Freeze-blur at the Grand Central

Does anybody have any pointers or ideas as to how to take wedding pictures in a middle

of a very busy train station? In about 3 weeks from now I will be shooting a wedding, for

which the couple had requested to be photographed at the Grand Central Station in New

York City. The groom actually went as far as getting a special permit for the shoot. I feel a

bit nervous about this session - it could be either very interesting, or a complete disaster

(or both). One idea I wanted to try is the freeze-blur technique, where the picture shows

the couple standing still in a sea of human motion blur. What is the best way to achieve

this effect?

 

So far, I plan to set it up like this - the camera will be on a tripod. I will use a wide angle

lens. The camera will be set to the second curtain sync. The on-camera flash (550ex) will

be pointed away from the couple, towards the axillary slave flash (480ex), set up with an

umbrella, and held by assistant. The 480ex will be positioned at about 45 degree angle to

the couple. I would prefer to use a radio slave, but the second curtain sync. may not be

possible this way. The shutter will be set for a long exposure of about a second (or more?),

and the aperture at the appropriate small f-stop. Am I on a right track here? :) I would

appreciate any advice. Thank you so much, mike

I wouldn't worry about the flash if you can avoid it - but I may be totally wrong! :-)

 

I'd want as wide an aperture as possible - go down to f2 and then even when Boris stops in the background to chat on his phone or Johnny bends to tie his shoelace at least they'll still be blurred. Use a ND filter if f2 is too wide for the length of exposure.

 

I would then go for a picture slightly from above, looking down / across the couple to minimise facial detail that any blur of movement will destroy in the end result. (Obviously keeping enough detail in to keep them recognisable!.)

 

An exposure of 1 or 2 seconds should be good.

I should add - a bride and groom and a photographer in the middle of the station is going to attract attention and gawpers will stop and look - hence the f2 so the "perfect" shot isn't ruined any more than is avoidable.

Use available light. The flash would freeze everything, yes?

 

Be well,

How cool is this assignment? Nerve wracking perhaps, but a fantastic opportunity !!!

 

You will have all kinds of places to shoot, both with and without all the hubbub. It is a

HUGE place with a zillion opportunities for cool wedding shots. So, IMO, the key will be to

zero in on the best of the locations with-in Grand Central and plan out the shots so you

don't go into information over-load when you get there.

 

Below are recent snaps, all taken with available light using f/2.8 Zeiss lenses on a Canon

digital camera (25/2.8, 60/2.8). The first is an overview of the main terminal. The stairs at

each end are master works of design and offer a central sanctuary where you could pose

the couple with people streaming on either side of them (using your slow shutter speed

idea).

 

Dead center is the famous Grand Central clock used by countless lovers and friends as

THE place to meet. It IS the iconic symbol of GCS. Off to the side are pockets of design

beauty featuring massive chandeliers... where the bride could go and you could shoot with

a 135mm or long zoom from the floor of the terminal.

 

You may also consider entering one of the track doors and get a shot of the couple as a

train zooms past or is waiting. The trains are right there close to the terminal in some

cases.

 

Then, if you have time, consider a shot down by the landmark Grand Central Oyster Bar, an

architectural and design wonder with cool lighting. It's not far from the main terminal.

 

Now as to effects: second shutter will work with master and slave on ETTL. I'd take as wide

a lens as you have, a 50 and a long lens. Camera on tripod with long shutter speeds will

work as long as the couple hold still and you use perfectly balanced fill from your flashes

(the flash will freeze the main closer subject up to a point. But if you balance out the flash

and ambient so the terminal doesn't become a cave behind them, even the subject will

register movement unless they hold fairly still. I'd also do some shots with them

descending the stairs as you track with them using second shutter. This will give the

impression of motion but they will be clearer (due to flash) than the blurred ambient

background.

 

Good luck, and above all have fun !!!<div></div>

BTW, consider seeking out any security on the floor at the time with permit in hand. GCS is

often on a higher security alert than other venues. Plus, security MAY help deflect any

homeless intrusions. God love and help them, but they will approach you. Other than that,

New Yorkers have seen it all and will most likely just go about their business with little

more than a glance... if even that.<div></div>

GCS? The correct name is GCT(Terminal). GCS is the PO around the corner on Lexington Ave. I would call or write the Metro-North PD way in advance on this one. In post 9-11 NYC, a tripod in GCT will bring them guns drawn.

