Little Experimenting

[smoke665]

I've been looking at ICM combined with static images lately. Tried this one at the lake the other evening. We get some spectacular color of an evening but it only lasts a few minutes, by the time I grabbed my gear and got to the point, a lot of the color was already gone. This one has one layer with slow shutter and horizontal movement, combined with a fixed shot of the chairs, aligned and blended in PS. Not there yet, but I learned a few things for next time.

 

[Woolsocks]

I had to google what icm stands for. I get it. The camera moves instead of the subject.

The highlights are so blown out that I don't see the effect in this picture. I'm sorry. I would like to see more.

 

[Thiophilos]

Interesting, has potential. Hmm, yeah, bright highlights. If not blown, they are pretty close to blown. You must have intended that, so I'm puzzled.

There's lots of opportunity here to diddle the white balance to get some color differentiation and darken the tones for effect, but it all depends on where you want to go with it.

It might be an ICM but it doesn't come across that way.

 

[smoke665]

What looks to be blown highlights are sections of sky devoid of any clouds or color. In combining the layers and changing blend modes those areas went pure white.

In the past I've done several ICM shots but they've all been one shot composed in camera. An ICM group I joined recently has raised the bar by combining multiple ICM shots as layers along with sharp static layers, creating stunnibg surreal images.

This was a proof of concept to test the water, with one static and one ICM layer. Actually was a little harder than I thought it would be. Next up will be adding vertical movements in the mix.

 

[bulldurham]

Look up Glen Thaxton on FB. He does a lot of ICM work and works with blended layers like you tried. It's a good image and shows your understanding of the process, but like my recent entries, we are still in the refining stages.

 

[smoke665]

Look up Glen Thaxton on FB. He does a lot of ICM work and works with blended layers like you tried. It's a good image and shows your understanding of the process, but like my recent entries, we are still in the refining stages.

There's a lot of fill in the blank questions between understanding the process and completing an image. One thing learned immediately on this, is it requires some pre-planning to get the image layers right. Throwing haphazard shots together hoping something works is not productive, being able to visualize the components ahead of time and concentrating on scenes with those basic elements makes it come together.

 

[Woolsocks]

I am inspired. So I did this early this morning. Close to ICM standards? Two images. 1 of the hospital across the river. And one with my camera phone moving on the horizontal plane. Blended with masks and blending modes. I added a gradient adjustment layer for the red effect.

 

[smoke665]

I am inspired. So I

There you go. Now up the game and add vertical and horizontal movement, while elongating your static focal point in one direction. Hint works best when you have multiple verticals