TECHNIQUE ADVICE NEEDED: stroboscopic

Hi,

I urgently need advice on undertaking 'stroboscopic flash' photography.

Gear available: (travel-kit)
2 x 580exII with 3 x Pocket Wizard Flex TT5's
1 x tripod with cable-release
40D with EF-S10-22mm, EF28-105mm & EF100mm F2.8 Macro USM
(If push comes to shove I can get hold of umbrellas & modifiers - I will be loathe to using hired-in strobes)I will be shooting a martial-artist performing a 'flying-side-kick' indoors set in a gym. There will be a kick-bag that he will aiming at.

The martial-artist has specified these 2 requirements:
SHOT 1: that I capture a clear full-body image of him 'in-flight' as a single photo (without the kick-bag in view).
(CLEAR defined as: in-focus, 'filling-the-frame' and his face correctly exposed) - This I can do - easily enough, I will have plenty of opportunity to capture him using varying lighting techniques to create a bit-of-drama.

SHOT 2: that I capture him in a way that shows a sequence of him 'in-flight' as a single-shot. I believe that this effect/technique is called stroboscopic. - This is where I am probably out-of-my-depth and need advice on. I have never attempted this technique before.

Any advice/hints/tips on techniques will be much appreciated to accomplish this! - or How would you shoot SHOT 2

Location=Miami Dade // Date=Sat 24th April // Venue: tba // Time=1 hour

To shoot #2: set your exposure setting to really underexpose the ambient, set shutter speed to slow, like 1/10th, and set your strobes to multi and set the frequency as appropriate.

Thank you for posting this advice so rapidly - points duly noted & it seems the tripod & cable-release combo is very much essential to achieving this.

Have you tried anything similar - say for other individual sports where I can benefit further from you??

Set your flash power to something manageable like 1/8th or so. Use the 40D (since it has 6.5 FPS) and set the camera to manual to get a properly exposed shot. Put the camera on a tripod and focus on the distance that the jumper will be. Then simply fire a burst of images and use photoshop to combine them.

Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com …zsbB5gqtY&featu​re=related

int2str wrote in post #10002170
Set your flash power to something manageable like 1/8th or so. Use the 40D (since it has 6.5 FPS) and set the camera to manual to get a properly exposed shot. Put the camera on a tripod and focus on the distance that the jumper will be. Then simply fire a burst of images and use photoshop to combine them.

I agree. This is the way to do it.

There's no way the multi-strobe feature of your flash can be used to capture the #2 shot required by the client in a single frame. Even if you were able to get the ambient light not to register in the picture, the multiple images of the subject in the frame would come out looking translucent with the background showing through him.

Actually there is a way to do it with the strobe feature. You just need to shoot it on a black background.

Joe McNally has a video showing how to do exactly what you are asking. Except it was shooting a ballet dancer. Of coarse it is with a nikon, but you will get the ides... http://nikonusa.com …9w/1/Repeating-Flash.html

Mark1 wrote in post #10003611
Actually there is a way to do it with the strobe feature. You just need to shoot it on a black background.

Joe McNally has a video showing how to do exactly what you are asking. Except it was shooting a ballet dancer. Of coarse it is with a nikon, but you will get the ides... http://nikonusa.com …9w/1/Repeating-Flash.html

Interesting video, but as PacAce said, the images are all translucent.

PacAce wrote in post #10003407
I agree. This is the way to do it.

There's no way the multi-strobe feature of your flash can be used to capture the #2 shot required by the client in a single frame. Even if you were able to get the ambient light not to register in the picture, the multiple images of the subject in the frame would come out looking translucent with the background showing through him.

But it is not the background that is showing through. It is the subject stacked on top of itself. Had they slowed the strobe down, or speed up the subject to where they are not stacked each would be able to stand on its own. Didn't think I had to go that 101 for everybody.

Mark1 wrote in post #10007350
But it is not the background that is showing through.

It is the background showing through.

They'd stand on their own, but be slightly translucent :P
Why do you think he did the first "standing" exposure the way he did. Look at the difference that made.

Mind you, the "translucent look" is nice in a way too. It's not bad. But you have to consider your background well and get a lot of things right to make it work.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. For the OP's problem, I would think the multi exposure route might work better.

On black there is no background. So it is kind of hard for it to show through. What you are seeing is lack of light on the front of the dancer. On anything other than black I agree stacking the images is the way to go. But It most definatley can be done on black with strobe.

Agreed.

int2str wrote in post #10002177
Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com …zsbB5gqtY&featu​re=related

Thank you for bringing this vid to my attention. I think that this is very much the result that I am looking for.

My PS-CS3 skills are limited, so I will have to rapidly learn this app' to make this all work and come together.

I also came across this Ballet Dancer example by a chap named Nino who has posted on POTN in the section called 'performing arts'
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=832743

So, now I have a few ideas to try!