This is an eclectic list including some recent as well as "vintage" articles by several current and past members of the faculty of the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at RIT and guests. They range from topics on infrared photography, ultraviolet, high speed, synchroballistic, panoramic, special effects, peripheral, schlieren, photofinish, and many other topics.

If you have any problems or comments about this project write Prof. Andrew Davidhazy at andpph@rit.edu

INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL STROBOSCOPIC MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY
A flashing light source or an interrupted continuous light source can be effectively used as a tool to track subjects motion and learn about their behavior over time. While film techniques are fairly well known, applications in the digital realm have peculiar limitations and these are at least partially solved in this article.

LUMINANCE vs. ILLUMINANCE RELATIONSHIP
Exposure, and consequently the photographic effect as measured by the density of silver deposit, depends directly upon the intensity of the light source and increases the longer the material is subjected to light rays. Because exposure depends upon the time during which the light acts on the film, film is able to integrate the quantity of light falling upon it and a long exposure time can be used sometimes to photograph extremely faint subject. (Note: This is not by an RIT faculty member but rather a few pages from The Handbook of Photography by Henney and Dudley. )

APPLICATIONS FOR AN IMPROVISED DIGITAL STREAK CAMERA
A close realtive of the strip camera, details about which are available in several articles listed below, the streak camera is not very well known but it can be a valuable tool for research and development. Streak cameras display time as an obvious dimension of the images they generate.

THE SIMPLEST SPECIAL EFFECTS DEVICE
We are preconditioned to assuming that photographs are made in an instataneous manner. By making exposures sequentially, using a matte-box, we can produce images that startle and confuse our audience. Deception is also possible. Better and cheaper than using a computer!

INFRARED (FILM AND DIGITAL) PHOTOGRAPHY EXAMPLES
Here you will find not so much a complete article but some seldom seen illustrations of technical/scientific applications of infrared imaging, from improvised digital panoramic infrared to the use of infrared for forensic and art history and restoration purposes.

BETTER QUALITY SCANNING DIGITAL CAMERA
This is a work-in-progress and an offshoot of the article below. Work is based on the use of a linear CCD array removed from a cheap hand scanner and installed in a 35mm camera body for doing peripheral, panoramic and image plane scanning.

DEMONSTRATION QUALITY SCANNING DIGITAL CAMERA
This is a report on how a simple Kodak Snapshot scanner was "gutted" and the remains adapted to a traditional 35mm camera to demonstrate image plane scanning photography, as well as panoramic and peripheral photography.

SIMPLIFIED STROBOSCOPIC SYSTEM FOR MOTION PATTERN PHOTOGRAPHY
Stroboscopic photography of objects in motion is a fascinating application in photography. Usually performed with sophisticated and expensive flashing stroboscopic lights, this article describes an approach more within the means of most photographers.

SIMPLE SOUND SYNCHRONIZERS FOR AMATEUR HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY
This article describes a very basic but highly effective way to make a sound activated synchronizer that will allow you to make pictures of bursting balloons, shattering light bulbs, etc. All you need is an old (or new!) cassette tape recorder, an $.75 SCR and a sync cord with a PC socket.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FOCUSING SCHLIEREN SYSTEM
Among flow visualization techniques, the Focusing Schlieren system has been largely ignored by the field. It is, however, a low cost solution to solving visualization of density gradients, a system with good sensitivity to visualize convection patterns in liquids or gases such as warm air rising from a flame or heated object and ultimately it is also a powerful tool for teaching many optics related principles.

SIMULTANEOUS REFRACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE SCHLIEREN FOR SURFACE STUDIES
Visualization of surface flatness of a heated liquid undergoing convection by way of a seldom-seen reflection/transmission schlieren system. (This was one of Andrew Davidhazy's earliest published technical papers).

INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY WITH AGFA 1280 DIGITAL CAMERA
After an unsuccessful initial attempt to determine the useability of a digital camera for near infrared photography, further experiments proved that there is sufficient residual sensitivity in an Agfa 1280's CCD sensor to make passable infrared photos that simulate those made with film.

