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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Multi Stroboscopic Flash Help need
Daniel Plassmann, Photographer
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York | SC | United States | Posted: 2:44 AM on 01.23.07 |
->> I was shooting some skateboarding and I saw my friends skating magazine and he had sequence of a skateboarder jumping over a ramp, it looked Photoshoped but you never know so I tried to make a sequence at a local skate park of skaters jumping over a seat. I have two images that came out the best image 2 and 3 that are in my gallery. Take a look my problem is that I can’t flash them hard enough without making them to exposed but not enough so they look ghostly. And I was wondering if any of you guys, maybe one of you a skating photog that knows how to get the image right.
Thanks for your help,
Daniel
P.S. If you could not understand what I typed please look at the image 2 and 3 in the gallery first then read it again. |
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Scott Bort, Photographer
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Elgin | IL | USA | Posted: 4:03 AM on 01.23.07 |
->> It is photoshop my friend. The best way is to set your camera on a tripod and motor off a bunch of frames and combine them in layers with photoshop.
I suggest a tripod to make life easier and quicker work in photoshop |
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Curtis Clegg, Photographer
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Belvidere | IL | USA | Posted: 9:20 AM on 01.23.07 |
| ->> Did you use the multi flash function on a Canon flash? That's my guess... it looks like you are on the right track. Try turning off all the background lights, and only leave on enough lights so the skateboarder can skate safely... I think you will see a big inprovement just by doing that. |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 9:20 AM on 01.23.07 |
->> Trent Nelson is the master at that stuff.
A tripod helps, but isn't required. The trick is to set the camera to manual so the exposures don't change. Tape the zoom and focus down so they don't change either because changing depth of field makes blending the final layers difficult. Position yourself at 180 degrees to the action, then fire off some frames.
When I've done it I used a frame every half second. Unless you need the granularity of multiple frames in a second I'd suggest going with something about that rate otherwise you'll end up tossing away a lot of images just to get a good gap between each frame of the action.
The big trick for putting the images together in PS is to find common reference points in the images, and then make sure that's aligned when you layer them.
Then use masking or the lasso to extract just the significant part of the image and layer it over the first/starting frame. Build up the composite from the first to the last frame and it should go together pretty quickly. |
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Matthew Putney, Photographer, Assistant
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Waterloo | IA | USA | Posted: 11:45 AM on 01.23.07 |
->> I offer the idea in camera. Why do it in Photoshop when you can master it in your camera. I shot skateboarding a few times with strobe multi-pop on my film camera. The key is to have a very dark ambient exposure. I shot on a loading dock where there was just one streetlight. You may not have the option to have shoot in a darker environment. I found an old example but it was a print I took a photo of so the quality isn’t great. I think my settings for this photo were ISO 400 f 5 at 1/10 sec with the flash at 1/8 power set to fire 4 times. I hope this helps.
Here is the link to the photo
http://www.sportsshooter.com/photoput/skate/pages/1.html |
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Landon Finch, Photographer
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Colorado Springs | CO | USA | Posted: 11:59 AM on 01.23.07 |
->> "Why do it in Photoshop when you can master it in your camera." Matthew, while your method is equally valid, the final product (usually) has a different look when done in camera versus in PS. The PS method also provides more flexibility when it comes to the final product. It's just a matter of what you want the final image to look like.
Landon Finch
Colorado Springs Photographer
http://www.finchfotography.com |
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Bastian Ehl, Photographer
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Magdeburg | _ | Germany | Posted: 12:26 PM on 01.23.07 |
->> Those sequences are normally photoshopped. You shoot from a tripod, without flash and stitch the frames together in photoshop.
For skateboarding, you need at least 1/500, better 1/1000 to avoid ghosting when shooting without a flash. With a flash, you can get away with 1/250, when you underexpose the background by at least one, better two stops. |
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Daniel Plassmann, Photographer
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York | SC | United States | Posted: 9:53 PM on 01.23.07 |
->> Thanks for your help I am not to big on doing stuff like that in PS bc I shoot for newspapers not magazines, but its good to know how to get a out come that looks like a skate magazine.
Daniel |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 11:18 PM on 01.23.07 |
->> Daniel:
Achieving what you want is much easier than you think. Read this article by Mark Goldman right here on SS. It is one of the reasons why I may become a two system owner, unless Canon adds a similar feature on the next 1D-series release.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1460 |
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Jeff Mangum, Photographer
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Bullhead City | AZ | | Posted: 11:44 PM on 01.23.07 |
| ->> To do what ur talking about in camera u need a skater friend who is very patient and then you just start fiddleing with the flash. on the nikon sb 800 you can adjust the power speed and amount of times the flash pops in strobe mode. the one time i got it to work was at night with a friend who thought the idea was cool so he just kept going of the same jump for me. Also u dont need a tripod unless you want the background sharp. My exposure was in the in the 1/2 to 2 sec range, its been a while since i did it but the final photo i got didn't have ghosting, I seem to remember that amient light is your enemy. |
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Daniel Plassmann, Photographer
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York | SC | United States | Posted: 11:48 PM on 01.23.07 |
->> That is something I did not know before, but from what I read it’s the same thing as taking a few images of an subject and then put it together in PS, but unstated it’s all done in side the Camera. I want to see if I ever get the right exposure done where the people are clear but all in one image and not using a camera that takes 3-5 images and making one image out of it. Thanks for your help Clark.
Daniel |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 1:40 AM on 01.24.07 |
->> Whether you make a multi-exposure image in the camera or combine several separate images into a composite, you'll probably want to state which it was in the cutline.
In either case the public will consider it some sort of trickery or special effect, since they can't do it in their P&S cameras. We know multiple exposures have been available for years with film, but the public isn't aware of that. They're accustomed to digital editing being used to achieve the same sort of effects.
And, with all the furor over the last couple years with people digitally altering images and not owning up to it, it's better to state what it was up front. It's perfectly OK to use composites or multiple exposures editorially, as long as you make it clear that's what it was.
Up above I mentioned Trent Nelson. Trent shoots for the Salt Lake Tribune, and some of his coolest composite work was done for them - they just note that it is a composite, sequence or photo illustration. In particular take a look at his composite of John Stockton's last game for the Jazz. If I remember correctly that shot won awards and was run as a double-truck in SI. Not bad for a composite in editorial context.
http://extras.sltrib.com/tribphoto/PhotogBios.asp?GID=Nelson&sort=photog
Trent talks about labeling images part way down this page...
http://blogs.sltrib.com/trent/archive/2006_03_01_archive.htm
The public really doesn't understand photography issues or techniques. Years ago I was in a class at Arizona Highways magazine, which is an award winning landscape photography mag. The editors said they're always getting complaints from people saying they wish the photographers or editors would stop airbrushing or blurring the moving water in streams in the photos - not understanding that medium or large format cameras shooting Velvia typically have multi-second exposures. Blurred water is just a by-product of capturing the photo and there's no special effects needed. Now days they regularly run a blurb in the magazine stating that blurred water is a side-effect of capturing the image just to try to head off the complaints. It doesn't work but at least they're trying. |
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