What you see there is a blurry bunch of dice being dropped from about three feet. What you are supposed to see are clear dice being dropped from about three feet. This is the dilemma facing me in my studio photography class today. The assignment is one of capturing movement using studio lights. Because I’m me, I had to do something a little more challenging than blow bubbles are toss a ball in the air t=for the assignment, but am facing the possibility that I may not get this one. That’s where you come in.
The dice are moving too fast to be captured by the 1/200th shutter speed limit for synching. Short of using a high-speed trigger to which I don’t have access, what are the other options? I have tried to turn all the room lights off, set the camera to bulb, and use the AlienBee triggered lights set the exposure time. The results are the same whether the power is at full strength or lowered to the minimum 1/32 power.
For you studio masters out there, how would you capture something moving that quickly in the studio?
UPDATE: It looks like the Alien Bee B800 simply did not have a flash duration that was short enough. Going to look around the studio and see what else I can find.