. An Argon spark light source bounced around the tunnel room via several mirrors to arrive through optically perfect glass panes built into the sides of tunnel itself which was was high vacuum. A very dangerous job as I had to trigger all the kit while the rest of the staff were either outside of the facility or hiding behind blast walls.

Over 5 years only twice did it come close to going very badly wrong, I still have nightmares
Click to expand...
Wow Tony!
 
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