Ohh- I'm so jealous! That will be a great photo. I think you can do this easier though. Just have them hold very still with a very long exposure like 3-5 seconds for lots of ghosts and pop your flash off. On a tripod of course. If you use a long shutter with no flash on a tripod and have them hold very still it should work also- the only things that won't be blurry will be stationary.

 

There was recently an ad for Tiffany's using a similar technique- maybe on the back of Grace Ormond's magazine. Have fun- show us the photos when you get them!

They already got a permit Steve.

 

 

"The groom actually went as far as getting a special permit for the shoot."

 

 

Guns drawn? A bit alarmist perhaps? I was just there with a bag of gear, and wasn't even

approached by security which was wandering the floor. There was another guy there with a

tripod shooting away without being hassled. I doubt a photographer, with a permit,

following a Bride around will be mistaken for an al Qaeda operative. Mike's got enough to

think about besides being shot.

 

BTW, the common idiom is "Grand Central Station", as in "It was like Grand Central Station"

meaning "busy" ... even if it isn't technically correct ... it's also what NYers call it.

Steve, Thank you for the tip about using a wide-open aperture with an ND filter. I might

have to rent a super-speed wide angle lens. A 28mm 1.4 might still give some OOF blur at

about 10 or 15 feet for the long shot - I never used this lens before. Jim, thanks, I will try

some shots without the flash. Maybe I can control the light spill somehow, so it does not

freeze the background too much. Mark, thank you for the pointers and pictures! I will

scout the GCS out on Monday. It's always a good idea.

"I should add - a bride and groom and a photographer in the middle of the station is going to attract attention and gawpers will stop and look"

 

You don't live in New York do you?

 

A few months ago there was a guy shooting nudes in times square and no one noticed. Elephants in the street? No one pays any attention. Cowboys in their underwear playing guitar? No one pays any attention .

As already mentioned, it's not "the" Grand Central Station. It's simply "Grand Central Station." And it sure as hell ain't Grand Central Terminal (except to out-of-towners)!

 

This is no help photographically, but as a native New Yawker I am morally bound to correct you. And, I am jealous as hell about the opportunity to do a shoot there. You'd better share!!

Mike,

 

"Am I on the right track here?"

 

Very good.

I have to disagree with the advice about a large aperture being necessary to isolate the subjects. The long exposure will do that, as will the pop of the flash. I would think a smaller stop to get the background in focus would work best in this situation. If the groom went to the trouble of getting a permit to shoot in GCS, I'm sure he wants to see it in the pictures!

As far as the aperture setting is concerned. Why not do a bit of both. Some with the background clearly in focus and some with the background blurred beyond comprehension and maybe some in between so that the B+G can have great selection to choose from. I hope you let us see some of the results as well. Have fun with this if nothing else.

Big Thanks to everybody for the advice and encouragement! I will try shooting with and

without the flash, just to cover all bases. Hopefully it will work out, and the studio owner

will let me share the pictures. In any case, I will post a full report. Rich, thank you for the

correction - 15 years in NY, and I am still learning...

Remember that if the B&G are standing in the picture they will be subject to the same long exposure as the background and then hit with a blip of fill flash there may or may not be a lot of blurring in the B&G themselves this could look good or bad. If you can find an area where the background behind them is brighter than the area they are standing in and then balance up their exposure with the flash you would get more control of the situation. Another idea is to have them walk through the long exposure timing it so they are in the right position when the flash fires. You know that if the exposure is long enough every one in the back ground will dissapear. Apart from those standing still.

A Grand Central Made of Thin Air

 

By J. D. BIERSDORFER

 

Published in NY Times: May 15, 2005

 

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL has had cameos in lots of movies, including "The Fisher King,"

with its romantic grand waltz sequence, and "North by Northwest," with Cary Grant

blending into the crowd on the Main Concourse. In the new DreamWorks film

"Madagascar," the famous train station even serves as the backdrop for an adventurous

zebra and his pals - a lion, a hippopotamus, a giraffe and four scheming penguins. No

film permits were needed, as the crew built their own Grand Central from scratch with

software.

 

"It's almost as if someone who was doing a live-action shoot decided to replicate a set of

Grand Central, built it to scale and lit it," said Kendal Cronkhite, the film's production

designer. "That's kind of what ours is except it's done virtually, in the computer."

