PRACTICE: Jumpology

JUMPOLOGY: FAST AND SLOW SHUTTER SPEED

Philippe Halsman, Dalí Atomicus, 1948

The above photograph shows photographer Phillippe Halsman and surrealist Salvador Dali's 26th attempt to produce this suspended chaotic scene. In order to achieve this famous shot, Dali needed to jump at the exact correct moment for Halsman to capture his suspense. 

On a class visit to Stanmer Park, I used Halsman's inspiration and tried to recreate the jumpology technique to see what kind of interesting and fun photograph this would produce.

The above images show my attempt at jumpology in a similar style to Halsman using a very fast shutter speed (1/2000) to produce a sharp, snapshot image, creating the illusion of a body suspended in the air. In the first image, my subject Alisha jumped a little late, but this was rectified for the following two shots.

The above images show my experimentation with slow shutter speed and jumpology (1/0.5). The first image is my testing the exposure, which I then felt was too much so altered the aperture to be slightly lower (f/5.6).
After practising the timings of when to jump/shoot, I was able to capture the motion blur movement of my subject mid-jump, leading to an interesting, fun, and dynamic image.

This is my favourite image from my jumpology experiment (f/5.6, 1/0.5). I like the shape created by the motion blur of the subject's trainers, creating a dynamic pathway of movement.
If I was to recreate my jumpology experiment, I would use a tripod and perhaps a narrower aperture with a larger depth of field to help increase the stability and focus of the background environment whilst still achieving motion blur of the foreground subject.

Halsman image:
Palumbo, Jaqui (2018) The Story behind the Surreal Photograph of Salvador Dalí and Three Flying Cats. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-story-surreal-photograph-salvador-dali-three-flying-cats (Accessed 03 May 2019).