8 | CREATIVE
Make a Tesla Vortograph
Csaba Kolbai explains how to capture the electric discharge from a Tesla coil in an abstract fashion
The use of three mirrors helped showcase the fascinating lighting effects captured by a Nikon Z 6.
The inspiration for this idea struck me after viewing Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Lightning Field series during his exhibition in London. I purchased a mini Tesla coil online, with the intention of shooting a long-exposure image of the lightning sparks being emitted by it. To enhance the abstraction and visual appeal of the image, I positioned the Tesla coil at one end of a triangle of mirrors, with the camera mounted on a tripod at the opposite end. This resulted in the style of image known as a Vortograph.