Snowboarding Sequence

[SwiftFootTim]

Okay, so I put together a sequence of my brother doing a 360 in our backyard today, and I'm just looking for some input. Obviously this is no where near perfect as I have some questions:
1) What do you do about shadows? I erased them here but they aren't perfect.
2) What do you do when the frames don't exactly square up as I was shooting downhill and panning to get the shots.
3) How do you blur the overlaps?

Also, sorry for the oversize, but not sure how to get it smaller as it's basically a pano or widescreen shot.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/SwiftFootTim/Snowboarding/Shawn360.jpg

Thanks for the input. C and C welcome as well, especially with perspective, angles and such.

[adblink]

hey I think it looks pretty cool!

where the hell did he get the speed from? lol

[SwiftFootTim]

Ahh, yeah you might like to see that. We have a drop in built off of our deck and our backyard has a slight downhill to it. At the end, just before the woods we have a 6 foot quarterpipe as well :lol:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/SwiftFootTim/Snowboarding/IMG_0730.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/SwiftFootTim/Snowboarding/IMG_0910.jpg

[dirtbiker]

Nice shots but surely that's a 180 not a 360? :confused:

[mattt]

nope, 360...he is facing forward when he lands and when he takes off.

[Nick Pro]

Yeah, mad sketch 360 though.....

Sick shots, did you use the XTi? just ambient lighting?

[SwiftFootTim]

No, it's a 360, we have to huck em to get the around off the straight jump though. I shot these with my XTi about 1:00 PM yesterday so the lighting we pretty good for ambient, although a bit behind the trees. I shot in a NE direction so the light was to my right if not behind me.

The ramp shot was shot on another day with my nifty fifty and overcast, hence the darkness.

[nureality]

how did you do that? is this done with PhotoStitch?

THAT is AWESOME!

[EveryMilesAMemory]

I dont see any of the overlaps that you asked how to get rid of?

I think you did a great job and that's a really cool shot!

[SwiftFootTim]

Well, they're there. The most obvious are the trees up in the top right, blurred to make them not get cut out. Under the last frame on the right the shadow has been cut and the snow in the bottom left is actually stretched to fit. Any ideas on fixing those? You're free to edit if you like. Just post what you did along with the photo please. Thanks!

[rossh]

Although it may be too late for this one, I normally set my camera on a tripod and keep the camera still for every shot. It makes life easier later and if you want a panaramic shot then you can crop it.

Next, open all the pics up in photoshop, and use one picture (normally first or last of the sequence) as your "Background" picture.

Next drag the second sequnce pictiure onto the "background" picture, it should snap into place. On the layers box click onto layer 1 and reduce the Opacity down to around 50% and you should be able to see the background picture as well. Use the rubber tool to rub out the rider from the first picture, and if you want them the shadow aswell. Put the Opacity back up and put the next sequence picture in. Do the same again but REMEMBER to rub out the the rider in the first and second picture. Keep doing this for every pic in the sequence.

This may not be the correct way but I can now do a sequence picture in less than five mins!

[SwiftFootTim]

Sweet Ross, those look great and that explains pretty much was I was thinking that you would do. Unfortunately I use elements right now but I think that I have the rubber tool. My tripod gets here on Tuesday, but it might be a little hard to get a tripod shot as there is a woods right behind us but we shall see, it's worth a shot. Thanks again!

[dirtbiker]

nope, 360...he is facing forward when he lands and when he takes off.

On second inspection, you're right. Oops.

Loving the backflip sequence! :)

[Nick Pro]

On second inspection, you're right. Oops.

Loving the backflip sequence! :)

Wow you need to look at things closer!

There's no backfilp's here!

[rvictorg]

lol...yeah both front flips, wow that's priceless.

Ok, I'll do my best to answer your original question about stitching together the photos while panning. I'm a skier myself and like to take sequence pics in the park or just on the mountain too. I assume you've just been layering all the pics together and erasing "here and there" where they overlap? You're probably noticing that when you start panning with the camera the barrel distortion in the lens becomes way more apparent, thus making it hard to blend all the pics together nicely.

I suggest looking at the PTLens photoshop plugin, it's only like $15 or something, and once you correct each image it will be much easier to overlap them and keep it looking natural...mind you it will leave "blank" areas that you'll have to crop out, but you'll get a much nicer pano. I have the Tokina 10-17 fisheye, and that program works really well for UWA, and so far the cheapest option I've found for correcting barrel distortion (if I need to). Personally I like the fisheye look that lens gives me when photographing ski/snowboarding.

Or just use your tripod and don't worry about any of that lol...hope that helps ;)

[SwiftFootTim]

Ahh, rcivtorg, that is why the windows weren't the same distance apart on two different photos. I didn't quite understand what barrel distortion was but it makes sense, I'll have to look into that program. Thanks!

[SilverHCIC]

Very cool!!! I like the technique to combine the images. I hope I get an excuse to try it some time:rolleyes: