Compositing action sequences

[Andyman]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on the forum for a while now and thought it about time I ask my first question. You guys certainly appear to have a vast range of experience and a passion for photography which I simply love to see. I've learnt an incredible amount from reading old threads and as a result of the equipment reviews have just treated myself to an upgrade from my old G2 to a lovely new 10D. I've always enjoyed my 35mm SLR photography and I've managed to reignite that interest with the DSLR.

So my first question to you is a 'how do you do that?' one. One of the things I love about the 10D is shooting rapid action sequences but I'd like to be able to composite these into a single image (as shown below). My question is what's the best way to achieve this compositing? Is it a painstaking task with Photoshop or is there an easier way?

http://www.bissig.ch/content/album/data/media/30/sequence_03.jpg

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Andy.

[Steveo31]

Thats a photoshopped pic, in case ya didn't know :)

Just have them do a few test runs, and take a look at the start and ending points. Compose so they are where you want them, i.e. in this case, start is on far left, end is on far right. Do a few test runs looking through the viewfinder to make sure everything is all good. When you are ready, have them go. Manual focus is best in my opinion... Fire when ready!

[timmyquest]

Thats just how the magazines want them...did a great job.

I really dont see any other way of doing this without photoshop though.

[PhotosGuy]

Is it a painstaking task with Photoshop...?

Not if you want small prints 'cause there are 'semi-automatic' selection options.
Yes, if you want a big one, 'cause the 'semi-automatic' selection options are somewhat stupid, & by the time you clean up the selections, it takes less time to select by hand. Figure about 5 minutes per selection once you learn the 'easy' way to do it. Which, for me, is:
Make the pic BIG.
Pick the Polygonal selection tool.
Feather 1 pixel.
Hit F twice & TAB once.
Select the outline. (If you start to run out of pic to select, just move the tool to the edge of the screen & the screen edge will move out of your way.)
Note:
While selecting, Del will remove a selection point while you're working.
After selecting, Shift-click to start adding to the selection.
After selecting, Alt-click to start subtracting from the selection.

When the selection is OK, hit F once & TAB once to get back to your 'normal' PS screen.
The NEXT thing you MUST do (trust me on this) is to click on the Channels Tab, & click on the 'Save selection' button at the bottom.

Note that I said, "Which, for me, is:..." I've taught PS & have to show all the ways to select things, but I've learned that this is the only way to get the selection that I need. SO, if someone out there thinks that they have a better, easier way to do it, please address the comments to someone else!

:wink:

[Andyman]

Thanks very much for the advice. I'll be giving that a go very soon. I appreciate the detail of the PS steps.

Many thanks,
Andy.