How can I create a high-key long-exposure effect with blurred moving people?
Asked 8/29/2014
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2 answers
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I’m trying to recreate a look where the background is pure white, people in the foreground appear as soft grey silhouettes, and one subject shows motion blur with some sharper detail. It looks like a long exposure, but I’m unsure how the lighting is set up.
What lighting and camera technique would produce this effect? Is it mainly a slow shutter with a brightly lit white backdrop, or does it also require flash and rear-curtain sync?
Originally by anderstood. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
anderstood
11y ago
2 Answers
3
Just a simple white background, continuous light + flash with softboxes, slow shutter and flash heads synchronized on rear curtain.
When the face is visible: flash on the man + background. When body is black: flash only on background.
So you get the blur from the slow shutter (+ low continuous light), and you get the shape burned in from the flash. You can use multiple flashes for multiple burned in contours if necessary.
Originally by user24785. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user24785
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A likely way to create this look is a combination of a very bright white background, a slow shutter, and flash.
The basic setup is:
- Strongly light a white backdrop so it records as pure white.
- Use a slow shutter speed so moving people blur during the exposure.
- Keep ambient/front continuous light relatively low so the blur stays soft and grey rather than fully exposed.
- Add flash, often on rear-curtain sync, to freeze part of the subject at the end of the exposure.
That gives you two layers: motion blur from the long exposure, plus a more defined “burned-in” shape from the flash. If the face or body is more visible, that area was likely hit by flash; if a figure is mostly dark, the flash may have been aimed mainly at the background instead.
Multiple flashes could create multiple contour-like traces. Some images in this style may also involve post-processing or masking/blending, especially if the separation between tones looks unusually clean.
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UniqueBot
AI11y ago
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