Composited Light, Motors, Action Stunt Show

Discussion in 'Disney's Hollywood Studios Photos' started by Scottwdw, Apr 28, 2012.

  1. Scottwdw

    Scottwdw Member

    I know this is old hat to you Photoshop people. ; Apple Aperture, like Adobe Lightroom, does not support layers. ; OnOne Software came out last year with both a stand-alone and plugin for Aperture and Lightroom called Perfect Layers. ; In fact, I took a couple of photo series last year at Pixelmania knowing this software existed. ;

    You know how it goes, I never got around to buying it. ; Then I was lucky enough to win a copy of OnOne's Perfect Photo Suite 6 from a blog I follow which I installed today. The Suite includes Perfect Layers 2 and a host of other plugins. Well, it was not as intuitive as I thought it would be. ; I had to view their tutorials a few times and then it hit me...I had to go step by step. ; Guess I am a bit spoiled by Aperture which lets you start anywhere and go anywhere. ; So, once I got that through my stubborn head, I was able to put these two composites together.

    [​IMG]

    First time I did this I forgot to mask in the car's reflection in the glass. ; I decided to leave the camera truck in only once. My camera's buffer filled up so I missed the car exiting fully at the end of the jump. ;
    [​IMG]

    There's a lot more to the Suite I need to explore and will be more careful to follow instructions to the letter in the future.

    Perfect Layers 2 is a FREE download today. ; Again, it works as a plugin for Lightroom, Elements and Aperture AND as a stand alone. ; Go here to download: http://www.ononesoftware.com/free/
     
  2. RedOctober25

    RedOctober25 Member

    That is so cool. ; Will have to download this tonight after work.
     
  3. ELinder

    ELinder Member

    Cool idea!
     
  4. PolynesianMedic

    PolynesianMedic Global Moderator Staff Member

    These are great Scott, glad you finally followed the directions. Lol

    Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2
     
  5. zackiedawg

    zackiedawg Member Staff Member

    Hey - good to see others playing around with this technique! ; I actually did one at L,M,A during the last winter Pixelmania, which I had posted way back then:
    [​IMG]

    And had first done it the year before with fewer frames at a slower frame rate with a motorcycle:
    [​IMG]

    I actually had done one with the jumping guy too, but I had too much focal length, and could only get a few frames of him in the middle of the building, so it wasn't as effective as yours.

    Nice work!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 11, 2014
  6. jbwolffiv

    jbwolffiv Member

    These are great! ; Really gives me ideas to work with (if I could only remember them and find the time).
     
  7. PolynesianMedic

    PolynesianMedic Global Moderator Staff Member

    John, I couldn't agree more! ; LOL!
     
  8. ddindy

    ddindy Member Staff Member

    As long as we're playing "I did it first", here's my entry from the first Pixelmania in 2009. ; I used a simple stitching program to create a panorama of the "backwards" jump.

    [​IMG]
    Backwards jump panorama

    That said, I like what you guys have done. ; Now I'm thinking about sitting in an uncrowded corner of the stands with a tripod to gather shots to do more of this stuff.
     
  9. Scottwdw

    Scottwdw Member

    Both of you inspired me to try this. ; Still need to work on them. ; Dennis, I have a series just like that which might work with a stitching program. ; Will have to give it a try.
     
  10. Coo1eo

    Coo1eo Member

    Great job by all of you guys. You all make me want to try this too, but like John, I always forget about it when I am shooting. Need to do more burst shooting so I will have the material to do this.
     
  11. zackiedawg

    zackiedawg Member Staff Member

    Yep Dennis - you and I both churned out those shots in the 09 Pixelmania! ; Fun stuff. ; I would definitely like to remember to shoot more - those are some of the shots I keep forgetting to do when I'm up there - like the ND daytime long exposures I wanted to do more of.
     
  12. mSummers

    mSummers Member

    Nice work guys! ; Those are really cool
     
  13. ELinder

    ELinder Member

    Maybe we should start a Pixelmania thread: Shots I want to get but always forget about.
     
  14. mSummers

    mSummers Member

    Shouldn't every good Pixelmaniac already have that list compiled? ; ; Now, remembering to consult that list while at WDW is another story entirely
     
  15. zackiedawg

    zackiedawg Member Staff Member

    And remembering to BRING the pieces needed for the planned shots. ; I can see consulting my list and seeing 'do ND400 slow shutter shots' and think "excellent! ; I wrote it down to remind myself! ; Let me just grab my ND400 filter out of my bag, and...ah...where's my ND400 filter?"
     
  16. Scottwdw

    Scottwdw Member

    Justin, you make a checklist and pack the night before your trip. That's how I do it after leaving a tripod home once. ; ::)

    I re-did the falling stunt man sequence. ; Missed around the antique sign so still need to get better at selection.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. zackiedawg

    zackiedawg Member Staff Member

    How are you doing your selections, Scott? ; Just comparing methods...when I shoot these, I fire off multiple frames from the tripod, then in post, I simply stack each of the successive photos as layers, one over the next - with the bottom of the jump at the bottom of the layers, and the top of the jump at the top of the layers. ; I then erase out the layers in tier-style - in your example, each layer would be erased just below the falling man. ; I use simple horizontal lines, and erase out straight across the scene...since all layers match exposure and such. ; Then, if for any reason there are some areas where the layers don't line up perfectly, like if wind was blowing a flag or something else moved between frames, I erase out those spots so it looks uniform. ; It's fairly simple and fast - no cutting-and-pasting and trying to align free-floating cuts.
     
  18. Scottwdw

    Scottwdw Member

    Yep, that's how I am doing it. ; I need to be more careful to examine the image before saving it. ; In this case, i needed to go back in and clean up the sign behind the guy to line up the lines. ; Not used to working in layers but I am sure it will come to me.
     

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