How to take sequence shots?
 

NEw to photography. Just bought a nikon D3100. Whats the best way to take sequence shots (wake to wake tricks etc)

Just snap as many photos as you can. You have to stitch them together using a photo editor like photoshop. It is pretty easy to do but takes awhile to do it well. I have a canon 7d, my typical sequence shot involves 10-14 images stitched together.

This is just a quick sequence I did the other day, I could have spent a lot more time cleaning it up, but you can see how the images were put together, then you can blend them to get rid of the lines or clean up the back ground. It was shot with my canon T2i

I guess the right terminology would be to set your shutter to continuous mode... From there, hold down and snap away! I have pretty good luck pulling a focus prior to the sequence shots, then I turn off the auto focus... For me, the trick that makes it easier to stitch together is concentrating on not moving your camera with the moving object, in this case the rider. I try to pick something in the background (which is why I turn off the auto focus) and don't even look at the moving object/rider while shooting. If you have a tripod, it's really easy to hold still. I stitch most of my sequence shots together using MS Paint.

Here's a couple more... In the bottom pic you can see the areas that I simply copy and pasted sections from each shot using the box selection tool in MS Paint. Once you've layered them onto one background, you can use a simple photo editor to blend the entire pic, which should clean up any differences in color.

With putting it on shutter continuous, is there anyway that you can speed up that shutter speed at all? I'm shooting with a cannon rebel xt and i can only get about 3 maybe 4 pictures when i'm taking from wake to wake.

Speeding up the shutter speed might increase the cycling rate... You can also try selecting a smaller file size, too. I'm not sure that'll make much difference, but it's worth a shot.

Also, check the specs on your memory card... Sometimes the memory card can't keep up with the camera. I don't know the correct terminology, but think of it as a file traffic jam between the camera and the card. There are memory cards that are 'faster' than others.

as far as i know, rebel xt can only take 3-4fps, max.

Bob... Stephen...

Any luck?

the main question that i have for towards sequence shots is do you focus on the object or person that you are going to be putting in a sequence or are you just picking a main focal point and just snapping pictures as the person goes through it?

I pull a clean focus, on the rider (while center frame), prior to shooting the continous shots... With that clean focus, I switch to manual focus, then shoot the sequence while I center on something in the background that doesn't move... I don't touch the focus or zoom during those shots. Usually the rider, especially in wakeboarding, will stay in focus from start to finish. Focusing gets a little tricky when the rider is moving toward, or away from, you... In wakeboarding, the rider moves from left to right (or right to left) and will probably stay in focus the entire time.

I just focus on the rider and do continuous shooting while the rider is moving. the main thing I work on is I set the focus on the rider when they first get up. If I keep the auto focus on it tends to grab spray from the boat when the rider cuts out so turning off auto focus after you have your focus set helps a lot.

ok i guess next question, what type of program is everyone using? i know that probably the obvious answer is photoshop, but are people using cs5 or one of the CS programs or are you using using elements to be able to make this work?

If you are looking for a free program, try paint.net. It has all the features you need for this type of thing; layers, masking, etc and found the interface similar to photoshop. And the price is right.

Processed in CS5

yep - I use Photoshop - I have used a lot of versions in the past - most recently I was using CS4 but I just upgraded to CS5

pretty sure you could do it in GIMP too, and it's open source and free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMzsbB5gqtY

hey guys this is my first attempt at a sequence shot. a couple things about this picture, i didn't mean for it to be a sequence shot, that is why it looks a little dodgy at places. when i was taking the picture i was following the wakeboarder. i was just wondering what yall thought of my first attempt

Thats a pretty solid first attempt!