These represent my first and second attempts to work with this image.
This pickup is usually sitting there with no load, but for the past few days, it has had this wooden thing in its bed. I'm not certain whose truck it is so I don't know who to ask. Anyway, my idea was to shoot the truck and surround the initial shot with additional frames shot within a few seconds (Harry's intolerance for being still is well known) taken in a roughly circular pattern around the truck. They were all shot with the same lens (70-300mm Nikkor @ 70mm) and at the same exposure. I let Photoshop align them and then realigned them more precisely, keying on the truck. I made the initial shot the top layer because that one was centered. I then reduced the opacity of every layer to 10% and flattened the image. Finally, I adjusted the exposure through Photoshop's curve tool, at which point I knew this wasn't coming out the way I'd hoped. So I gave up and went to WAWA and bought dinner.
After a few hours, I realized that the image had several problems, the most difficult of which had to do with imprecise alignment. While I was standing still (mostly) panning around the truck, for some reason the truck was not exactly the same size and shape in each frame. Additionally, each frame was tilted slightly differently as there was no tripod involved. So I cheated.
I did everything all over again, except this time I masked around the truck in that first (top) frame and aligned everything. The opacity of the top layer (i.e. only the truck and its load) was set to 100% hiding the misaliignment underneath. Then I adjusted the opacity of the other layers to about 30%, merged them, and adjusted their exposure so it felt right. Finally, I flattened the image.
The end result has the truck and its load looking like an ordinary photograph and everything around it gets a bit weird, which is what I had in mind in the first place.
Thanks for posting and providing an insight into your processing workflow Andrew. I like the way you are experimenting and figuring out the workings of PS.
The layering process you mention is not unlike the process I follow with my tree/other ME images.
Yes, alignment can be critical depending on the detail you wish to preserve. I try my best to align the subject when shooting (same position & size), and then when layering in PS.
For this I start with the bottom layer, then work each subsequent layer, dropping opacity to 50% and nudging/rotating/sizing to retain key detail.
A couple of quick notes that may help you;
1) bottom/base layer should always be 100%
2) Impact of opacity on other layers is not linear - given the same opacity upper layers will have a greater impact than those lower.
3) test the impact of each layer by switching on & off (including the base layer) - If opacity is sett too high lower layers will have zero influence, if set too low the base layer will have a significant influence on the result.
There is no documented 'correct' way to do this that I'm aware of, it's all down to experimentation and reinventing the wheel.
I am in the process of trying to document my own workflow which I hope to make available at some point - I have made a few discoveries over the years that may help others. More on that later.
Just as an example here's an image I have been playing with that required detail (in the face) to be maintained - all layers were aligned with this in mind, and masked where facial features deviated to much across layers.
that is a cool shot...kinda looks like a ghost
Great information (and photo), Alan, as always!
Thank you for the process, Andrew. It was an interesting read, and I appreciate it.