How do I get this effect?

just_dave

just_dave

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Name
David
Edit My Images
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Can anyone help me with how I get this effect?

This is a friends picture but I dont know who took it?

Many Thanks

n1216595471_140954_1243.jpg
 
Looks like 2 photo's overlayed in photoshop to me? one of the guy stationary then one with a longer shutter and spinning the camera around a little to get motion blur on the lights
 
I suspect it's a long shutter speed with a flash and spin the camera when you press the shutter. the flash freezes the subject and the spin gives the light trails.

Very much aq hit or miss thing to do successfully though
 
I think by spinning the camera then using second curtain flash to freeze the movement at the end ? So start with the camera in Portrait, start the exposure, rotate through 90 degrees, then the flash fires. I tried something like this at xmas (but my efforts were rubbish).
 
Its a curtain sync flash or something like that. I cant remember exactly what its called. If you go into your flash settings it should explain as rear curtain or front curtain. You can select a slow shutter speed, like for example 1 second and then have a rear curtain flash that flashes at the end of the exposure. The flash is so fast and bright that it freezes the action before the shutter closes. Do a google search for rear or front curtain flashes and it should explain.
 
Use Front curtain sync.

Set the camera to 1s (ish)

compose & take the main shot

Wobble the camera (this is a very technical term ;))

repeat / adjust until you get what you want :D






*ps Instead of wobbling the camera get very very very drunk ;)
 
Shows how much I know thinking it was 2 photos :)
 
I think... it's called dragging the shutter, as I learnt from everyone's favourite Brummy export... Tomas.
 
Yup fairly simple ( when you know how). longish exposure ( say 1 sec or so) to get the trails and the flash illuminates the subject.

Nice shot
 
Yep - long shutter with a flash to freeze the subject. In this case it doesn't matter if the flash is first curtain sync (the default) or second curtain sync (needs the flash setting appropriately). The effect is cool though and I use it a lot at parties and events to create more atmosphere in the pictures.
 
good point., well thinking about it more, the light trails are in front of the DJ, so I it's more likely that he was exposed at the 1st curtain with that in mind.
 
I think it's a flash photo with a long exposure with the camera rotated during the exposure. As to whether the flash is synced with the 1st or 2nd curtain I'm not 100%. I think that as the light trails are brighter at the sound desk and there is a smooth curve at the end of the trail but a bump at the start it's more likely to be 1st curtain.
 
First or second curtain sync makes no difference to the intensity of the light trails, or the main scene. It just alters the timing of the flash, and therefore the apparent direction of the movement. It does not alter relative exposure levels (popular urban myth).

If you use first curtain and rotate the camera clockwise, you will get an identical effect to using second curtain and rotating the camera anti-clockwise.

It is usually better to use first curtain sync, as you can time the firing of the flash more accurately to capture the main subject at the right moment. If you have to wait maybe a second or so after tripping the shutter for the flash to fire, in situations like this a moving subject could have gone completely out of shot by then.
 
MagicMynx said:
ok, I may be completely barking up the wrong tree here, cause I don't have any exprience in these...but is it a fish eye lens?
Click to expand...

Yes. It's hard to see under all those swirls, but there's actually a heavily distorted image under there (check out the curved bar). That's a fish-eye.
 
just_dave said:
So would a fish eye naturally make the lights bend and refract like that without movement of the camera?
Click to expand...

No, the bending of the lights is caused by movement, rotating the camera during the exposure.

But the areas lit by the short flash exposure are not affected by movement, yet they are still curved (to a much lesser degree). This is the strong barrel distortion you get with a fish-eye lens, which produces very little distortion in the centre of the frame but getting stronger towards the edges.
 
HoppyUK said:
No, the bending of the lights is caused by movement, rotating the camera during the exposure.

But the areas lit by the short flash exposure are not affected by movement, yet they are still curved (to a much lesser degree). This is the strong barrel distortion you get with a fish-eye lens, which produces very little distortion in the centre of the frame but getting stronger towards the edges.
Click to expand...

I see, silly question but can you still pull this off without a fisheye?
 
just_dave said:
I see, silly question but can you still pull this off without a fisheye?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. The light trails thing is just a combination of short flash exposure which freezes everything, and a long shutter speed which allows bright moving areas to streak.

You can get the movement either by moving the camera, as here, or by getting the subject to wave coloured lights or a torch. The fish-eye just adds something different.

It's called slow-sync flash, or dragging the shutter.
 
PMK said:
So with shutter being 1s - you move the camera as you put the shutter release down then the flash freezes the subject yeah?

Sounds easy...but I think it takes some time to master!
Click to expand...

That's all there is to it. Actually very easy to do although the results are often unpredictable with drunk people waving stuff about. The camera will do everything automatically. On my Canon, I just set it on Av with flash. With some cameras, the default prevents longer shutter speeds with flash (to prevent movement LOL) but you just disable that in custom functions.

Having done that, the camera will set a shutter speed for correct exposure of the ambient light (background) and the flash will light the foreground subject. Adjust the aperture so you get the length of shutter speed you want, according to the amount of movement you want.

I use first curtain sync for this, as it's easier to capture the right pose or expression when the flash fires immediately - a lot can happen if you have to wait a full second with second curtain sync. Some people use second curtain sync, I think in the mistaken belief that by firing the flash last it somehow overlays the image more strongly and reduces ghosting. It doesn't; it makes no difference.

Where second (or rear) curtain sync is useful is when it is important that light trails move in a certain direction, such as car headlights. Second curtain sync looks more natural and logical then, but unless the direction of movement is both important and predictable/controllable, first curtain sync is better.
 
Yup, rear curtain sync. I use it, you can get some very cool effects.
 
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