El Dave Photography

There are two things I don't do well as a photographer; motion and multiple characters. When it came time to shoot The Flash I decided to do both, and you know what? It isn't as horrible as I thought it might be. In fact, I'm actually pretty proud of it.

For those unfamiliar with The Flash and Barry Allen in general, here's a little Wiki-based refresher.

Barry Allen is a police scientist (his job title was changed to a forensic scientist in the Iron Heights one-shot) with a reputation for being very slow, deliberate, and frequently late, which frustrates his fiancee, Iris West. One night, as he is preparing to leave work, a lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals and spills them all over Allen. As a result, Allen finds that he can run extremely fast and has matching reflexes. He dons a set of red tights sporting a lightning bolt, dubs himself the Flash (after his childhood hero in the comic books, Jay Garrick), and becomes a crimefighter of Central City. In his civilian identity, he stores the costume in his ring, which can eject the compressed clothing when Allen needs it and suck it back in with the aid of a special gas that shrinks the suit. In addition, Allen invented the cosmic treadmill, a device that allowed for precise time-travel and was used in many stories. Allen was so well liked that nearly all speedsters that come after him are constantly compared to him. Batman once said "Barry is the kind of man that I would've hoped to become if my parents hadn't been murdered".

Setup was a little tricky. I had to take three shots of Barry, with the focus set on a single point so the other two "Barry's" would be naturally blurred. Every time I kicked the tripod I had to start all over again. All the hard work was done in Photoshop using motion blurs, difference clouds (for the lightning). Next time I'll have to find out to add the red streaks as he runs by. I also want to work out a way to have him running across water.

Oh well, something to think about.

The Silver Age EXIF:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.6 sec (3/5)
Aperture:	f/2.5
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:03:14 12:17:59
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Normal
Date and Time (Original):	2008:03:14 11:08:36
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:03:14 11:08:36
Shutter Speed:	48298/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	2207.526 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	2213.058 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	1739 pixels
Image Height:	1288 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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