Thursday, April 11, 2013

Water Heart Head Flip

Pinterest can be a great site for finding ideas when it comes time for family or best friends photos. There are boards and boards and boards out there of beautiful images, witty poses, and fun tricks to try. Some of them look so simple and easy that you think, "I totally could do this!". Today I have a photo Pinstrosity where that was just the case. 

The Original Pin
I've looked at a number of sites for the original, and I just can't say 100% that I found the original. A lot of people link to here saying it's the original, but I'm not completely convinced. Know the original site? Let me know and I'll put it in. 

Looks easy enough. Fling hair out of water at the same time as bestie and you have an instant water heart! 

The Pinstrosity

Not quite the results they wanted. These girls found out that this isn't quite as easy as it would seem. Let's take a look at the original again and see if we can pull any tips from it. 


  1. Shallow water. You need to be able to get your head and body out of the water fast, and that doesn't quite work if you're up to your waist. 
  2. It doesn't look like it at first, but the girls are not directly in front of each other. They had to offset so that they didn't clonk heads when they flew up. This allowed them to get the vertical pillar of water in the middle. 
  3. You have to flip your head at the last minute in a small arc. Your hair will flip in a much larger arc (well...assuming you're trying this with long hair...short hair is going to be difficult) than your head. Think of a marching band going around the corner. The guys on the inside are taking baby steps while the guys on the outside are taking longer steps in order to have that nice clean corner turn. You don't need much head movement to swing your hair all the way around. 
  4. Many many many retries. I'm sure this wasn't their first shot. 
  5. And...I'm still not 100% convinced that this isn't photoshopped. It may not be...but they seem to both be awful straight for how close the vertical pillar is to their bodies. Maybe they just have super good timing for when they both were finally not scrunched over, but I don't know. 
So there you have my take on that. It's doable I think, but it will take some practice and work...and maybe an editing program. 

19 comments:

  1. I think that's Photoshopped. I kind of suspect that, at the very least, it's several shots pasted in to one, or that whoever took this has a far more sophisticated camera than most home photographers.

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    1. Another thing that comes to mind, if this is real, is shutter speed. Really, really, fast shutter speed. Notice that the original is outside in what appears to be blazing sunlight: The photographer could have taken that at a fast shutter speed (and probably adjusted later with Photoshop). The Pinstrosity is indoors in a relatively dark pool, which would need a slower shutter to get enough light, so the girls are blurry.

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  2. To me, it looks like it has to be a manual camera due to how still everything is. It was also outside, which gives it more light. More light means the camera can catch faster movement and still it better.

    The other thing i notice is that in the pinstrosity, the girls have their fists touching. This will affect the flow of the water as it comes up, causing it to hit their arms rather than create a pillar.

    Could be photoshopped, but hard to tell.

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  3. Not photoshopped! One just needs a fast shutter speed. Totally doable.

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  4. That was an epic marching band comparison, and (as someone who was on the inside of the curve many, many times) I thank you for it!

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  5. That was an epic marching band comparison, and (as someone who was on the inside many, many times) I thank you for it.

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    1. I too was on the inside many many times. Part of the time I was barely moving. :)

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  6. Maybe also put the camera on rapid fire so it catches a bunch of shots. Then maybe one will be the right one.

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  7. they might have also increased the shutter speed for a time-lapsed shot. who knows....

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  8. i meant decreased the shutter speed. i think i said increase on my last comment. either way, made the shutter speed slower

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  9. They could have used video and taken a shot from there. I've actually seen local professional photographers use video to get 1 great shot, especially if kids or pets or really anything that moves a lot are involved.

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  10. One of my teachers in high school had a picture of his daughter doing this where you could see the arc of water with her hair straight out. It's doable but to have the arcs of water the same height? That's just crazy. It might have been a camera where it takes a bunch of pics in a row and then you can possibly photoshop them together to create this.

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  11. I think the main problem is lack of light. Like a lot of posters are saying, you need a fast shutter speed and not that not to come out blurry you need a lot of light. Prefereably sunlight

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  13. Really fast shutter speed, lots of light, and I would wager that only their hair, and maybe the tops if their heads were in the water.

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  14. The were already vertical with their chin on their chests. On the count of three they just flipped their heads back for the camera. Super fast shutter speed.

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  15. The shutter speed wasn't fast enough and my guess the photo was shot on auto.

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