R_Marquez wrote:
I'm not sure if they exclude this feature in the 430EXII but there's a multi option. You would then fire off a long exposure, i.e., 5 seconds, and the flash will do its thing according to the frequency and duration you choose.

I'd test with the flash on the hotshoe first and once you confirm it works, try with the triggers.

Pretty much that.

And remember that for every awesome image like this you see, there are fifty terrible ones of the subject performing the same motion over and over and over ...

poiter wrote:
I was looking at this image
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo … /547566123

I own some Canon 430 ex II speed lights. Is it possible to get my speed lights to fire that fast for multiple exposure. I already tried with a pocket wizard and just using my finger to press really fast and I can't fire the lights that fast, even at lowest power. Or perhaps I just can't physically press the button that fast myself. Is there some way to get the speed lights to do this?

Thanks!!!!!
Peter

High speed synch with multiple speed lights placed close to the subject and a camera that can fire off many frames per second would do the trick, I would think. But I do not know if the 430 EX II provides High Speed Synch as a feature, and in any case to compensate for the lowered power output when using High Speed Synch you would either need to increase ISO a lot or have a scene where the flash is very close to the subject or use multiple 430 EX IIs to have enough light on the subject.

Marc S Photography wrote:
High speed synch with multiple speed lights placed close to the subject and a camera that can fire off many frames per second would do the trick, I would think.

no. even with high frame rates of 10-14 fps is not enough. that's not how it's done. A golf swing or ballet jump only lasts 0.25 seconds or less. also combining multiple frames is too much work. please notice most of these are done with black or dark background. the camera is set on bulb or a slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec or longer. the flash(es) are fired in stroboscopic mode. speed lights with the function, industrial strobes, and some photographic packs (like broncolor) or a dance hall strobe will do it.

Leonard Gee Photography wrote:

no. even with high frame rates of 10-14 fps is not enough. that's not how it's done. A golf swing or ballet jump only lasts 0.25 seconds or less. also combining multiple frames is too much work. please notice most of these are done with black or dark background. the camera us set on bulb or a long shutter speed of 1/10 sec or longer. the flash(es) are fired in stroboscopic mode. speed lights with the function, industrial strobes, and some photographic packs (like broncolor) or a dance hall strobe will do it.

Yeppers!

poiter wrote:
I was looking at this image
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo … /547566123

I own some Canon 430 ex II speed lights. Is it possible to get my speed lights to fire that fast for multiple exposure. I already tried with a pocket wizard and just using my finger to press really fast and I can't fire the lights that fast, even at lowest power. Or perhaps I just can't physically press the button that fast myself. Is there some way to get the speed lights to do this?

Thanks!!!!!
Peter

it is constant light with black background.

Basically, the light is constant while the shutter is fired at rapid rate.

or, you can have multiple lights source fire rapidly while the shutter is on bulb.

ChanStudio - OtherSide wrote:

it is constant light with black background.

Basically, the light is constant while the shutter is fired at rapid rate.

or, you can have multiple lights source fire rapidly while the shutter is on bulb.

No, that's not the normal way to get a shot like this - that would require merging the images.  The normal way is, as others have said, using a stroboscope - a device which fires short bursts of light at regular intervals. A few strobes can do this.

The Elinchrom ELC Pro HD monobloc lights can do this: http://www.elinchrom.com/bts/1502-dreams.html

Frozen Instant Imagery wrote:
No, that's not the normal way to get a shot like this - that would require merging the images.  The normal way is, as others have said, using a stroboscope - a device which fires short bursts of light at regular intervals. A few strobes can do this.

The Elinchrom ELC Pro HD monobloc lights can do this: http://www.elinchrom.com/bts/1502-dreams.html

This is correct and note that this is NOT high speed synch.

Frozen Instant Imagery wrote:

No, that's not the normal way to get a shot like this - that would require merging the images.  The normal way is, as others have said, using a stroboscope - a device which fires short bursts of light at regular intervals. A few strobes can do this.

The Elinchrom ELC Pro HD monobloc lights can do this: http://www.elinchrom.com/bts/1502-dreams.html

This is high frame rate, and the images need to be merged. 15 frames/sec.

Although some lights will strobe.

Perhaps the Eli could be set to fire 15 times in one second in ONE frame?

The OP looks more like 30 shots in 1/2sec either merged or single frame.

Totally doable, but not with your average light set up.

Mike Collins wrote:
Just because a golf swing or dance move is fast in real life doesn't mean that it HAS to go that fast when you doing a set up shot using multiple strobe firings. 

