Help with achieving this effect

lissthis · May 22, 2012

My friend had found this wedding photo and said that it was taken with a slow shutter speed. Can someone help me figure out how to achieve this effect?

Thanks!

Buckster · May 22, 2012

Set up on a tripod. Take 5 photos of them walking toward each other. Layer the 5 photos in Photoshop. Mask and paint your way through each layer, then adjust opacity of each layer, to make the image above.

katerolla · May 22, 2012

you will need one camera, one tripod and photoshop or similar. Put camera on tripod, take a burst of photos, in this case 5 as they are walking towards each other.
Upload photos to photoshop and layer them on top of each other starting with a low opacity eg 20 and increase the opacity on each photo until the last photo is opacity 100

Buckster · May 22, 2012

katerolla said:
you will need one camera, one tripod and photoshop or similar. Put camera on tripod, take a burst of photos, in this case 5 as they are walking towards each other.
Upload photos to photoshop and layer them on top of each other starting with a low opacity eg 20 and increase the opacity on each photo until the last photo is opacity 100

True! The masking and painting I talked about isn't even necessary! Just work the opacity of each layer.

bratkinson · May 22, 2012

Here I was thinking pre-Photoshop days...as in, set up for 2 minute exposure at appropriately small f-stop and low ISO. Then have them move to the farthest away position, stop for 5 seconds, flash before they move, move to the next position, stop for 10 seconds, flash again, then 15 seconds, etc, until the last position for 30 seconds, give or take.

I guess that's an old 'film' way of doing it vs multiple under-exposed negatives stacked on top of each other. I guess I still have a looonnnggggg way to go learning Photoshop tricks off the trade!

By the way, I really like that shot!

Buckster · May 22, 2012

bratkinson said:
Here I was thinking pre-Photoshop days...as in, set up for 2 minute exposure at appropriately small f-stop and low ISO. Then have them move to the farthest away position, stop for 5 seconds, flash before they move, move to the next position, stop for 10 seconds, flash again, then 15 seconds, etc, until the last position for 30 seconds, give or take.

I guess that's an old 'film' way of doing it vs multiple under-exposed negatives stacked on top of each other. I guess I still have a looonnnggggg way to go learning Photoshop tricks off the trade!

Yeah, except that even the middle image of them embracing would be a ghost, with the background showing them.

bratkinson · May 22, 2012

I'm sure the wedding couple wouldn't mind a 2 minute kiss...to overcome the green leaves effect 'coming through' them. Maybe an extra fill flash or two...close up?

Buckster · May 22, 2012

bratkinson said:
I'm sure the wedding couple wouldn't mind a 2 minute kiss...to overcome the green leaves effect 'coming through' them. Maybe an extra fill flash or two...close up?

Seems to me it would still show through, after the length of time it was being exposed while doing all the rest of the posing you described leading up to the final one in the middle.

I remember working on double and triple exposures back in my film days, and they were a pain in the behind. Had some fun playing with masks in front of the lens, but the results were always just so cliche, like the couple in a champagne glass or in the bouquet. Complicated masks like it would take for something like this would just have been way out of my league.

Overread · May 22, 2012

Might give you some ideas. Though for a shot like this you might find it a lot easier (and cheaper if you don't have all the lighting gear) to use layermasks in photoshop

lissthis · May 24, 2012

Thanks everyone! Luckily, I can kinda hold my own in photoshop so that should help! The quality of the burst of photos may be more worrisome. Last time I tried that I had to set my camera into action mode and I couldn't get as much light in the photo as I wanted. Is that just a side effect of taking a "burst" of photos? Or are there other settings normally? I know not every camera will be the same... I have a Canon Rebel Xsi EOS.

lissthis · May 24, 2012

Great video! It seems a little out of my league but the photos he took are great! Thanks for sharing!

Dao · May 24, 2012

lissthis said:
Thanks everyone! Luckily, I can kinda hold my own in photoshop so that should help! The quality of the burst of photos may be more worrisome. Last time I tried that I had to set my camera into action mode and I couldn't get as much light in the photo as I wanted. Is that just a side effect of taking a "burst" of photos? Or are there other settings normally? I know not every camera will be the same... I have a Canon Rebel Xsi EOS.

The key is taking a series of properly exposed photos in a short period of time. What you can do is take one test shot in Av mode. If the exposure is good. Then note down the aperture, shutter speed. If shutter speed is not too fast, you may want to increase the ISO and adjust the shutter speed accordingly.

Now you have the settings (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) for a correctly exposed photos in that particular environment, set your camera to manual and set it with the settings from the test shot(s).

Set your camera in burst mode and go from there.

Studio7Four · May 24, 2012

I agree with the post processing methods suggested above. One thing to note is that this is a carefully choreographed set of poses shot individually, not just capturing the couple in burst mode as they're walking toward each other. I actually suspect that the embrace was the initial shot, with the other positions taken subsequently. Notice that his feet overlap from one position to the next, as do the corners of her dress - either they were walking at exactly the same pace, which happened to line up ideally with the burst mode captures, or these are independent poses. Their arms are both straight down (not typical of someone walking), and the groom is leaning backward slightly in the next-to-embrace position. Doing the shots in reverse order also ensures that they would actually "meet" where expected, with the intended spacing of each capture.