This is a single 10 second photographic exposure of Tesla coil sparks where a rotating colour wheel gives different colours to the sparks. There is no photoshopping ever on this site.

My early attempts at colour effects were taken on my ignition coil setup.

           

These are simply done by taking a long exposure (6 seconds) and manually placing different coloured filters in front of the lens at different times during that exposure. The next step was to make a motorized system for some special effects coming up to simulate the “Red Alert” game Tesla coil.

I have now made a color wheel to allow rapid rotation of the colours or manual rotation. This simply gets placed in front of the camera.

The results with a Tesla coil are to give sparks that are different colours. I have green as well. Each quadrant is held by one screw and slides out.

           

Left photo with a 1 second exposure, shows the some shots at dusk. Right photo with a 2 second exposure shows the various colors seen when the sparks are firing.
Now the good ones.

Red sparks can be done as well and are dramatic. This effect is created by taking a normal white flash shot first to give the correct white background, then switching to the red filter and running the sparks for 10 seconds or so while the camera is recording. It is all one single exposure and is what the camera sees, not a photoshopped effect added later.

                        

This shows coloured sparks. This effect is also created by taking a white flash shot first to give the correct white background then running the yellow filter or spinning the colour wheel to get different effects.

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Photo Date:  Sept 2, 2007