Ooh, I love this question.
You will want a fairly large trampoline in an open space, and you will want it positioned in a place where you can (more or less) shoot against the sky. Unless you want your neighboursâ houses or trees as the background, an open sky is the best because you can fake supreme heights by just removing the few little distractions that squeak in and photoshopping in some clouds or some land below or something.
You will absolutely need a photographer. I donât think tripods really matter because youâre going to be moving around so much that the freedom of movement is much better for the photographer if they can move swiftly, too.
You want to pick a day that has nice lighting. Overcast is great because you donât end up with harsh shadows on your face and whatnot, but it can also make pictures a little grey. No problem, you have post-production to fix that. Also pick a day where youâre not going to sweat your ass off; we did our first trampoline shoot in 40ÂșC weather, and afterwards, I could practically wring the sweat from my skirt where the belt had pressed it against my skin. (Beautiful mental image, I know. Iâm just trying to spare you the Gross.)
Any heeled or unsafe shoes for trampolines are a no-no. Jumping around in my sock-boots with thin, flat soles for Supergirl is great, but Iâd never jump in heels, both to protect my own ankles and protect the trampoline. Likewise with heavy boots. You donât want to injure yourself or damage your trampoline (or your friendâs trampoline, or whoeverâs) just for cosplay pictures. Is your footwear crucial? Wear coloured socks or make alternate shoes that are âlightweight/flatâ editions of your regular shoes. You donât need heels for height when youâre being flung through the air!
The biggest trick to actually doing these photoshoots is controlling where the cape goes. If you just bounce around and let it go wherever it pleases, you are going to end up with it going over your head, wrapping around your body, getting caught between your legs, etc. You need a cape that is long enough for you to hold onto the edges. Ideally, you are going to hold onto it to guide it as you go up, and let go juuust when you start descent. This way you arenât holding your cape, but you have it spread out beautifully and your hands are wide and âjoyousâ.
Stop periodically to review the pictures with your photographer. Figure out what is working, what isnât, and what you need to try again to see if you can time it better/get luckier. If you need to change how youâre working and start calling out timing or make suggestions, do it: communication will make it easier.
However, I also want to note that not all costumes really âworkâ with trampoline pictures. Josh and I did a shoot once with me in my DCAU/Danvers âwhite t-shirtâ Supergirl costume, with the short cape and the tight-fitting miniskirt, and we found it just ended up looking awkward. In fact, we didnât get a single picture out of it. We got better pictures out of casual clothes. Trampolines make for very weird shoots; if you only have a little cape flying around you, one you canât really control, then it often just ends up going wherever it wants. Iâve seen Ms. Marvels pull it off with the sash as the moving fabric or even without, but short capes just tend to be like âhey, did you want me around your head? Done.â I think the âflightâ illusion gets a lot of help from loose skirts and whatnot, too. Basically, the more moving fabric you have, the more âdynamicâ the pictureâs going to end up being. Flying and rushing fabric shows motion. By all means, put whoever you want up in the air, but the more fabric you have, the easier it is. (Unless youâre in a ball gown. Then I donât know what to tell you.)
But all that aside, I think the hardest part of the shoot is just how much you have to control for. Itâs HARD to really nail the shots because not only do you need the camera to be focused and fast enough to catch you when youâre moving all over the place, but you also need to be in control of so much. Your expression needs to be right, so you have to âactâ while youâre bouncing yourself through the air. You have to watch how you position your feet and legs. You have to be aware of what youâre doing with your hands, how youâre positioning your body, where your hair is ââ itâs maddening work, and while youâre doing it, you have to wrangle a cape and/or make sure your skirt isnât flipping up. (I have no idea how many shots have been ruined because of that, so Iâm going to throw in âget yourself some cute hot pantsâ as advice.)
And I really want you to be prepared for an insane payoff-to-shot ratio. With us, we usually get about 5-8 useable pictures for every 200 shots we take. If youâre experienced with photoshoots you probably know that lots of pictures end up scrapped in ANY photoshoot, but given the nature of trampolines, youâre just more likely to run into the âshame youâre making a fucking weird face in this shotâ problem. Or âoops your cape flipped over your shoulder.â Or âPAAAANTY SHOOOOOTTTTT.â
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Flying shots without trampolines.
It can be done, but I honestly donât have much advice for it, because I largely find itâs unsuccessful. Hereâs the thing: when youâre on a trampoline, youâre going to be âupâ again in a second, and the elastic nature of it is going to soften the blow of impact. When youâre not, youâre climbing to the top of whatever fool thing youâre jumping off of, and then trying to land on what is probably a hard, unforgiving surface.
As such, it is extremely, extremely hard to do a convincing flying shot by jumping off ledges or stairs or whatever. You will be 90% focused on balancing yourself and not wiping out your ankles or going to your knees upon landing that you wonât even think about where your cape is going. âJumping off a ledgeâ gives you âfallingâ shots, and they donât even make good landing shots. Also, the distinct lack of height means itâs very hard to get a clear sky/good background that doesnât look like youâre âfalling down in front of this buildingâ or âabout to plunge off these stairs.â
So instead, focus on the going âupâ, and have your photographer shoot from a low angle to get a more dynamic view.
The key to this is long straight jumps. Youâre much more likely to get a good shot if youâre going parallel to the ground, instead of towards it. Take a good running step and leap as though youâre a ballerina or a martial artist or something.
This is semi-successful, but I didnât push it enough:
Bend one knee and bring it forward so youâre not a flying stick, and do it dramatically enough that you look like you have forward momentum. Thatâs how we got shots like the Supergirl vs Powergirl one. They arenât necessarily as dynamic as trampoline ones, but I think they are better than the âIâm about to wipe out on this concrete, arenât I?â falling ones.
And if youâre doing fighting poses, make sure your swinging arm is up and away, so you donât block your body/face with your own arm.
Landing shots and simple cape movement pictures.
These are a lot easier than they look, though just as trial-and-error to get the right effect. What you basically need to watch out for is speed.
Think about it this way: when you move fast, your cape is going to rush, and then itâs going to hit you as you stop because it wants to keep going. If youâre moving fast, youâre also making timing more difficult for the photographer.
What you really want to do here is keep your movements âshortâ. Start from a standing position and then move forward as if youâre doing an aerobics âlungeâ move, dropping down to one knee. Hold the edges of your cape as you start forward and release at the mid-way point. You ideally want your photographer to snap the picture just before your knee hits the ground, when your forward leg is at the knee at about a 90Âș angle. If you can do this motion slow and smooth, your cape will âglideâ with you and your photographer has a better chance at grabbing the picture at the right time, in focus and all that jazz.
Want to just get a âstandingâ shot where your cape is in motion? Instead of turning in full circles (which gets you shots like this) or running to get your cape moving, try a quarter-turn. Thatâs how Elemental and I got the awesome shot in front of the grey brick wall. Start with your left side to the photographer, holding the right side of your cape with your right hand. When your photographer is ready, swing your right leg to turn yourself to face the photographer and let the cape fan out. The quarter-turn gets just enough motion running through your cape (and skirt) that you get movement going on without going so far that a) the photographer loses you or b) your skirt flips up. The quarter-turn also means you can be facing your photographer the whole time, instead of trying to look at them while spinning in circles.
