DAY 225

PORTRAITS

High speed Strobe

UMBILICAL BROTHERS, COMEDIC PERFORMERS

This amazing image was captured toward the end of a publicity shoot of the dynamic comedy duo and illustrates the amazing capabilities of strobe photography when the duration of the strobe light is at least 1/7000^th of a second. At this speed, using a shutter speed of 1/500^th, the motion of jumping in air can be fully frozen, even detailing David’s flying hair and shoelaces. This shoot was also special, as it was my first completely digital shoot.

Initially, I tried shooting the guys individually on trampolines, which I would then put together using Photoshop in post-production to show one jumping over the other. The whole process was a lot of fun, and the guys were physically incredible, jumping in the most amazing and innovative ways. After we had cleared the trampolines and shot some other portraits and publicity images, David mentioned that he could probably really do what I was going to do in retouching. He would try to jump over Shane, which he did on the third try. We knew we had it only with the instant results of digital photography. —SA

Photo © Simon Alexander.