Week 38 – Levitation

Wingardium Leviosa! With a flick and a swish (and a little Harry Potter), you might be able to convince us things are floating this week!

First of all, Levitation photography is NOT as difficult as it may seem! This fun technique opens up endless possibilities and storytelling opportunities. (We love telling stories without words!) Imagine a book floating above a reader’s hands, a dancer suspended in mid-jump, or everyday objects defying gravity. This challenge allows you to blend reality with fantasy, creating mesmerizing and surreal images. And you don’t need fancy editing software to achieve some wonderful photos!

To achieve the levitation effect, you can use various techniques:

• Jump Shots: Capture your subject in mid-jump to create the illusion of levitation. (recommended shutter speed: 1/1000th or faster)
• Props and Supports: Use invisible strings, clear supports, or edit out props in post-processing.
• Composite Photography: Combine multiple images using layer masks in your photo-editing software to achieve a seamless levitation effect.

Planning and creativity are key to a successful levitation shot. Think about your concept and how to make the levitation look realistic and magical. Pay attention to lighting, shadows, and perspective to enhance the illusion.

For an Extra Challenge (EC), we encourage you to utilize Layer Masks in your post-processing. Layer Masks are a powerful tool that can help you create more precise and realistic levitation effects by allowing you to blend different images seamlessly. If you’ve been wanting to learn to use your software program, this is a great time to (extra) challenge yourself!