What is this kind of photograph of a sort of frame-by-frame of runners called?

Question

I would love to look up the best tips and tricks to set up these kinds of shots and post processing them.

Is there a standard name for these kinds of shots, what are they called?

Does this answer your question? How did John Cheng create his photograph of Simone Biles at the FIG Gymnastics World Championships? — osullic, Jul 25 '21 at 10:33
@osullic No, it does not, but is a very useful link, for this topic — silverrahul, Jul 25 '21 at 14:37
I didn't actually type that comment. It appeared automatically because I marked your question as a duplicate. — osullic, Jul 25 '21 at 16:25

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 25 '21 at 08:20

5

This is called "sequence photography".

The easy way to achieve one is to shoot a video and extract the relevant frames, but you work with video definition.

For true photography, with some luck you can use the camera burst mode, or you use an intervalometer to take shots at regular intervals. You cannot shoot faster than the camera burst mode and this means that you have a decent idea of the required interval (which can be obtained by using the video technique first).

Using a tripod will spare you the re-alignment of all the frames.

Using manual mode for exposure and focus may avoid variations between frames.

Having the subject overlap itself like in the picture above makes it a bit more difficult since you need a proper cutout of the subject. On the other hand since you have other images where the subject is not in that spot you can obtain a selection of the subject using the difference between the two images.

answered Jul 25 '21 at 08:20

xenoid

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…& practise on an athlete in the shade, so you don't have to edit all the shadows too ;)) – Tetsujin Jul 25 '21 at 08:24
@Tetsujin Which got me wondering. If you use a median filter with all the frames, you get an image were the subject is totally wiped out. So, this also means that some "rebel" filter that takes the pixels that differ the most from the median could build the whole sequence fairly easily... – xenoid Jul 25 '21 at 08:36
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Potentially. I do get the feeling the actual photography may be harder to get right than the photoshopping ;) – Tetsujin Jul 25 '21 at 09:54
You should be able to generate a rough mask by taking the difference between the median and a given frame. – LightBender Jul 26 '21 at 15:14
@LightBender Can you point me towards any resource on how to "take the difference" – silverrahul Jul 30 '21 at 14:39
@silverrahul Making this up as I go but 1 Duplicate the aligned layers into a smart object 2 Set the stack mode to median to create a clean background plate 3 Take a layer containing the runner (hide the others), add mask, and set its blend mode to difference 4 Go to the channels panel and copy one of the channels to the mask. Anything not runner should be black or nearly so on the mask 5 Manipulate the layer (levels or curves) to create a mask (any spill will match the background) 6 Change the blend mode back 7 Repeat for other frames 8 Clean up should only be needed where frames overlap – LightBender Jul 30 '21 at 15:00

Bob Macaroni McStevens · Answer 2 · 2021-07-26T14:24:37.603

The process is called “chronophotography.”

It can be done as a sequence of negatives as with Eadweard_Muybridge’s Horse in Motion.

It may also use a sequence of multiple exposures as with Étienne-Jules Marey’s A Galloping Horse.

As the examples suggest, the tricks are planning, preparation, technical competence, and hard work.

A tip for making good chronophotographs is start by making bad ones and learn from experience.

What is this kind of photograph of a sort of frame-by-frame of runners called?

2 Answers2