Brief: Using slow shutter speeds, the multiple exposure function, or another technique inspired by the examples above, try to record the trace of movement within the frame.
For this exercise, I wanted to shoot a exposure long enough that I could move around in the frame to have a few different ‘ghosted’ versions of myself. I knew I would have to do this indoors and in very low lighting. Lens-wise, I thought the 20mm wide-angle would be best, to capture a wide shot of the room, giving maximum opportunity to move around and still be in frame. I thought that a slightly off-kilter camera angle would work well, given the weird nature of the image. I wanted to shoot from a high viewpoint, so I attached my camera to a gorilla pod, and (securely) attached that to the top of a tall step ladder. I moved it around the room checking out the composition on live view until I was happy.
I waited until the sun had gone down before testing the length of exposure. I had to switch my camera to manual in order to access the time and bulb shooting modes, and, I manually focused on the edge of the sofa and left it set there, as the low light would have made it impossible for the camera to focus automatically. You can see from the below test shots that it became clear that the exposure was getting far too long, there was clearly not enough ambient light leaking in from outside, to work.
So I changed tactics. I put the dimmer ceiling light on at a very low level and dropped back down to a 3 minute (or 180 sec) exposure. Not only was this far more manageable time frame to work in, it also gave me the visual result I was after.
Caroline's Learning Log 