The Forest at Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay, Alaska.
So many of my friends have been showing multiple exposures with their Nikon Cameras, assembled in-camera on the spot. I have admittedly been jealous of that feature, because it’s very nice to know you achieve what you wanted before you pack up and leave! But maybe that makes us Canon photographers better photographers because we have to be so good to get it right without getting a second chance in the field! – ooh – I can hear the replies flying in on this one! But in all good fun, no matter what camera you use, you can create cool multiple exposures. This one was done with ten frames. I moved the camera up the tree trunks for each frame, just a teensy bit, trying to keep positioned as close as possible to the original composition, so things wouldn’t ‘mush’ together. I exported them out of Lightroom as PSD files, opened them in Photoshop and then layered them on top of each other over the first exposure. So I had ten layers; the top layer got an opacity adjustment of 1/10 in percent, so it was set 10 percent The second layer down got set for 11 percent, third layer 13 percent (rounded up). The ‘formula’ is to divide 1 by the number of the layer – so it helps to number your layers to keep it all straight! The last layer on the stack is 100 percent opacity. This all allows you to see the different positions you moved. You can vary this a lot – in my book, I didn’t use this formula, directly, I instead just adjusted the opacity until I could see the layer beneath it each time to my liking. So as with so many things, there’s more than one right answer! It takes practice to get the movement right in the field, but once you have the files, putting them together in Photoshop or Elements is a snap. Once I finished, I applied a curve to boost the contrast a little and some sharpening.
Thanks, John – I had temporarily forgotten about his script – I have his texture blending one – there’s a ton of good info on that site for doing creative things more easily.
Sure is a lot of work for something you can do right in a Nikon camera! My advice is to buy the Nikon. 🙂
Oh, Dan, I knew I could count on someone to suggest that! 😀
And don’t forget that Uwe Steinmuller has a free photoshop script that is essentially an action that does what you just explained for you in a snap! You can find the script and how to use it here. http://handbook.outbackphoto.com/section_photo_tuning_filters/index.html Highly recommend.
Of course Canon photographers are better photographers! 😀
Beautiful work, Brenda, thanks for posting it and the technique you used.
Of course! But I have to say I’m a little frustrated because it’s not likely that Canon will ever make a camera that does this. John’s suggestion is great as an easier method. Ironically, the two that commented just below you are good friends and they use different brands!! imagine that, they somehow get along OK, AND they produce some beautiful work of their own …guess that’s proof that it’s not our cameras! Have a great trip in Alaska, I know you’re heading up there sometime next month, I believe.