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Andrew Williams's picture

WCM (Walking Camera Movement)

With all the talk lately of ICM and overlapping frames, I've wandered more and more from "straight" photography lately. It's all your fault.

I thought to test the limits of Photoshop's merging capabilities this afternoon, and stepped over the line. The automatic merging was absurdly off and resulted in an image that was obviously not in real alignment and was clearly twice as wide as it should have been.

So, in my ignorance, I tried to do it manually. After several attempts and relearning a few things about manipulating layers, it was clear that a "clean" merge was simply not possible without knowing a great deal more and investing a lot more time and energy than was reasonable. I decided to focus on the fence and ignore the background, and even this was problematic as the same posts and slats would be different sizes and perspectives in different images/layers.

Finally, I made the vertical elements vertical and the upper horizontal board horizontal. Then I moved the layers so that at least one of the vertical slats was more or less in alignment.

I suppose someone who knows more about Photoshop could have done a cleaner job.

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5 Comments

You create a very interesting effect here, Andrew, with a sense of movement and the passage of time, evocative for me of your walks with Harry.

I think a cleaner job would be boring by comparison! Slickness would kill it, for me.

Keep not refining your technique. ;-)

I totally agree with Chris here Andrew, one of the attractions
is the subtle inconsistency throughout the image.

You have done a great job of aligning just enough t maintain the flow from frame to frame, the overlapping intersections provide interest and carry the eye through.

I can see how this may be difficult to achieve with a busy backgound, but I bet you could fine other (repetitive) subjects that would be suited to the technique.

Keep on experimenting, would love to see more!

I really enjoy your experimentation Andrew,
Chris says it perfectly.
Keep up creating and defining your vision.
Slickness sickens!

I really like this one as well Andrew.

I love what Chris said - evocative for me of your walks with Harry! That's perfect.