I thought it was funny that three of us had the same idea of using a long exposure to capture ourselves multiple times in the same image. After taking well over 50 shots to achieve this effect, my hat is off to the other two folks who tried it, too!
The end result (for all three of us, I'm sure) was probably more difficult than most people would think. I used a hand-held flash and a 20-second exposure to pull it off. I darkened a room with a black backdrop, and started the exposure. Then I positioned myself for the first exposure and fired the flash at an arms-length. Then I turned around to shoot a second instance of myself with a different facial expression.
The hard part was to get positioned in just the right spot, while getting a facial expression I liked. There was a LOT of trial and error involved!
I don't know how many people marked me down because they may have thought I had a twin, but I'll take that as a compliment that shows that the effect worked well :) I thought you might get a kick out of seeing the original shot, with my arms extended to fire the flash, and portions of myself being rendered invisible where the background wasn't black:
The problem with this sight is that there are to many who dont understand some of the things you can actually accomplish with your camera. And those same people get to vote.(Why ?) I didn't vote, but if I did I would have voted you a 9, because I know how hard it is to get the shot and then you did it so well. I tried this and mine came out grainy. I also love the exspressions you have. The only thing keeping from giving you a 10 is the background. You did a great job. Sonja
I just know went and looked at your picture to see what your score was and WOW! You did a great job cropping. The picture you submitted would have got a 10 from me. :)
* This message has been edited by the author on 11/4/2002 10:27:16 AM.
Thanks for the kind words! Just for clarification... this wasn't the version I had submitted -- the submitted version was tightly-cropped of just my "heads" without the background clutter of my basement.
Congrats on the great shot! I myself took one of the other 2 shots (less successfully I might add). My camera only allows 8 seconds max exposure without manually pressing the button down and probably wiggling the camera. For some reason, I could get get both exposures to come in clearly. I used a hand held light which I snapped on and off during the exposure while my husband scurried around in the dark.
It was great to see a really well done example of what I was going for. This was my first attempt at this type of shot, so I'm still pretty pleased with my results.
I enjoyed your shot, too! I know how hard that one had to have been, especially when trying to match up the glasses! And the 8-second limitation had to be pretty tough, too. I had initially tried to use a strobe light (rather than a flash) to do my shot, but it was just too hard to re-compose myself with such a short period of time between "blinks" of the light. I still had a hard time doing it with 20 seconds (I even used 30 seconds for a while, but it was introducing too much noise.)
Originally posted by shedonist: I myself took one of the other 2 shots
Originally posted by shedonist: For some reason, I could get get both exposures to come in clearly. I used a hand held light which I snapped on and off during the exposure while my husband scurried around in the dark.
I wanted to add that your difficulty in getting the exposures to come in sharp focus probably had to do with the light you used. If you were trying to manually turn a light on and off to achieve the effect, you most likely had the light on for longer than the typical 1/60 of a second used by a flash. The length of time the light was on was probably the reason it was hard to catch him being still. You did very well, considering!
Thanks! I think you're right in that I was leaving the light on for too long. It didn't even occur to me to use a hand held flash - I think if I redid it with that it would have been much crisper.
Originally posted by alansfreed: I wanted to add that your difficulty in getting the exposures to come in sharp focus probably had to do with the light you used. If you were trying to manually turn a light on and off to achieve the effect, you most likely had the light on for longer than the typical 1/60 of a second used by a flash. The length of time the light was on was probably the reason it was hard to catch him being still. You did very well, considering!
