Photoshoppers: how does one do this?

[foofighter]

I've seen it a couple of times on here as well but DAM it looks HOT!

[GP_pilot]

My educated guess is to first make the camera stationary (mount on a tripod). You also need to anticipate the rider moving through the entire field of view (i.e. not cutting off their head on jumps). Set exposure to manual so that glares off the bike (metal) or the subject do not affect the exposure from beginning to end. This also takes some practice to judge shutter speed to show motion, but not too much to blur the subject. The camera also needs a high frame rate (like 5 frames per second on DSLRs). After shooting the subject, it's on to Photoshop. Choices would then include chopping the photos vertically and splicing them together or use one picture as the background and paste a cut out the rider from each of the other photos on layers.

[foofighter]

Originally Posted by GP_pilot

After shooting the subject, it's on to Photoshop. Choices would then include chopping the photos vertically and splicing them together or use one picture as the background and paste a cut out the rider from each of the other photos on layers.

that's what i need to figure out is how he went about layering the pics

[tbowren]

Its actually very simple once you have the images.
Each image is a layer with a "Hide All" Mask applied.
Just box select each region with the biker on each pic and remove mask.
If you do it just right and your camera was perfectly still you wont see any seams.
Notice how there is always a small gap between each rider. You can hand tweak the masks towards the end as the rider gets small.
If you sent me the images I could put it together in a .psd file for you and show you.

[Rockinthecasbah]

to layer you just open them up make sure theyre all the same size and drag and drop you can change the opicity of each layer if something looks wierd in inly one frame , PS where is that pic from

[foofighter]

i will be setting this up on my next ride so I'll be PM'ing you thanks for the input! Pretty artistic

Originally Posted by Rockinthecasbah

to layer you just open them up make sure theyre all the same size and drag and drop you can change the opicity of each layer if something looks wierd in inly one frame , PS where is that pic from

man you make it sound really easy...im no PS whiz so i'll have to play around thanks!

[allison]

I have to do it with two photos at a time.. so it takes an incredibly long time. I had a tutorial all typed out for myself, but I absolutely can't find it.. I need to go through my DVD's of pics and see if it's in there.

Yup, here it is:

Open photo - select - all - edit - copy - paste on other photo - layer - add layer mask - reveal all - paint brush tool -
100% opacity - 13 pt tip - black

brush over area where other layer is.

Hope that explains it okay.. ? What I did, with no previous knowledge was to google action sequence etc. and I read about 3 or 4 descriptions and instructions before I found one that actually worked.

[tbowren]

Originally Posted by Rockinthecasbah

to layer you just open them up make sure theyre all the same size and drag and drop you can change the opicity of each layer if something looks wierd in inly one frame , PS where is that pic from

FYI.
You cant just change the opacity of the entire layer or the bikers will all look like ghosts. You have to mask out the regions to keep them solid.

[Rockinthecasbah]

thereres other ways to do it but as loing as you have a stationary postion thats the easiest and you can open in illistrator and make an anamated gif super easy. I'm glad to help out

I ment if one pics is slightly over/underexposed not whole steps, if the pic is setup right you dont need to mask anything unless its windy or the clouds are moving very fast. Also usally your apature is set big enough your background isnt in focus or very sharp focus so masking just complicates things

Originally Posted by tbowren

FYI.
You cant just change the opacity of the entire layer or the bikers will all look like ghosts. You have to mask out the regions to keep them solid.

[roadkillross]

you can do it in paint by cutting out the rider and plugging him into a neutral shot that has the smallest range of motion. works fine for my neeeds

[Winger]

Just find yourself a team of synchronized biking clones.

[.8down]

what just looks like 9 guys mountain biking??? , its actually very simple as long as you have the proper camera that can handle shooting lots of frames quickly, I can actually make you a gif animation if you had all the frames for me to work with.

[Marshall Willanholly]

Here's a little step-by-step post on how I did it a while back (originally posted on MTBR).

I need to experiment with using masks too. Lots to learn in photoshop!




Since there were some requests for a how-to for the sequence shots, here's a step-by-step guide for how I put together the sequences in this thread. This was my first attempt at replicating this effect, so all you Photoshop geniuses out there take it easy on me.

My first step was to take a sequence of shots holding the camera in one position (i.e. not panning with the rider and making sure I was zoomed out enough to capture the entire section without moving the camera). I used the continuous shooting mode on my Canon S60. A GorillaPod can be useful in some cases.

I used Photoshop CS2 to composite the image.

Here's the first image in the sequence.



This is the second image. Using the lasso tool, I've drawn a selection around Clyde with enough background selected to help me line up the selection when I copy and paste it onto the first image.


Here I've just pasted the selection on the first image. As you can see, it is not yet in the correct position.



In the Layers menu, reduce the opacity of the recently copied selection (Layer 1) and then nudge it around until it lines up with the background.



Get busy with the eraser tool and remove the areas of Layer 1 that are obscuring the background you want to see. In this screenshot I've done the upper part of the rear wheel where it overlaps the front tire of the background.



The first step in the sequence finished. Now just repeat the same steps for each addtional image in the sequence.

[foofighter]

WOW thanks for the step by step now i get to play around.

[.8down]

if you use the mask layer you can paint in selections to get a more accurate cut and paste. especially if you have a Wacom.

[Marshall Willanholly]

Originally Posted by .8down

if you use the mask layer you can paint in selections to get a more accurate cut and paste. especially if you have a Wacom.

I'm going to try that. I don't always use a tripod, so I sometimes need to move each layer around a little to get it to line up.

A tablet would be very helpful, I imagine.

[foofighter]

that's the image i've seen...love it...

[.8down]

Originally Posted by Marshall Willanholly

I'm going to try that. I don't always use a tripod, so I sometimes need to move each layer around a little to get it to line up.

A tablet would be very helpful, I imagine.

looks like youre doing pretty good already the little tricks just speed things up, in Ps there are like 10 different ways to do one thing...its a powerful tool. Ironically Im working on it right now, in between postings hahaha

[guero]

good stuff eric. im too lazy to do the 'how-to'.

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by Marshall Willanholly

Here's a little step-by-step post on how I did it a while back (originally posted on MTBR).

way cool and nice job. just curious how long does it "typically" take to map/clean it all uip when you are "proficient" with the steps/mechanics.

thanks