Composite Photos

In June 2005, I had the opportunity to spend a half hour or so at the Virginia side of the Great Falls of the Potomac.  I was lucky enough to catch a kayaker run the falls three times.  Wanting to capture more than just a single image of the run, I decided to make a composite, showing the kayaker in multiple positions during the drop in a singe image.

To capture the photos, I used a tripod and got the composition and exposure down while the kayaker was setting up for another run.  It is important that the back ground remain constant while the subject moves.  I underexposed the picture a little so the water would not be blown out (too much turned to all white).  I put the camera in the multiple picture mode, clicked a couple as he approached the falls, then held down the shutter as he went over.  I use a Canon 20D (digital SLR) that can capture quite a few images quickly before the buffer fills up.

To process the photos, I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0.  It's the <$100 version of the $600 full program.  I loaded the 12 pictures (each a different photo and file at this point).  I picked one as my master image.  With each of the other images, I used the selection brush to select the boat, paddler and some surrounding water.  I copied this portion, then pasted it into the master image.  This puts each pasted kayaker into a new "layer" that sits on top, with the master being the background (much like a stack of transparencies).  I repeated this for all of the photos.  This way I had the background and 11 layers.  I turned each layer on and off.  I fiddled with this to decide which shots worked best together (least overlap, but still good action).  Finally, I erased excess water from each layer so it wouldn't hide anything important from an "on" layer that was below it (i.e. the water from one layer wouldn't cover the paddle or too much of the kayak from another layer).

You can try this at home by setting up the camera and taking a few pictures of cars, people or anything else that is moving around a still background. Have fun experimenting.

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