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here are a couple pics i shot the other day. some are more edited in photoshop than the others but all have at least levels done.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279720@N05/2239724378/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279720@N05/2238914417/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279720@N05/2238913411/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279720@N05/2239733664/

i don't know how to code the images into the post. an edit would be welcome.

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i like the last 2 the best. I think the first one may have been edited too much because you can barely see the guy on the rail. The 2nd one doesnt have enough contrast and appears to just be gray .. but besides for that i like the 3rd and 4th good job!

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~Dan Nelson~

hey smitty,

thanks for sharing - looks like you had a blast!

My personal favorite is the first. Your post-processing have lent some interesting elements to the picture - in particular the red halo around the boarder and the aggressive green of the board - yours I'm guessing?

From a compositional standpoint, my personal taste runs more towards images that are closer to the subject - unless you are showing that a boarder is 20 feet in the air off a ramp or unless the landscape/surroundings are part of "the story". If you had stood a little closer - and in front of those branches - there could have been even more "ka-blam!" to your image. But that's just me.

Cheers

You need to go to the "All sizes" section in flickr, select a picture size that is 500 pix wide and than copy the [b]last[/b] URL from that page.
If you inclusd this URL as follows:
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/.../...jpg[/img]
You should see the pic in your post. Please don't post larger than 700 pix wide!
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btw. #1 has some interesting atmosphere, but you're definitely too far from the action in #2+#3 to my liking!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
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the first one is your best. it has a nice feel and being able to see the boarder clearly isn't important. If you look through a lot of boarding mags you'll see similar looking photos. If you can combine the feel of #1 and the technique you used to isolate the boarder on your 'Pat Wrecked' photo though..you'd be in business. helps when the boarder is wearing bright clothes, as in this case.

#2 i like but i agree with the others and say your a little far away. however, if you were closer you wouldn't have had the power pole in the photo, with the sign on it it adds something. with the sign not there it just becomes a large white and grey photo.

my 2 cents, keep the photos coming.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/hero_of_the_jay/

that looks like a really fun little battleship box

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Nice shots, but like some others here, I prefer to get really close to this sort of thing if possible - although I have had some boards get within a foot or so of my head and lens! From close range though you can start using an on-board flash to freeze the action...

Hi Smitty, I really like your shot 'Sequence 04' of the 4 images combined, can you tell me briefly how you made that? I have some similar shutter burst images from my holiday and would love to combine them into one like that.

Cheers

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i'm glad you like it. there are a couple ways to do it. the way i usually do it is the easier i think. it works best if the camera is stationary or at least pointing in almost the same direction for all the shots. I take the first image in the burst and adjust the levels, etc. and apply those levels to the rest of the images. then i take the second, third, fourth, etc. images from the burst and cut out the action (in my case the snowboarder) using the magnetic lasso in photoshop (any other method you may prefer works too). if you use a 2 px feather it cuts out really clean. i then move them into the first image of the burst and position them where they belong. this usually works well if you cut out a little piece of background and leave it with the action (in my case i used a bit of the rail) and erase it after it is placed. also reducing the opacity of the top image helps placement. once they're all on there you have a finished sequence. hope this helps and isn't too confusing. any more questions feel free to contact me.

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and one more thing. once i looked at the image again i realize that i used the lens correction filter in photoshop and used the lens distortion slider and made it spherized a little bit (to make the boarder pop out of the image more, as well as added a vignette using the same filter.

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Thanks, I'll give it a go when I get home tonight. I'll post the results if they're any good. I've not used the lasoo tool before, I really have only dabbled in Photoshop before, so I'll be pleased if I can learn something new out of this. I just hope I haven't deleted too many photos out of the sequences already - I have a feeling I may have looked at them and decided that I only need to keep one or two and got rid of the rest.

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OK, here's my first attempt, I don't think the original pictures were perfect, but they were good for practicing the technique. Smitty, were you actually thinking of making these sequences before you took the pictures? Next time I'll try to stand back more and keep the camera in one place so that I can actually see the boarder moving across the frame from left to right. This time I was trying to get closer to the action instead and keep the subject in the middle of the frame, meaning I ran out of space for all of the other layers in Photoshop.

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And here's another one I tried, as I thought I'd have more room in the frame. I'm actually in front of the camera on this one. Fortunately I had a shot of the backgroud that was taken before anyone appeared in the scene, so I was able to use that as the background and then move the figures on all of the subsequent layers back a bit. As you can see, however, we got the shutter speed (even though the camera was on sports mode, I think) and so all of the movement is blurred. Although I think this adds a little of effect when put into sequence I would much prefer crisp clean shots. For future reference I think it will help to get clear of the snow a bit too, like on the rail pics, as the sprays of snow make moving the images about quite difficult.

Still, at least I know the technique to try again next time.

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great looking images badly overdrawn boy. i really like the way the second one leaves the frame. when i was taking the pictures, i had the idea in the back of my head to do sequences. i have quite a few more that i moved the camera on that i still want to make into sequences but it'll take a lot more work.

overall, though, very good examples of a sequence. it looks like a really good start and i'm sure when you are shooting, and thinking about doing a sequence you will come out with some really good results.

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i was browsing around on youtube and watched a few of Gordons reviews and saw in your profile you mentioned that you took up snowboarding ... any chance of you posting some photos of yourself Gordon?