Ask the subject to go through the move but say at half the speed or as slow as they can as you pop away.

Correct some cases, but that was a ballerina and I am not sure that move can be done slowly. Some cannot, some can with somebody with incredible control and others can.

So perhaps we stick to those that cannot be done slowly to help with the OP's issue. Although this is a good point depending what the OP needs.

Leonard Gee Photography wrote:

no. even with high frame rates of 10-14 fps is not enough. that's not how it's done. A golf swing or ballet jump only lasts 0.25 seconds or less. also combining multiple frames is too much work. please notice most of these are done with black or dark background. the camera is set on bulb or a slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec or longer. the flash(es) are fired in stroboscopic mode. speed lights with the function, industrial strobes, and some photographic packs (like broncolor) or a dance hall strobe will do it.

This is what I thought at first, but I'm going to guess it's a regular strobe light like you'd find in a nightclub.

If it was a speed light in the strobe mode, each of the exposures would be crisp without the motion blur.

Rudy Winston wrote:
Speedlites like the Canon 580EX II, 600EX-RT, and the new 600EX II-RT can be fired in what's called "multi" flash mode, which is stroboscopic flash.  This can be done with a single flash on-camera, or with multiple flashes off-camera in either optical or radio-based wireless flash set-ups.  These speedlites can fire up to 199 times per second, and certainly at slower rates, depending upon what you need, the level of ambient light, and how long the shutter speed is going to be.

This is also possible with high-end Nikon speedlights, like the SB-900 and 910, and presumably the SB-5000 (Nikon calls it Repeating flash mode), and it's no doubt also possible with other premium-grade shoe-mount flashes.

As previously described, this is normally done in a single, long exposure, in an otherwise darkened environment. 

So yes, something like this definitely could be done with speedlites, although you'd have to step-up from the Canon EX400-series speedlites, since they don't offer the Multi (stroboscopic) flash option.

Rudy

Thought I had seen somebody do that with a Canon flash but was not sure.
This gives a bunch of stuff.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=+strobos … yPA4XirvgH

How clean an edge you will get is as above, but also a factor of how much the images overlap, and how much ambient light is involved. So pretty much flavour to taste.

Frozen Instant Imagery wrote:
No, that's not the normal way to get a shot like this - that would require merging the images.  The normal way is, as others have said, using a stroboscope - a device which fires short bursts of light at regular intervals. A few strobes can do this.

The Elinchrom ELC Pro HD monobloc lights can do this: http://www.elinchrom.com/bts/1502-dreams.html

Herman Surkis wrote:
This is high frame rate, and the images need to be merged. 15 frames/sec.

Although some lights will strobe.

Perhaps the Eli could be set to fire 15 times in one second in ONE frame?

The OP looks more like 30 shots in 1/2sec either merged or single frame.

Totally doable, but not with your average light set up.

No, it's not high frame rate - the idea is that you use a SLOW shutter speed (say 1-5 seconds), and have the strobe fire many times during that time. As I said, the Elinchrom ELC monoblocs can do this (and some high-end speed lights can, too). Because you only see the image when the strobe fires, you get apparent separate frames, but it's not. Have a look at the link I posted.

Frozen Instant Imagery wrote:

Frozen Instant Imagery wrote:
No, that's not the normal way to get a shot like this - that would require merging the images.  The normal way is, as others have said, using a stroboscope - a device which fires short bursts of light at regular intervals. A few strobes can do this.

The Elinchrom ELC Pro HD monobloc lights can do this: http://www.elinchrom.com/bts/1502-dreams.html

No, it's not high frame rate - the idea is that you use a SLOW shutter speed (say 1-5 seconds), and have the strobe fire many times during that time. As I said, the Elinchrom ELC monoblocs can do this (and some high-end speed lights can, too). Because you only see the image when the strobe fires, you get apparent separate frames, but it's not. Have a look at the link I posted.

For the OP image I revised my comment as above yours.

Will the Eli fire 30 times per second? I do not know of any monoblocs that will do this, but numerous speedlights will.

What is evident from the thread is that there are numerous ways to get something similar, and it has motivated me to try it. The high end Canon speedlights are supposed to do it. The Nikon SB800 is also supposed to do it, but I cannot get mine to do so.

As for not merged, it could be, although I do not know of any camera that does 30fps. There are some incredible images  out there that are a merge of hundreds of shots.

Again flavour to taste.