Need to know how to shoot levitation

[viviansungg]

I have a problem with levitation photography, when I shoot it always blur and get lag. I think its better to shoot with continous. Any tips? Thx [emoji4]

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[photo1x1.com]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
I guess you are shooting levitation by letting your model jump, right? So you need a faster shutter speed to freeze the motion. Try 1/500sec as a starter (and a well lit scene - daylight at best sun). If that is still blurring your shot, use 1/1000sec, 1/2000sec,...
In regard to lag - that depends on the camera, your ability to anticipate the movement and the way you communicate with the model. The more experience you have (also shooting sports), the better you'll get. Continuous shooting is an option if your camera supports high framerates (min 5fps).
You could also use an object to levitate your model, like a stool, ladder, etc. Take one shot with model and stool, one without (both from a tripod same settings), and mask the stool in photoshop.
Does that help?

 

[viviansungg]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
I guess you are shooting levitation by letting your model jump, right? So you need a faster shutter speed to freeze the motion. Try 1/500sec as a starter (and a well lit scene - daylight at best sun). If that is still blurring your shot, use 1/1000sec, 1/2000sec,...
In regard to lag - that depends on the camera, your ability to anticipate the movement and the way you communicate with the model. The more experience you have (also shooting sports), the better you'll get. Continuous shooting is an option if your camera supports high framerates (min 5fps).
You could also use an object to levitate your model, like a stool, ladder, etc. Take one shot with model and stool, one without (both from a tripod same settings), and mask the stool in photoshop.
Does that help?

Thankyou! I still wondering this, do I need to set to manual focus or auto focus for the best?

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[photo1x1.com]

That depends on the shot you are trying to achieve. If the model stays on the same place and just jumps up, you can best use manual focus. If it moves towards the camera or away, most of the time it is better to use auto focus (continuous) if your camera focusses fast enough. Only if you can make sure, that the model will be at the absolute same spot when you press the shutter, can you use manual in this case. It would be easier with a wideangle lens, because the depth of focus on these lenses is much bigger.
For the second option with stool and ladder, you have to use manual focus.

Do you have a sample of a missed shot, so that we can get an idea what setup you use and help you better?

 

[Solarflare]

Another technique is the green screen. Shooting the model before a green, blue, or red background (whatever the color the model isnt wearing themselves) and then pasting them into any picture at your will.

 

[viviansungg]

That depends on the shot you are trying to achieve. If the model stays on the same place and just jumps up, you can best use manual focus. If it moves towards the camera or away, most of the time it is better to use auto focus (continuous) if your camera focusses fast enough. Only if you can make sure, that the model will be at the absolute same spot when you press the shutter, can you use manual in this case. It would be easier with a wideangle lens, because the depth of focus on these lenses is much bigger.
For the second option with stool and ladder, you have to use manual focus.

Do you have a sample of a missed shot, so that we can get an idea what setup you use and help you better?

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[photo1x1.com]

That depends on the shot you are trying to achieve. If the model stays on the same place and just jumps up, you can best use manual focus. If it moves towards the camera or away, most of the time it is better to use auto focus (continuous) if your camera focusses fast enough. Only if you can make sure, that the model will be at the absolute same spot when you press the shutter, can you use manual in this case. It would be easier with a wideangle lens, because the depth of focus on these lenses is much bigger.
For the second option with stool and ladder, you have to use manual focus.

Do you have a sample of a missed shot, so that we can get an idea what setup you use and help you better?

View attachment 132925

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Hmm - that seems to be a combination of too slow shutter speed and focus problem. The motion blur resulting from the slow shutter can be seen on his left shoe, but for the rest it seems you managed to capture his highest point and therefore there isn´t much motion blur - so the timing was pretty good.
Since he seems to be jumping just straight into the air, you could have used manual focussing before he jumps to give you a more accurate focus.
In general it is easier to freeze an object if there is enough light. Streetlights indicate that it was evening and there is just very little light compared to daylight hours.
Oh - and of course he could have had a little more headroom
Classic levitation photography though usually is the one with a lot of photoshop action where people are found in poses that are not naturally possible.

 

[Derrel]

Your photo seems to indicate near-sunset time, what with the street liughts being on and all. NOT a good time of day to get a fast shutter speed. The shallow depth of field does not hep the idea much either. Yes, yuor timeing appears good, more or less the very top of the leap, but the overall exposure is a "slow" one...lens fairly wide open, shutter is slowish as well, due to the time of day and the low light level.

You have captured what is commonly called peak action, or the peak of action. That means the top of a jump, before the fall back to earth, or the end of a tennis swing, with the racket stopped, or the top of a basketball lay-up, where the player is not going up, but is not yet coming back down. Capturing peak action does not require a fast shutter speed--but it is a very small segment of any leap or jump, and requires split-second timing, whereas a really FAST shutter speed gives you maybe one, two, or three-tenths of a second, or more, to capture a frozen moment in time.

 

[astroNikon]

I always thought of levitation as trying to make someone float or fly more than just jumping.
I thought this was a funny example from DigitalRev quite some time back.

 

[beagle100]

I always thought of levitation as trying to make someone float or fly more than just jumping.
[/MEDIA]

yes, flying or floating ........ better than planking