Rangefinder Magazine
March 2006

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Rf Cookbook by Gene Martin
Gene Martin's Flash Blur Mastery... Take Two

Igot the call from one of my steady clients, Savant Records in New York City, to photograph legendary Blue Note drummer Joe Chambers, for the packaging of his latest CD. The CD was to be called “The Outlaw” and was to feature Joe’s other percussive talents, like the marimba. As I have a good rapport with the company, they left the idea for the packaging up to me.

After speaking with Joe, we decided that a somewhat sinister look would match the title of the CD, set the mood, and imply Joe’s command of his instruments. We decided on a black shirt, pants and hat. For the back cover tray card, Joe requested something exciting—something that showed action, movement, etc. That’s when the fun begins for me. I’ve always been known in the music world for my images that imply motion (see “Flash Blur Mastery” in the July 2002 issue of Rangefinder), and I always find them a challenge. In the past for this kind of image I have combined strobe and tungsten light, with much thought going into the flash duration of the strobe, but I decided on a different approach this time, partly because of the multiple exposure capability put into a digital camera by Nikon with the D2X.

Multiple exposures have always been part of my repertoire and to a certain extent have defined my style by employing techniques such as “Split Diffusion,” “Split Focusing” and “Light Painting.” I’ve missed the ability to accomplish certain shots “in camera” with the multiple exposure capability missing from digital cameras. No longer!

Some have argued that there is no longer a need for multiple exposure capability when you can layer images in Photoshop. I disagree. There’s something to be said for the old-fashioned skill of producing in-camera effects, and also for getting the shot done to make room for new projects. As demanding as digital workflow is, I’d prefer not being married to the computer any longer than I need to be. That’s not to say I disregard what the computer has to offer. Quite the contrary: I embrace it. I just prefer to I use it as an extension of my creative ability rather than a means to accomplish things I already did on film in camera.

This shot was done on the west side of Manhattan at Ayers Percussion Studio, which had marimbas in stock. After setting up our muslin background, we lit the set. The entire scene was lit with one Speedotron 102 head in a 3x4-foot Photoflex softbox and one 102 head with a 45° grid reflector with 10° grid attached on the background. The power was boosted up on my 812 Speedotron pack in order to decrease flash duration. I also gelled down the 102 head with neutral density material taped around the head inside the softbox. The slower duration was needed to assure some movement in the mallets. The softbox was goboed to increase the light falloff on either end of the marimba. The gridded background light gave me separation of the subject against the low-key background that was lit to vignette to black on the right side of the image to leave a clear area in which to drop type.

The Nikon D2X can make as many as 10 exposures on one image. When doing images like this on film in the past, I would have to calculate for the increase in exposure based on how many images I was compiling into one. No calculation is needed with the D2X. I choose three exposures and set the Auto Gain under multiple exposure in the menu to the on position. This automatically calculates for the amount of exposures you’ve chosen. Now we were ready to go.

After taking meter readings for a basic “jumping off” point, we made a test exposure to examine the histogram. The D2X allows you to compute the information from all the color channels individually, as well as the luminosity. The red channel is most likely to peak, so by examining it you can be sure you’re not blowing out any details and guarantee correct exposure.

I explained to Joe what I needed from him before we created our image. I wanted his head tilted down to cover his eyes to keep with the mood we had created for the front cover. I had Joe remain still, mallets in playing position, so I could capture a straight image to use as a “benchmark.” I immediately set the camera for the triple exposure and had Joe start to play furiously while keeping his upper body as still as possible. Three consecutive exposures, and we were done.

The next step was to download the images to an Apple PowerBook G4. I shot in RAW plus JPEG Basic—RAW for the reproduction image and JPEG for a quick review. We could see right away from the JPEG that we had nailed the image in one try. In the past, when I captured an image like this on film, I would have shot at least 36 multiple exposures—always asking, “Just one more roll? Pleeease,” and “What time is your flight?” We would base our procedure on Polaroids, then shoot as many exposures on film as we could get away with to ensure at least one was what we were after. With digital capture, that’s a thing of the past. With experience in the technique and instant replay at your fingertips, our ability to get the shot and get home has been increased tenfold. The clients love it, and the subjects definitely love it.

When we got back to the studio, we processed the RAW image in Nikon Capture 4.3.2. Nikon Capture gives correct color first time, every time! Our image had the elements I wanted in the hand motion with multiple mallets, and the slow flash duration gave us just a touch of movement on the mallets.

I noticed I had some unwanted movement around the brim of the hat. To fix this I brought out my single shot “benchmark” image. I layered the two images in perfect registration in Photoshop CS2 with the single shot underneath. With a layer mask in place, I proceeded to brush away the top blurred layer of the brim of the hat bringing up by tack sharp image from below. I used two sets of motion blur (one for the right hand and one for the left), each with a layer mask to add some refinement to the tips of the mallets. I lightened his face ever so slightly just under the hat with another masked layer in the layers blending mode, using the brush tool and opacity slider to dial it in to my liking. With these few steps in post production, we had a complete image done in one try with the help of multiple exposure and digital capture.

The CD has since been released and the artist was thrilled with the images. So were we.