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Ahh... somone willing to risk life, limb and burning down their house for the sake of PT. Certainly a fine shot of a difficult subject (glass always is). I'm surprised you got the brightness out of the filament that you seem to have here (though exposure can be deceiving in such ways). Usually the vacuum in a requisite to make it glow brightly. In any event, really nice image. I like the blue cast. It really balances well with the yellow. Broken and still working. Great paradox PT.

I'm pretty sure lightbulbs do not contain a vacuum, but are filled with nitrogen or some other non-oxidizing gas. Turning one on in the presence of oxygen should result in a very bright, and very brief light. The trick is to get the timing right. The easiest thing would be to just set the shutter to bulb in a dark room, and let the vaporizing tungsten provide all the light. But in this picture, there was obviously other lighting providing the blue of the glass. This is feindishly clever. How was it done? Double exposure, maybe?

 

Oh, yeah, and it's a terrific image all on its own, too.

Thanks for the correction Michael.

I am impressed too, and very much curious. Very well done, but how did you do it?

First off, Thomas thanks for the great link! How Stuff Works will come in handy I'm sure for all kinds of projects. Secondly, I too am curious how PT handled the science of this one.

 

But, perhaps what's most intrigueing about the image, for me at least, is the timing. I don't get the sense of a narrative. I don't see the bulb break, I don't see the remains of the broken glass and I don't get the impression that it just happened. So I'm not sure what stage we're looking at. Being unable to place the image in a time line is most appealing. I quite like the fact that so much is left unanswered. Very interesting PT a real challenge.

I'll second Sally on the broken-ness comments.

 

Apart from that I am impressed by the execution, and aesthetically the end result is quite good as well. I would like to see a bit more space left and right - crop a bit too tight? But that's nitpicking.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

Tom's comment "the end result is quite good as well" is IMO very much an understatement: the end result is terrific and I'm enjoying it purely for the excellent aesthetics. I haven't even started to think (or care) about why it's burning, too busy admiring the use of blues. Great creativity.

 

Only nitpick: slight tilt visible in the stem and base. Perhaps better to crop off the base entirely?

 

My guess on execution: PT used some flammable material.

I noticed the tilt at the base also, but despite that and the tight crop, I actually love this image! Bloody clever, which ever way it was done (and it wasn't me either).

After the angle grinding effort this is my current favourite in this folder and I'm going to break the PT rules by including a Picture This image amongst my 300 favourites.

You may ban me from this community...

Peter, I guess that answers my question on 2219987. Maybe we should start off notice board #9 with a discussion about that very subject??? No...really.

 

Sally

I think, Dominique is right, a tampon soaked with some flammable liquid was stuck below the wire. The effect is terrific, PT. Regards. Blago