ULTRA HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A CONSUMER GRADE DIGITAL CAMERA
Several problems inherent to most consumer grade digital cameras are described and solved in this article about the making of microsecond photographs of bullets cutting playing cards in half and photographed with an Agfa ePhoto 1280 camera and an EG&G microflash unit.

OFF-BEAT APPLICATIONS FOR AN AGFA ePhoto 1280 CAMERA
This article describes several adaptations made to an Agfa ePhoto 1280 camera to allow its use with close-up lenses, filters and REAL wide angle focal length converters, as wel as a slide copier and as the basis for storing and exhibiting visual presentations.

INTRO TO PANORAMIC, PERIPHERAL AND SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHY
This describes (again!) how scanning film cameras (the forerunners of linear array digital capture technology) operate for panoramic, peripheral and other applications and how to conduct introductory experiments using nothing more complicated than a very basic, manual, camera. Published in Spanish in a 1996 issue of Fotomundo magazine in Argentina.

BRACKET FOR STRIP PHOTOGRAPHY
How to make an improvised film rewinding unit useful for experimenting with panoramic and photofinish type photography. Construction details, application suggestions and instructions on set-up and use are included.

PERIPHERAL IMAGING WITH ELECTRONIC MEMORY UNIT
Description of how a Colorado Video 593 peak store instrument is applied to making 360 degree roll-out images of the surface of cylindrical subjects. This was published in the Nov. 1997 Electronic Imaging newsletter of the SPIE.

LINEAR-STRIP PHOTOS USING CIRKUT AND HULCHER CAMERAS
This article describes the process by which cameras originally designed for use as rotating, 360 degree coverage, panoramic cameras can be used for applications such as photographing the full length of a passing train or the facades of all the buildings along a street. Published in Panorama, the journal of the International Panoramic Photographers Association.

BASICS OF STRIP ENLARGERS
Enlarging long negatives produced by rotating panoramic cameras capable of 360 degree coverage, as well as photofinish and peripheral cameras is a problem because of their size. This article describes the design and construction of an enlager capable of making prints hundreds of feet long.

IN CAMERA MASKING WITH 35mm CAMERAS
A variation of the proces used by advertising and commerical photogrpahers whereby a desired background scene is combined with a foreground subject using in-camera masking devices but in this article it is explained how this may also be accomplished with 35mm cameras.

WRITING TECHNICAL REPORTS
This is a brief article that was prepared and distributed to his students by the late Dr. Ronald Francis, of the Photographic Science department in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at RIT. It is included here in his memory and to continue to serve students of photographic sciences into the future.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY 1851-1930
This is a brief article that was prepared by Linc Endelman, a long time friend and member of SPIE who prepared this short "synopsis" of early development in the field of high speed photography. It is included here with his permission as a testament to the pioneers in this unique photographic endeavor.

UNDERCOVER 35 (Panoramic Lubitel)
This is a brief article that was published in the Ilford Newsletter for Photo Educators and it deals with adapting the Lubitel for use with 35mm film to obtain unusual aspect ratio photos that incorporate 35mm artifacts.

INTRO TO TECHNOLOGY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
A brief review of fundamental image formation principles, camera systems, and special cameras and imaging techniques used in scientific, technical and instrumentation photography for the purpose of visualizing otherwise invisible events or to make measurements of such events. The article describes in brief how the various systems work and the technology that makes their operation possible.

QUOTATIONS FOR TEACHERS
A compilation by Dr. Richard D. Zakia of quotations from men and women through history with particular relevance to teachers. Dr. Zakia is a Professor Emeritus from the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at RIT.

COFFEE DEVELOPER
A novel application for coffee - DEVELOPING your film and photographic papers with it! Detailed in an article by Dr. Scott Williams and his Technical Photo Chemistry students and published in Sept/Oct 1995 issue of DCCT.

PERIPHERAL BASICS
This was published in Industrial Photography magazine and describes the basics of making peripheral photographs with a modified SLR camera and run-of-the-mill audio turntable.

HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY
An overview of high speed photography originally prepared for the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Summary of a variety of special effect techniques originally the basis for a special effects section in the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. Includes things like Sabattier, matte-box, stroboscopic, kaleidoscopic, bas-relief, and many others.

COLOR INTERPRETATION
Characteristics of modern color emulsions are reviewed and summarized by Professor Michael Peres particularly for Biomedical applications but expandable to other situations as well.

STRIP EXPERIMENTS
Brief history of one photographer's work in the area of panoramic cameras and strip enlargers. This article by A. Davidhazy was also published in the IPPA newsletter sometime in 1987.

STREAK APPLICATIONS
Paper detailing two applications for streak cameras. The first is a report on how the behavior of a Olympus OM-4T camera plus F-280 flash was conducted and the second on simultaneous streak and instantaneous pictures of fungus spreading.

ANSCO MEMORIES
Article by Prof Emeritus Ira Current, retired faculty member, about his early days at Ansco (later Agfa/Ansco), his arrival and on-the-job anecdotes prior to WWII.

SHUTTER TESTING
Article that describes simple techniques to testing shutters particularly useful in the classroom. Although basic in principle these methods can be elaborated into significant problems.

ELECTRONIC PHOTO EDUCATION
Article by Sabine Susstrunk on the integration of electronic photography into traditional photography programs and education.

HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY 101
Paper presented by Andrew Davidhazy at the 20th International Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics describing an introductory course in high speed photography taken by Imaging and Photographic Technology students at RIT

SYNCHROBALLISTIC PHOTO
Report on a synchroballistic project which is part of the Photoinstrumentation Applications Seminar course at RIT.

INFRARED BASICS
Overview of IR photography originally prepared for the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.

ACTION INFRARED PHOTO
A description of how to modify a SLR camera for action infrared photography and how to adjust a regular light meter for more dependable IR exposure determinations.

INFRARED FILTER
A brief note on how to make an improvised IR filter particularly suitable for use over light sources such as flashes. Spectral transmittance curves included.

INFRARED and ULTRAVIOLET INTRO
A short, sort of "by the numbers", summary of theory and practice of Infrared and Ultraviolet photography.

STRIP PHOTO BASICS
An introduction to strip or scanning photography and how to adapt regular 35mm cameras for this purpose and apply them to photofinish and peripheral photography.

CONICAL STRIP PHOTOGRAPHY
A description of how a novel strip camera was designed and constructed to solve problems caused by peripheral photography of conical objects and panoramic photography with a tilted camera. There is also a brief review of "linear" applications for strip cameras.

CIRCULAR STRIP PHOTOGRAPHY
Conical or circular strip scanning. This is another folksy description of how a strip camera with film revolving behind a slit-aperture was designed and used for novel panoramic and peripheral images.

TILTED PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY
Conical or circular strip scanning. This is a condensed version of the Conical Strip article listed above (and which was published in the IAPP newsletter in 1996) of how a strip camera with film revolving behind a slit-aperture was designed and used for novel panoramic images.

INSTANT STRIP PHOTOGRAPHY
Making strip cameras out of Polaroid pack-film type cameras. The first of two versions written about this.

SLIT SCAN PHOTOOGRAPHY
Slit-Scan Photography is the inverse of strip photography and exposure occurs just as with Focal Plane shutter cameras but under more controlled conditions. Slit-scan photography exploits Focal Plane shutter distortion. This article explains theory and application of this unusual technique.

CROSS BEAM SYNCHRONIZATION
How to set up a system to photograph flying insects at close range and automatically using a cross-beam sync trigger and fast acting capping shutter.

PEAK STORE and DOF
Photomacrography with extended depth-of-field based on the light-scanning technique and the capability of the Colorado 539 Video Peak store device to store changes in video signal levels. This was published in the Jan. 1994 Electronic Imaging newsletter of the SPIE.

THE PHOENIX PROCESS
How to make regular B&W paper prints from normally discarded Polaroid paper negatives and take advantage of their unique visual quality.