 

Digging through mountains of reference material, including original blueprints and

photographic essays like "Grand Central: Gateway to a Million Lives," by John Belle and

Maxinne R. Leighton (W. W. Norton, 2000), Ms. Cronkhite and her crew recreated the

station down to the zodiac ceiling mural, chandeliers and gleaming marble surfaces. Even

the famous clock at the information desk is there. The directors, Eric Darnell and Tom

McGrath, worked in a humorous bit with Melman, the neurotic giraffe played by David

Schwimmer, getting his head stuck in the clock.

 

"Madagascar," which opens on May 27, features other New York landmarks as well. Marty

(a zebra with the voice of Chris Rock) sneaks out of the Central Park Zoo and ambles down

Fifth Avenue, through Rockefeller Center and over to Times Square before winding up at

the ticket booth in Grand Central for a train to the wilds of Connecticut. His pals -

Melman, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett-Smith)- soon

catch up with him after a ride on the Lexington Avenue subway.

 

To create a stylized and stylish Manhattan, Ms. Cronkhite and her design team spent more

than a year developing the look of the film before production started. She and the

directors cited a variety of visual sources for the characters and backgrounds, including

the films of Woody Allen, photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Warner Brothers cartoons from

the 1950's and 1960's and their own videotaped jaunts through the city. They also looked

at children's books, including Miroslav Sasek's 1960 classic "This Is New York," where an

illustration of the 14th Street train platform inspires the look of the subway scene. "New

York is New York and there's no place like it," Mr. McGrath said.

 

But it is majestic Grand Central, full of light and shadows and obsessive detail that stands

out in the film's New York sequences. "It's such an icon," said Mr. Darnell. "Even people

who've never been to New York City know about Grand Central station."<div></div>

Is this the effect you are looking for?

 

F8 at 1 second ISO 200<div></div>

I see people with tripods being hassled everytime I go through the "terminal". There are always NY National Guard soldiers, and MNPD officers patroling.

Even with a Permit to shoot in hand, be sure to call ahead to be certain the RR Police etc. know this is happening. Communication in big agencies rum by Guvmint is often sketchy.

 

Post 9/11 NYC is a lot different than it used to be. While it is highly unlikely that putting the lid on photography is effective as far as anti terrorism activity is concerned, it is still a concern because that is the new policy.

 

Personally I consider it an erosion of the free society we live in, but when it comes to the NYC PD against my puny camera and tripod, I have already lost the argument.

I've been though this countless times in NYC (used to be a TV producer) so arguing with

cops over permits (pre and post 9/11 is one I know well. Even with

the permit in hand you stand a good chance of getting stuck in a nowhere converstaion

with a beat cop or an MTA cop who doesn't care what the piece of paper says blah blah.

 

best thing you can do to is call ahead and get the name of the shift supervisor for BOTH

the MTA and the NYPD for that precinct. Have the desk numbers for both handy and have

a cell phone. On more than one occasion simply having that info at the time of the

"dispute" was enough to persuade the officer(s) that I was either legit and or way too much

trouble to bother with.

 

Make copies of the actual paper permit (even though is says on the permit not to) as I've

had one set of cops take it to "check it out" meanwhile I have a crew on the sidewalk and

no proof of permit when the next set of officers comes along! that was like a comedy

routine (but an expensive one with union crews).

 

make sure everyone who's with you (bride groom helpers etc) has a VALID identification

card of some sort (license, passport whatever). I had such a headache come out of that

one that I started to check my crews ID myself just to make sure!

 

have fun!

Stuart, Thanks for the idea - I will try to keep the background underexposed by an f-stop.

 

Andre, I will check out the "Madagaskar", right after the new Star Wars!

 

Gary, thank you for the settings, this is a very nice picture!

 

Steve and Nancy, thanks for the heads-up, dealing with the police will be up to the boss

man. In any case I still take pictures in the subway, never mind the ban.

 

As for the freeze-blur picture, I will double up my long exposure shots with short

exposure, flash only pictures. If there is too much blur on the B&G, I will cheat and

composite the blury with the sharp in PS.

 

big thanks to everybody, mike

Mike,

 

I was going to suggest Double-Exposure. It isn't cheating...you're aren't shooting

reportage here.

 

jmp

Mike, that sounds fantastic - you're a lucky wedding photographer!

 

I'd try shooting between 1/8th of a second and a full second, depending on how traffic is moving around them, with as wide an aperture as possible. Using flash will freeze everyone around them in addition to being one more thing to worry about, so I'd rely on it as little as possible - just for a little kick and edge definition, rather than being *the* motion stopper. If you're going to use it at higher power, I really like the idea of having them moving as well - trigger it right as they step into your narrow band of focus.