Creating an Action Sequence Composite

I get a lot of questions on how to create an action sequence composite like this.  It's actually pretty simple if you have a good understanding of layers and layer masks in Photoshop or whatever similar image editing software that you may be using.  If you have the preparation time and intuition to use a tripod when shooting, processing an image like this is easier as you'll see in a minute.  Sometimes though
, you sense action about to happen and you're lucky to even get your camera out and start shooting in time, let alone set your exposure right, change lenses if needed, make sure your camera is set to continuous shooting mode (or burst, or whatever your particular camera calls it), and find a suitable viewpoint.  That was the case when I shot this hand held.  It turned out that several jumpers made the leap from this location that evening but most were after the wall quickly went into shade.  Wind is not a BASE jumper's friend so they often purposely jump in the late evening, early morning when the winds are the most calm.  Fast shutter speed obviously a must.  Also the faster your camera can continuously fire, the more images you will get.  You may get too many shots and need to only use every other image or every 3rd image etc. if there's too much confusing overlap in your composite.  I should also note that you want your exposure and focus to remain the same for each frame if you possibly can.  I used manual exposure, prefocused on the rock wall, and then turned autofocus off.  If you're camera is auto only, just hold it as steady as possible so that the light reading stays the same.  You DON'T have to have a DSLR for this.

Here you can see my frames as in an animated sequence.  Not only was the camera not hand held, but I panned along with the jumper.  I should have zoomed out more and tried to hold the camera as steady as possible.  Creating the composite involves loading all the frames as layers in a single file in Photoshop, and then using layer masks to selectively hide and conceal.  But without the camera on a tripod, overlaying the images in a way so that they are aligned, would almost be impossible without a very nice tool in Photoshop.

Go to "File > Scripts > Load files into stack".  This dialog box will come up letting you choose your images to be loaded as layers in a single file.  Browse to your image folder and select your images by choosing your first image, and then while holding the shift key, choose the last image.  Hit ok when your images are selected and you'll see them listed in the dialog box.  If you didn't use a tripod as I did, your best friend in the whole world is the option to "Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images".  Check it and hit "Ok".  It will take a while for your computer to complete especially with a hi megapixel camera and/or a lot of images. You now have a new file with all of your images layered and aligned as closely as possible which is extremely remarkable.  You will probably want to do some cropping but save that for the very last step since you won't know your composition until then.
 

Now for the layer masking.  Hide all of your layers except for the bottom one.  In my case the jumper is in the last position of my sequence with his parachute fully deployed.

Select the 2nd to bottom layer, turn it on and adjust it's opacity to 50% and you'll vaguely see where the subjects position is in that layer.  Commit this to memory the best you can and change the opacity back to 100%.  Then go to "Layer > Layer Mask > Conceal All".

If you're not familiar with layer masks, notice in your layer panel, there is a black thumbnail to the right of the layer thumbnail.  The concept is simple, black conceals and white reveals.  When you choose "Conceal All" when creating your layer mask, the thumbnail is all black concealing the layer below.  We want to paint white where the subject is in that layer (based on recollection when we turned the layer's opacity to 50%).  Select the black thumbnail, choose a hard edged brush and set the color to white.  Then simply paint on the image where you remember the subject being in that layer.  (In my case I had to also paint where the jumper's shadow on the wall is.)  Don't worry about accuracy, the beauty of layer masks is that they are non destructive and can always be changed.  If you accidentally paint white somewhere you didn't mean too, simply change the brush to black and repaint as needed.  You'll see how this works as you go along.

 Now the jumper in the 2nd to last image is revealed and the composite is coming together.

At any time, hold the Alt (or Option) key and click on the mask thumbnail to see your black and white mask that you're painting.  Click back on the main thumbnail to toggle back to your color image.

From there just repeat this process until your sequence composite is complete.  You can always go back through the layer stack and fine tune your layer masks.  Don't crop yet!  Save your image as a Photoshop PSD file which will retain your layers and masks, and the entire field of view captured.  This file will be very big but if you notice a mistake later, you'll be glad that you saved the layered PSD file for further editing.

Now either flatten the image and save a copy with a different name, or save the image as a JPEG.  Then apply any needed cropping, or any other overall adjustments to that file. 

Keep in mind that you may need to rearrange the order of your layers by dragging and dropping them in the layer panel.  For instance if your subject is moving toward or away from you and your subject overlaps from one layer to the next, the order of your layers will have to make sense with the subject's movement.  That will be obvious if that ever comes up. 

Here is another example using the same technique.  I anticipated this jump at the Red Bull Rampage freestyle competition, but NOBODY expected Kelly McGarry to back flip this massive 73' gap over a canyon at least as deep!  Can you believe he only got 2nd place?

As usual please share this article if you found it helpful and "like" my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wayneharneyphoto or follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WayneHarney if you want to be notified of future articles.