ski/snowboard sequence tips?

[spyd4r]

anyone have any tips for taking those action shots where you take like 5-10 shots of an action sequence and layer them together?

steps for ensuring the same lighting/and timing etc..

e.g.


http://www.freezefocus.com/images/10006375.jpg

[Schumi]

Bump, i wanne know too :)

[CDBlue]

Although I've never done this type of thing before, I would expect the same tips that people would give for panoramic shots would apply here as well.

- Use a tripod so that the background doesn't shift in each shot
- Use manual focus and prefocus the spot where the subject will be passing
- Use a preset WB or custom WB (ie no auto-WB, to ensure that the WB doesn't change between shots)
- Use manual exposure and set the Aperture/Shutter speed and use same settings for each shot

That's about all the tips I can think of for this type of shooting.

[phil1664]

I've done a bit of this type of sequencing for magazines in the wakeboarding world. My advice would be as follows:

If the rider is coming towards you, try and set the focus to the mid point and keep the ameture as small as possible. This will make the most of DoF. As a minumum shutter speed, I'd go for around 1/800

Use a tripod if possible, this will prevent you natrually trying to follow the rider with the camera. However, sometimes hand held shots are fine due to the fast shutter speed and gives you the option to get out of the way if the rider ends up heading for you!!

Take an average reading from the area that you're going to shoot and remember to compensate for snow and ice!! (made that mistake a few times!) then set the camera on manual exposure. A good place to start, depending on light, is 1/800 @ f7. Go for a high ISO to get high speed.

As for stiching them together, PS is the tool. Take each image in and set them out in order. I tend to drag the new image over the first, reduce the opacity to line it up on the background, then back to 100%. Then create a layer mask on the top layer and 'paint' out the overlaps, remembering to go to the top and bottom of the image. The sky tones should be very mush alike due to the manual exposure. Any background should be blended in using the healing brush.

Then keep going with a new layer.

Looks a bit long winded, but it works!!

Here's a couple that I've done. The second one is overkill, but it looks funny!

[primoz]

It's not even that hard as it looks. Forget about automatics and set to manual (wb and exposure). Close your aperture to get bigger DOF, and choose right lens, so everything is included... from start to end. Tripod might be handy for someone but personally I don't bother (at least for that what I was doing till now and that's snowboarding, freestyle skiing and gymnastics). Just be sure to keep camera as steady as possible and you won't have problems stiching photos together. After that it's up to your camera and how much fps it has.