Dancer

[Chataignier]

An experiment with a pro dancer friend taking around 4 or 5 dance steps across the stage, lit with continuous lighting from the right to record her movement and finishing with a flash from the left to fix the figure. Unhappily I did not see at the time that there was a bit too much light spill onto the folds in the curtains in the background which shows up as vertical lines, I've worked on it in PS to minimise them... Will do better next time.

[Manfred M]

Nicely done - it is not a easy technique to master. Generally the fixed lights and the flash are not the same colour temperature, so that adds another technical challenge to this technique.

If you have a studio light and a medium to large soft box, the lighting will be much more even on the subject. I've used smoke, rather than the cape you have used. Both ways can give interesting and effective images.

I look forward to seeing the results of your next shoot with this technique.

[William W]

Nice job: Agree

I recall there's an old thread (maybe 10 years ago) which discusses this or a very similar technique?
I recall there was constructive information and a few samples - I can't find the thread.

WW

[Chataignier]

@Manfred : The flash was a studio strobe with a large grided softbox, the low light on her legs and feet was an aesthetic choice. The problem was the continuous light. I had two 90W fluorescent lights with softboxes (around 4500 Lumens) to play with and chose to put one on the extreme right at the starting point for the dancer facing left, and the other next to the camera to boost the light in the middle. BIG mistake, the one near the camera lit the curtains (and the floor) far too much resulting in the folds in the curtains showing up as vertical lines. I had thought that square law fall off would be enough to leave the curtains black, it was not.

Apart from that I'm quite satisfied and the dancer is delighted with the shots. Next time I'll use just one continuous light on the right and boost the light in the middle in PP if necessary. Another refinement might be to move the camera more to the left, angled along the path of the dancer. DOF would not be a problem as I had masses of light and could stop down to f11 or more if needed and, anyway, the RH side is all motion blur, nothing needs to be sharp.

[Manfred M]

Nice job: Agree

I recall there's an old thread (maybe 10 years ago) which discusses this or a very similar technique?
I recall there was constructive information and a few samples - I can't find the thread.

WW

You might be thinking of this thread.


Randi Rouge - Motion Blur

[Manfred M]

@Manfred : The flash was a studio strobe with a large grided softbox, the low light on her legs and feet was an aesthetic choice. The problem was the continuous light. I had two 90W fluorescent lights with softboxes (around 4500 Lumens) to play with and chose to put one on the extreme right at the starting point for the dancer facing left, and the other next to the camera to boost the light in the middle. BIG mistake, the one near the camera lit the curtains (and the floor) far too much resulting in the folds in the curtains showing up as vertical lines. I had thought that square law fall off would be enough to leave the curtains black, it was not.

Apart from that I'm quite satisfied and the dancer is delighted with the shots. Next time I'll use just one continuous light on the right and boost the light in the middle in PP if necessary. Another refinement might be to move the camera more to the left, angled along the path of the dancer. DOF would not be a problem as I had masses of light and could stop down to f11 or more if needed and, anyway, the RH side is all motion blur, nothing needs to be sharp.

I personally prefer this latest version - the longer trail is more effective in my view.