DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Photographing the corona discharge of conductive objects looks absolutely awesome

Oct 10, 2022 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

This is a pretty cool technique that definitely needs to come with a health and safety warning. So, don’t try this at home unless you understand how electricity works and how to experiment with it safely. If that’s you, then you’ll love this video from Hyperspace Pirate. Even if it’s not you, watch it anyway because it results in some pretty cool photography!

It’s a process called Kirlian Photography and it’s used to be able to photograph the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharge. It was accidentally discovered by Semyon Kirlian, after whom it was named, in 1939. It’s a similar principle as those “Plasma Globes” that were so popular in the 80s.

As per Hyperspace Pirate’s description of the process:

The technique uses two clear glass plates with salt water between them. The salt water is connected to a high voltage, high frequency AC source. An AC flyback transformer works for this, but i got better results using a solid state tesla coil operating off a slayer exciter circuit – the same circuit i demonstrated in my previous video. This generates around 40,000 volts at 350 kHz with a 12V input.

The high voltage AC doesn’t conduct through the glass, but causes high voltage charges to appear on the outside surface of the glass plates through capacitave coupling. Because glass is an electrical insulator, the charges can’t move freely along the surface, so when an electrode connected to ground comes near the glass, the resulting discharge “fans” out, as charges from a relatively large area will jump to a single point electrode.

When a flat conductive object is pressed against the glass, the edges and small bumps on its surface will exhibit this type of discharge and glow purple. Since the glass plates and the saltwater are transparent, the resulting glow can easily be photographed.

While any insulating material can be used for this process, he advises against using clear acrylic for reasons that will become obvious once you watch the video. Essentially, the high voltage discharge generates enough heat that it causes it to melt on its surface. Using actual glass, however, no such issue. The conductive objects can be pretty much anything you want, although as the glass is flat, it naturally works best with flat objects like coins, let’s, etc.

Again, you’re dealing with extremely high AC voltages here and potentially a lot of current if you’re not careful. So, if you’re not confident setting something like this up yourself, just enjoy the pretty scenes in the video!

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

This slow motion Apollo 11 launch footage shot in 1969 still looks absolutely incredible today Delivering Awesome Content On Time – How Preston Kanak Delivered an Awesome D810 Demo This guy shot a modern car race with a 1968 Super 8 camera and it looks awesome This drone hyperlapse of Mexico City is absolutely stunning

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Coronal Discharge, electricity, Hyperspace Pirate, inspiration, Photography

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« This is how to shoot and frame those new layered iPhone lock screen photos in iOS 16
DJI files with the FCC for a cut-down “Mavic 3 Classic” drone with just a single camera »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Sony teases upcoming ZV-E1 full-frame vlogging camera coming on March 29
  • The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is silent, glare-free retouching tablet
  • Fall in love with astrophotography with these 10 space objects
  • Hipstamatic app relaunches as a social network, but only for iOS
  • Instagram now has ads even in search results. Sigh

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy