How to take high speed photos

When I didn't know how to take shots like this, I thought, that I will need a really good camera, with fast shutter speed, and lots of light. Well, I was wrong. The shot above was taken with 6 second shutter speed, in pitch dark. (well, not really pitch dark, because I used an SB-800 to light it)

It's because if you have a good DSLR, the fastest shutter speed you can get is 1/8000 of a second. That actually is not fast enough, when you shoot really fast moving things like water drops or bullet.
When you fire the flash on 1/64 power, it lights up for approximately 1/40,000 of a second, which is way faster than your DSLR. This will freeze motion.

This is how this shot was done:


So, i set up my camera on a tripod (Nikon D200 with 18-70), set manual focus, ISO 100, 6second, f/5.6. (you can stop down more, because it's good to get more depth of field when you shoot things like this) I had an SB-800 on the camera right, on (I think) 1/32 or 1/64 power, in my hand.

The backdrop was an A3 white paper, and I had 2 A4 white cards on the camera left to function as reflectors to reflect the light coming from the flash.

After this, I switched the lights off. I had a handful of paperclips in my left hand, and the SB-800 in my right, my finger on the test button. I opened the shutter with my left hand, threw the paperclips in front of the lens, and while they were falling, I fired the flash. after 6 seconds, the shutter closed, and done.

It took me about 5 tries to get this shot. I used paperclips, because I did it in my office, and they were at hand.

I hope it was useful.

Have fun, kids!