Card Trick - How I Took It

This shot is made by combining ambient light in this case two tungsten lights placed on both sides with camera flash set to second curtain sync.

card trick

There are two black cards placed between the camera and the lights to avoid flare. 

Exif Info:

Aperture: f/16

Shutter speed: 0.5 sec.

ISO: 800

The camera was pre-focused on the area, a narrow aperture of f/16 was used for maximum depth of field. ISO was set to ISO 800 to make exposure possible at f/16 using only two 60 watt tungsten lamps. A relatively slow shutter speed of 0.5 seconds was used to capture motion of the cards.

Flash was set to second curtain sync so it will only fire at the end of the exposure (this freezes the cards). Refer the user's manual that came with your flash to check whether your flash has a second curtain sync function.

Camera: Canon 5D MKII

Lens: Canon 24-105 F4 L IS USM

Flash: Canon 600 EX RT

Exposure Mode: Manual

Flash Mode: Manual

Flash was gelled orange to facilitate color correction in post. But i liked the yellow tint in the trail so left it at it. While i was at it, i got some more ideas which i need to try, will post the results here in the coming days. Do give this a try, do some variations and post the results in comments below.

Have Fun.

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