p.1 #1 · Long-exposure / flash experimentation with night whitewater kayaking
As the season winds up here in the slowly chilling North the local kids in the Ottawa River Runners put together a 'night paddle'. Glow sticks on the gates, helmets, boats, and then they went and mucked about on the top portion of the Pump House course -- relatively flatter water and they could probably all paddle it blindfolded. So... being the photo geek, I experimented. I set up a 200 mm for a 30 second exposure at f22 and then put an off camera 580EX flash pointing at one gate that I fired with a manual remote trigger. Lots of work in post to bring it together. Not sure if I'm totally sold on it, largely because the rapids morphed into something that looks a bit like ice, but still a fun way to pass an evening. As always, comments and critiques very welcome.
p.1 #2 · Long-exposure / flash experimentation with night whitewater kayaking
There is definitely something here to continue with, but I am struggling seeing the course and the story of the image. I'm not sure if multiple flash exposures in one image are the way to go -- unless you have multiple flashes that you can trigger to adequately light a certain area properly. Say a flash covering Gate 1, then a different one covering gate 2, and then finally a third covering gate 3.
I see what you mean about it looking like ice. I know there is only so much you can control in a situation like this, but if you do a 30 sec exposure at f/22, you might have to move down the ISO and then pump up the flash power to get good results there without so much glare off the water. But that would be something that multiple flashes could/should help with.
p.1 #3 · Long-exposure / flash experimentation with night whitewater kayaking
Caleb Williams wrote:
There is definitely something here to continue with, but I am struggling seeing the course and the story of the image. I'm not sure if multiple flash exposures in one image are the way to go -- unless you have multiple flashes that you can trigger to adequately light a certain area properly. Say a flash covering Gate 1, then a different one covering gate 2, and then finally a third covering gate 3.
I see what you mean about it looking like ice. I know there is only so much you can control in a situation like this, but if you do a 30 sec exposure at f/22, you might have to move down the ISO and then pump up the flash power to get good results there without so much glare off the water. But that would be something that multiple flashes could/should help with.
Agreed. I think what I really need to do if I get a chance at this again is to put a snoot on the flash so I only spot the narrow window around the single gate. The widely dispersed flash sort of blows out the rest of the image.
To be honest, this all happened like this because the pocketwizard flex TT5s were not playing nice with my R5m2. I also had no idea what we were going to see -- what is a 'night whitewater paddle' anyways? I've probably got twelve months to think this through!
p.1 #4 · Long-exposure / flash experimentation with night whitewater kayaking
cocodrillo wrote:
Agreed. I think what I really need to do if I get a chance at this again is to put a snoot on the flash so I only spot the narrow window around the single gate. The widely dispersed flash sort of blows out the rest of the image.
On the contrary, it's time to buy some strobes to use to really light this event! Of course it's very easy to spend your money.
