Composite or Not

An interesting discussion has popped up on Facebook last night I thought I'd bring it here and see what the general consensus would be.

http://2.bp.blogspot.c​om …0/Benoit%2BCour​ti%2B8.jpg

Basically, the question was how one would shoot this. Immediately is was said to be a composite (2 or more shots combined into one) What do you all think? Composite or not and if you did shoot it either way how would you do it?

Hang the dice using black thread and superglue.

Throw the dice and take the shot. Repeat 200 times to get just the right look.

It wouldn't even take that many attempts. Lighting for every attempt would be the same as would the focusing distance and background. Once you've setup the lighting away you go.

Pretty much a controlled environment where the only variable each time is the throw. A few attempts to get the shutter button finger timing sorted and then it just comes down to getting the dice captured in a visually appealing way. Shooting on burst mode bettering the odds.

I'm not sure why people would think it was a composite though. There is nothing about the shot to me that suggest it is... now if the dice had a significant number being displayed across them e.g. 666 then I'd begin to question it. But only because of the odds involved.

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #17353905
It wouldn't even take that many attempts.

Speak for yourself. I know my limits.

doubt it is a composite.

easy to do, simpler with a trigger trap (or similar).

1) hold a dice about where you will expect them to be, focus on that point.
2) set up a trigger trap / laser at that point.
3) have model stand and hold hand where you want them.
4) drop dice from above frame
5) dice drop through trigger, and releases the shutter

rinse and repeat until you get the dice the way you want them.

Seems like it would be easiest to do as-is, rather than bothering to setup and do it as a composite, unless you wanted a specific dice formation. You might do a few dozen shots to get one you're happy with, but doesn't look like an exceptionally difficult task with flash photography.

I'm with tandemharts. The one I did below was roughly from 400 shots. I did 200 on the first attempt, and did 200 more to improve the shot. Toss dice with one hand, hit the remote shutter with the other. Repeat, seemingly endlessly.

http://grahamglover.ze​nfolio.com/img/s1/v46/​p185697672-4.jpg

No EXIF that I can see, but I seems like it wouldn't be too difficult with an assistant, constant lighting, and a high FPS camera. The X-T1 I rented over christmas had 8FPS and essentially a limitless buffer in JPEG, so I would imagine you could have someone drop the dice from above the frame, pre-focus, and just spray and pray a couple times.