Work Diary - Slow Sync

Shoot Evaluation

In today's class I looked at the technique 'slow sync'.  This technique is very similar to the blurring technique that I looked at - the studio needed to be set up the same, only this time there was a few changes to the settings on the camera and the fact I needed to add a flash.

I found some of the changes I had to make complicated at first, but once I had grasped the idea and what I needed to do it became simple and the shoot ran smoothly.

Here are some of the photos from today that I like:

In this first photo I asked my subject to wave a scarf around and slowly move from side to side.  You subtly see the movement of the subject and I like the effect that this has given.  Nevertheless, you cannot see the movement of the scarf as much (it was possible being moved to quickly) and you kind of lose the effect.  I think I should of directed my model more on how to wave the scarf around and I would have gotten more the effect that I wanted to achieve.

In this second photo I was getting my model to jump up and down to capture the movement in a different way.  I like how here you can see where the model is and was making the photo look like it has capture movement in slow motion.  There is a lot of movement present in this shot, something that I think has made the photo visually more interesting and dynamic.

By chance my model was wearing a bright orange t-shirt and this has stood out and contrasted beautifully against the dark black ground.

I liked this final photo as the movement seen in here is more subtle and this shows me the wide ranges of effects I can achieve using slow sync. 

I like here how you can see the subject's face clearly, unlike some of the others.  This is important as it provides a focal point in the photo.

How could I use this technique in my own project:

I have enjoyed woking with the slow sync technique today, similarly as I did with the blurring technique.  I think again this shot work work well with an abstract look, or even a weird surreal look, however I don't think it would work well with all makeup photography as if the photo is blurred or out of focus you would struggle to see the look.

Something else that puts me off using this technique in my project is that I feel you can lose the focal point in the photo with all the movement going on.  This is something that I don't like as I like to have a clear subject and focal point in my photography, especially as usually in my project I am focusing on photographing the face.