HIGH SPEED SLR
How to make a truly HIGH SPEED camera out of standard SLR cameras so that you can achieve framing rates in excess of 1000 pictures per second ... and learn something about the operation of Focal Plane shutters along the way!

FALLING SEEDS
Another high speed event captured and quantified with basic equipment but at much lower cost and rivaling in accuracy what one might expect of much more sophisticated schemes. Good "technical" project for instructional purposes.

TAILFLASH SYNCHRONIZATION
Theory, discussion and circuits suitable for use with leaf-shutter cameras for setting of a flash at the end of an exposure for combined flash/tungsten action photography.

POLATEST
How to use Polaroid materials for a multitude of applications related to exposure testing. Partial exposures, use of an ND filter staircase, etc. are some of the techniques described.

1001 USES FOR NIMSLO
1001 (well actually only 10 or so) modifications that enable you to make photographs the Nimslo was never originally intended for. Sequential exposure, close-up stereo, panoramic modification, tri-color exposures, and multi-spectral photography are some of the applications included in this file.

FLIPBOOKS FOR A CHANGE
Exploring the "flipbook" with photography. A classic animation concept applicable to an introduction to photography class.

2FOR1 ON POLAROID
How to save money using Polaroid pack films by making smaller pictures on each sheet of film. Useful for testing or for passport picture making.

SCHLIEREN PHOTOGRAPHY
Describes the theory of Schlieren imaging for flow visualization. This text went along with a demo which you will have to imagine!

COLOR SCHLIEREN SIMPLIFIED
An article that originally appeared in 1982 in Photomethods magazine's Images and ideas publication describing how I set up a single mirror, double pass, color schlieren system.

FILM LEADER RETRIEVER
How to make a film retriever out of scrap 35mm film useful for those times you rewound the film back into the cassette but wish to pull it back out for some reason or another.

HIGH SPEED CONDOM BURSTS
Determining break point of condoms subjected to air burst test using three different high speed techniques. Sound trigger delayed flash, rotating drum framing camera at 10,000 pictures per second and double-slit rotating drum strip photography.

STROBOSCOPIC SPINOFFS
A short paper summarizing several projects spun-off from the pioneering work of Harold "Doc" Edgerton that most students in the Imaging and Photographic Technology BS program at RIT complete as part of high speed and photoinstrumentation coursework.

POLAROID STRIP PHOTO
A shorter and more up to date version of another article (instant strip) describing how to modify a Polaroid camera for strip photography. This article was intended for a high school audience.

STEREO CAMERA
How a stereo camera using 4x5 film and based on surplus Wollensak stereo camera lens boards was constructed and the reasons why.

PHOTOFINISH PHOTOGRAPHY
Text that was handed out along with a demonstration of a Polaroid camera that was modified for strip photography and in this case used to photograph racecars running down an inclined ramp during a demo at some conference in the past. Diagram of modified camera included.

STRIP SYNCHRO PHOTO
Text that was handed out along with a demonstration of a Polaroid camera adapted to operate as a strip camera and used to photograph a model rocket transported by a carriage driven back and forth by a screw lead.

MIRRORS, MIRRORS
Just some ideas on how to use mirrors for "fun" effects such as kaleidoscopic photography and using them in front of a camera or within or in front of an enlarger or copystand.

MAKING A STREAK CAMERA
Reprinted from PMI (Photo Methods for Industry) magazine , September 1963, Vol. 6 number 9 page 72 in conjunction with a column written by William Hyzer on Photo Instrumentation. This was the very first technical article that was published about my initial experiments with streak and strip cameras.

PHOTOTECH
A brief overview of RIT's Imaging and Photographic Technology program/department where I am a faculty member and why a student might choose this as a program of study.

Most of these articles are also available with simple e-mail requests for those individuals not yet connected to the WWW. They are located at a simple mailserver located at RIT. To get the instructions for getting these by e-mail request just send an e-mail message to: ritphoto@rit.edu with the word: ARTICLES written in the Subject: line _and_ body of the message.

questions? ... comments? ... write Andrew Davidhazy right from this location.

You are reader number since February 23, 1998

I hope you have found or will find something interesting among these articles!

---