Further Multiple Exposure/ICM Investigations

Hi all

Thought I'd post some further investigations into the in camera Multiple Exposure function on the K3. Interspersed with a few ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) shots. As before, all done in camera, the odd tweak to levels in Lightroom. Taken from a number of recent visits to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt.

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All c&c, thoughts, observations etc. welcome as ever...

Thanks for looking...

Best

These are really excellent Bill, I'm particularly drawn to 1, 3, 6 and 8. It would be good if you could write a short summary of a few techniques you have used for the shots, what menu settings and some of the basic mechanics of how they were taken. This wont give away any trade secrets as I suspect your skill is the biggest factor in making these as good as they are.

Regards
David

Great stuff - 1,4,8, and 10 for me. I see these type of shots and think I must have a go - and then forget!

Really arty..Instant 'Impressionism'. I love them and great technique. Some of them would make great Wall Art blown up. Have you tried printing any of them?

regards

Karlo

This again.
Great stuff.

Excellent work! I find the images with the most pronounced RGB especially interesting, like 5, 7 and 9. Thanks for sharing!

A very nice set, I not usually a fan of ICM, but I do like these.
No.9 is my favourite

A very nice set, the more colourful images work best for me.

These are beautiful i couldn't pick a winner out of them! i've had a go myself, a little practice in the garden, not nearly as good as these but some interesting results.

These are fascinating Bill. Like all of them

These really are very good Bill. The vivid colour and mysterious but recognisable shapes, are very impressionistic and a delight to view. One of my favourites among them is #1 but do you think the dark pole shape - a tree trunk perhaps - right of centre is a little intrusive? The darker coloured trunk to its right doesn't have the same effect of dividing the picture. I think the 'pole' might be cloned out without damaging the image.
Just a thought.
David

Picking just one is difficult, but I'll go for 9.
"has been done - can be done" - it's great inspirational stuff.

Hi all

Thanks all for thoughts, faves, and observations on these. Much appreciated, and always interesting for me to see how these "land".

David T: thanks for the observation on the composition of 1. I think you're right about the first pole - it's actually a telegraph pole, and I think you're right that the compo wld be cleaner without it. Trouble is I'm a bit fundamentalist on the cloning front (dust spots, water/rain spots, the odd stray stone/leaf on edge of frame, the occasional small distracting other thing, er, that's about it), so sadly it has to stay - am also hopeless with photoshop so almost certainly couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to...

David S and Rich: Very happy to share as much as I can on these. Having had another look at them, 1,2,3,4,6,8,11 are ICM, 5,7,9,10,12 are Multiple Exposures. I've talked through my version of ICM before, so won't rehash here - except to say that an awful lot of it is random guesswork and pure chance. I look for something that I think might work (contrasting shapes, textures, light, colours tend to work quite well for me) then play around a bit - 95% I throw away, but every now and then I find something that I think has potential and keep refining both technique and composition on the spot until I get something I'm happy with. I do do it all through the viewfinder though (quite a few people use the back screen) - just suits me better.

Re Multiple Exposures, the K3 can handle anything up to 9999 I think, which is a lot. I generally combine somewhere between 2 and 5, although occasionally have used between 10 and 20. All of the above MEs have at least one frame of ICM in them, for no particular reason other than at the moment I seem to rather like doing that. Of the 3 ME settings on the K3, I tend to use "bright blend" the most (additive and average are the other 2). My understanding is that bright blend works by adding only the brightest aggregate pixels to the existing layers - eg in a 2 layer ME (no. 12), I laid the main ICM frame down first (bluebells and tree trunk) before adding the 2nd layer of ICM (de focussed red rhododendrons ICM) over the top... I'd noticed that the trunk in the first frame was darker than the surrounding bluebells, so that was the part of the frame affected by the (deliberately brighter) red rhododendrons when placed over the top in bright blend mode - if it had been additive mode, they'd have been dotted all over the first frame I'd laid down.

It all sounds unbelievably complicated, but actually when you're doing it you start to get a good feel for what may or may not happen then compose accordingly. And every now and then something completely unexpected and random happens and that's good too...

Doug Chinnery does a very useful series of webinars on the subject - can't link to it as on a train at the mo, but Google "Doug Chinnery ICM" and you'll find them.

Hope that's useful...

Best

Beautiful and captivating. I'm drawn to the Monet-esque ones, with the least striation.
I love colour

Thanks Mark...

Best