help or advice needed - HSC photo

[Sawdust Maker]

Chaps

I've a son about to do the HSC (1st exam Monday)

anyway he'd like a finalization photo

we have in mind a photo of him throwing up his notes (copious) and them drifting down around him

so how does one take this type of photo?

I've a couple of cameras a 7D and a 20D
So I could do a few different ideas - maybe at the same time?
some with 6 fps and some with slow shutter speeds

does anyone have any idea which method might look the best?
and even which might be the better way to throw the notes up into the air?
flash?

any ideas welcome

[Master Splinter]

Slow shutter speed only if you have someone off-camera showering him in the paper (from the top of a ladder or platform); if you have him throwing them and do it at a slow speed, there's a good chance that all the pics will have his face somewhat blurred (unless he can keep everything still except his throwing hand).

It can also be quite hard to get stacks of paper to separate out neatly in the air for that nice fluttering effect, so be prepared for multiple re-takes; best way would be to stage it with him standing close to a building doing a token fake throw with a small bundle (slow shutter speed for a blurred throwing hand) while a helper overhead does the actual drop; that way you get 3-5 seconds of paper fluttering and he can make 3-4 fake throws during this time.

Work out the shutter speed with him doing a few dummy runs, when that's sorted you can go for real and the helper can dump the papers from on high. Practice the paper dumping, too!!!

Or do a few runs with just the throw action, and photoshop in a stock pic of fluttering paper with the background deep etched out from a stock shots site! Or make your own stock shot by spending an afternoon shooting falling sheets of paper against a black backdrop!

[wheelinround]

Use the camera video function then take out of that a shot/still capture. http://www.pcworld.com/article/20341...m-a-video.html

http://www.our-space.org/media/item/...om-a-video.pdf

You can also shoot the video in slowmo mode.

[RoyG]

Nick,

I would treat this primarily as a portrait photograph. Get the post right so your son looks natural, and get the lighting right so he looks his best. I reckon that there's two very different techniques you could try.

One technique, as mentioned in previous replies, is to use a slow shutter speed to portray movement of the paper by showing a slight motion blur to the paper. Unfortunately, this approach will risk getting your son's face blurred if he moves too much. If you ask him to stay still enough to prevent him being blurred, then in the resulting portrait he will look wooden.

The other technique which comes to mind is to use a high shutter speed to freeze all movement. This approach would ensure that your son's face remains in sharp focus and is not blurred by motion, and the paper sheets will be frozen in an impossible position in mid air.

If you've got a good quality off-camera flash, then I'd do the portrait indoors with flash lighting, as you'll have much more control and no wind to blow the paper around. You may be able to use the camera's built-in flash, but you may nor have enough flexibility in the flash configuration to get the desired exposure. By playing with flash duration, flash intensity and flash distance, you should be able to get an exposure with a short enough flash duration to freeze the paper movement, whilst being able to use a large aperture (to put the background out of focus) suitable for a portrait. With this approach, as well as controlling the flash duration to freeze the paper movement, you should also be able to position the flash and a reflector to produce pleasing lighting for the portrait.

If you have to take the portrait outdoors, look for an area open shade, not direct sun. Aim for a high shutter speed (1/1000 sec or greater), and your lowest ISO (ISO 100 on the Canon 7D). That shutter speed, should allow you to use an aperture of about f5.6 or maybe f4, depending on the day. If your lens opens up to wider apertures (i.e. 2.8 or wider), use those wider apertures for the portrait, and increase the shutter speed as required.

Good luck with that. It'll be good to see the results.

Regards,

RoyG

[FenceFurniture]

Slow shutter speed with second curtain synch on the flash. That will give frozen detail and also movement.

[Grumpy John]

Hi Nick, have a look at this article and this video. Throwing paper up in the air will be a lot less messy than water DAMHIKT.

Good luck .

[Sawdust Maker]

Thanks for the suggestions, hints and ideas

photoshoot will be sometime next week
and I'll post an example or two on here

one of my problems is going to be what to use as a backdrop - a white sheet probably won't work