ESSENTIAL PHOTO SKILLS MADE EASY
2 HOURS
A water balloon can be a wonderful prop for action portraiture. Inspired by the portraits of photographer Tim Tadder, the exploding balloons look almost like wigs or hats of water when frozen mid-blast.
Aside from all the watery fun, this project is also an exercise in lighting. In order to freeze the fast action of the water, we need to go beyond what our shutter speed is capable of, and instead make use of flash duration. Put simply, this is the length of time the burst of flash lasts, and with the right lights at the right setting we can make it as fast as 1/10,000 sec or more. As long as there’s no other light influencing our exposure, the flash duration effectively becomes our shutter speed, allowing us to freeze the splash.
