Photography Culture

Early Photographers Used Magnesium Flash Powder to Illuminate Their Photos

Chris Gampat
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11/21/2014
1 Min read

Last Updated on 11/21/2014 by Chris Gampat

1909_Victor_Flash_Lamp
Image from Wikipedia

When photography was still in its very early days, adding extra light to the images literally meant creating an explosion. These early flashes involved lots of chemistry and measurement. But eventually, photographers and chemists found out that a magnesium flash mixture would be most effective. So the photographers would have a torch type structure in one hand and their camera in the other. Then an electronic current would ignite the flash powder and the extra light would be added to the image.

A while ago, the Tech Photo Blog posted a video on Youtube demonstrating how flash powder is used vs modern day flashes. The show viewers just how explosive the mixture is and encourage them to not try it at home. What you can also see is just how much smoke comes from the magnesium flash powder–which doesn’t make it so ideal to use indoors.

This method isn’t used anymore though. The process of adding a flash to a photo eventually evolved into using flash tubes, then the electronic strobe. The big problem with magnesium powder wasn’t only the danger, but also measuring the right amount for the image you needed to take.

Hit the jump to check out the video.

flash Magnesium Flash Powder Photography
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.