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Bursting water balloons: high-speed photography at home

·4 mins
Lighting Help! I'm new

This was one of the most popular threads on the old Hellophoto forum, and we’ve rewritten it from scratch as a fresh guide.

A water balloon caught mid-burst, skin peeling away while the water still holds its shape, looks like it needs a lab full of gear. It doesn’t. A camera with manual mode, one flash you can get off the camera, a pin and a patient friend will get you there.

Why the flash does the freezing, not the shutter

Most cameras top out somewhere around 1/4000 or 1/8000 of a second, and even that leaves a bursting balloon looking soft. The trick is to let the flash do the work.

Work in a dark room so the ambient light contributes almost nothing. Set the shutter to your camera’s flash sync speed or slower (1/125 or so is fine), and the only thing that really exposes the frame is the burst of light from the flash. That burst is far shorter than your shutter speed.

On most speedlights, the flash gets shorter as you turn the power down, because the unit cuts the light off early rather than dumping the whole charge. At full power a typical speedlight is relatively slow, often around 1/1000 of a second, while at low settings like 1/32 or 1/64 it can drop to tens of thousandths of a second. That’s what freezes the droplets. Some studio strobes behave the opposite way, so check your manual before assuming.

A simple starting setup

  • Camera: manual mode, ISO 200 to 400, aperture around f/8 for some depth of field, shutter at 1/125 or your sync speed.
  • Flash: manual power, start at 1/32 and adjust. Put it off to the side or slightly behind the balloon so the light rakes through the water.
  • Focus: manual. Hang or hold the balloon, focus on it, then switch autofocus off so the camera doesn’t hunt in the dark.
  • Background: black fabric, card or an unlit doorway a couple of metres behind. Keep the flash from spilling onto it and it will go properly black.

If your shots are too dark, open the aperture or raise ISO before you raise flash power. Going up in power lengthens the flash and you start losing that crisp freeze.

Timing the burst

This is where most of the fun (and most of the wet floor) comes from.

The low-tech way

Lights off, open the shutter for a 1 to 2 second exposure, pop the balloon, and have a friend fire the flash by hand with its test button the instant they hear the pop. Hit rates are low but not zero.

Sound triggers

A sound trigger listens for the pop and fires the flash. You open the shutter in the dark, burst the balloon, and the trigger does the rest. Most units let you add a short delay, measured in milliseconds, so you can choose whether you catch the first tear in the rubber or the water a moment later once the skin has gone. Small changes in delay make a big difference, so move in tiny steps.

Laser or light-beam triggers work the same way but fire when something breaks a beam, which suits a dart passing through a balloon.

Whatever you use, shoot lots. Even with a trigger, every burst is a bit different, and that’s half the appeal.

Things to try once it works

  • Add food colouring to the water for colour against the black.
  • Put a coloured gel on the flash, or use two flashes with different gels from opposite sides.
  • Drop a balloon onto a pin taped to the floor instead of popping it in the air.

Safety around water and electrics

Water and mains power do not mix, and this hobby puts them very close together.

  • Do the shoot outside on a still evening, in a garage, or in a bathroom or laundry with a floor that copes with water.
  • Use battery-powered flashes and triggers. Keep any mains-powered gear, chargers and extension leads well away from the splash zone, and never handle plugs with wet hands. WorkSafe’s general guidance on electrical safety is worth a skim if you’re setting up anywhere with wiring nearby.
  • Cover the camera with a clear plastic bag or a rain sleeve and put the lens a sensible distance back, then crop later.
  • Wear safety glasses if you’re using darts or pins at face height, and keep children and pets out of the firing line.
  • A darkened room with water on the floor is a slip hazard. Keep a towel underfoot and a torch handy.

Clean-up

Pick up every scrap of burst rubber, since fragments are a choking risk for small children and animals. Mop up straight away so water doesn’t sit on timber floors. Wipe down flashes and stands, and let damp gear dry at room temperature before packing it away.

If you’re new to manual settings, our exposure triangle explainer covers how aperture, ISO and shutter speed trade off. Then go and get wet.