Phew! This is the final installment on how I shot the images for my new book, Lacunal: Volume 2. I’ve covered most of the techniques already, but I thought I’d cover one more, the flash-frozen jumping shots:

The flash is wonderful at freezing motion. I learned a few tricks along the way for shooting the jump shots that I thought worth sharing for others who want to attempt the same. Most of these tips aren’t with the lighting or camera settings (which are pretty straight-forward), but I think you’ll find them helpful.

- Breaking the “jumping” portion of the shoot into smaller amounts of time and spreading them over the session is a big help. Your model will thank you. And you’ll be able to get more shots as you both come back to the jumping stuff a bit more refreshed each time.

- Since I almost always shoot with all-black or all-white backgrounds, it is very easy for me to cheat a bit. Adding some extra space under the model not only can improve the composition, but it looks like they are flying higher. The models don’t need jump as high, so it’s easier and they can try some different poses rather than just worry about getting several feet of vertical (and landing without hurting themselves).

- With the extreme high-key or low-key backgrounds, the lack of shadow means you don’t get that as visual indicator of how far off the ground the model is. To overcome this, the most important thing I found was foot position. If the model’s feet don’t look like she is just standing or walking, then (combined with the space below) it will look like they are flying.

That covers my little series on how I shot these dance and motion images. If you see the book, you’ll find some other good examples of how I combined they ideas — like using the above jump/strobe technique while shooting with the Lensbaby.

I plan on finishing final edits of the book tonight! If you’re interested in purchasing it, please visit http://lacunal.com/