5/18/2013

Levitation Photography Tutorial: Anti-gravity Techniques Revealed

By Luke Walker


You can get some very cool and funny pictures by experimenting with levitation photography and it is also plenty of fun to try it out with one or two mates. You'll probably find that you can get the best photos if you step outside and have fun practicing this with a few different friends. These are my levitation photography tips.

Setting Things Up

The set up is fairly straight forward. You should use a relatively fast shutter speed and hopefully a tripod if you have one, particularly if you are trying it out by yourself.

One useful thing to note is that you have to launch your body into the air and pose to make it look like you're floating while taking the shot, which means the expression on your face has to be there as well as the position of your body. Some expressions that work well are pretending to be surprised, as if you're not quite certain what is going on.

Getting a nice composition can go a long way, and you can spend some time to find somewhere interesting before shooting by considering what you would like to see surrounding the subject. Do you want people in the photos?

If you are not shy, you could do this in a slightly crowded urban area, and you will undoubtedly get rather confused people watching you. This can look good in the photo as well, because they too will be showing surprised expressions.

One great little secret tip is to act as though you are levitating just outside a shop entrance/exit. As people walk outside, they will naturally be caught off guard to see you catapulting yourself into the air, and their natural surprised expressions, if captured in the photos, will add to the excitement and story of each picture.

Be Careful With Hair & Clothing

Some things can easily give the game away, such as clothing or hair that makes it obvious that you are jumping for the camera. A good tip is to wear tight fitting clothes that can't escape from your body very much. Tucking your T-shirt into your pants also helps.

To prevent your hair from giving the game away that you are jumping, try wearing a hat. You could also choose the option of shaving your head too, though I'm sure most of my female readers won't be doing that.

The Best Timing To Click

The photos will be more realistic if you take the shot during the upwards motion of the jump, rather than when he or she is re-entering the Earth's atmosphere under the planetary gravitational pull.

As I mentioned already, you will be using a very fast shutter speed in order to freeze the motion of the subject in mid air. You might be best off using around 1/500 of a second, or even 1/1000 of a second.

Once your model has worked out some radical jumping techniques and you've made the right adjustments on your camera, the next thing to do is to explore and find some more interesting places to take the shots. Like I said, the location can help you to get some great pictures.

Making Use Of Props

Another great little technique is to use an object and throw it up a little bit into the air as you jump, to make it appear as though the object is floating there with you. There are plenty of objects you could use, but it's not a good idea to use something that would be too expensive to destroy, because you might fail to catch it while jumping into the air. If you really want to use something like a camera or a smart phone, you can get hold of fake ones that look realistic enough for the shot.

So there we are. Levitation photography can be a very fun activity to do with friends, so go outside and floating in mid air with a perplexed look on your face!




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