As mentioned, I pulled the trigger on some new lighting equipment. I ran into limitations with my older gear with respect to action stopping ability. The new lights also give me the capability to shoot with continuous shutter, which hopefully means I’ll never “miss” on a dance leap.
Ironically, though, it’s some of the other capabilities of the units that are currently occupying my time.
I sent out a casting call seeking to test the new lights last week and Natalie and Kristen were the first to answer. I wanted to test the stroboscopic and delay modes, which add a bit of a dynamic and an artistic flair.
Realizing I need a lot more practice, and there is a lot of trial-and-error involved, this is what I have come up with so far (this is Kristen):
There are 3 lighting elements involved, plus a slow shutter: a rear strobe in strobo mode, a front in delay mode (where it fires after the rear), and the modeling lights (which account for the ghosting effect). Oh yea – there’s the dancer as well. I think the proper technical analog for coordinating all of these picture elements is “herding cats.”
We were long on both the trial and the error portion of this endeavor. But we, as the English say, crack on.
More to come.