Blending Multiple Images Together Simulating Long Exposure?

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Just an 'Update' on this little project I've tested out the ideas I've seen so far, and here are the results (quick jobs done on them, not "perfected"):

As shown,
[First Section]
I first tried Forriner' s idea of the built-in Photo Blend (which I didn't even know existed) and it did a neat little job at keeping all of the 'car lights', as I desired - they just were only 'points of light' (as expected somewhat, since these were still shots). If more time was spent on it, I think it is a good Beginning Point for trying this.
[Second Section]
Interestingly, Flagpole's idea of 'Lighten'd layering produced the same effect as Photo Blend, all the light parts were seen clearly (as he expected, I think) - they were just only the 'little points of light' again. Still, another good Starting Point for this, perhaps.
[Third Section]
Hartpaul's idea of Motion Blur-ing with Screen layering worked great for producing the 'streaks' or 'stretched' effect I was looking for - it is just that the entire image is 'streaked' (the buildings, etc. are not clear). Still, this was a great way to produce the Extended Blur for the sources of light.
[Fourth Section]
I had the idea that perhaps this could be more 'automated' in VideoStudio (if it's not 'cheating'), and using NewBlue's Motion Blur, with the angle set to match the direction of the roadway seemed to be promising - the light sources are 'stretched' and the buildings are left crisp and would perhaps would more detailed if I played with the Blending settings more (I also had to Blend each image as Overlays in the Overlay Tracks). For a quick test though, I think it showed potential for emulating this effect.

I also had the idea to perhaps just go 'all out' and try it with recording video of traffic, using VSP to filter it and see if it would just do some sort of 'latency blending' or similar concept, to blur the areas that moved (the traffic, but not the rest of frame areas), hopefully producing the 'lines of light' I am striving for [sorry I don't know the technical term for it, heh]. I will try this sometime soon, too...

Thanks again to all involved for your valuable input on this - this has become a fun little project (to me)

[photodrawken]

Thanks again to all involved for your valuable input on this - this has become a fun little project (to me)

Yes, this does seem like a fun project!

Your fourth example does show some potential, but it looks like all the lights are streaked, not just the running lights of the cars.

Uhhh...I don't want to rain on your parade , but I have to ask: If you're going to go through the trouble of shooting a video, why not simply do a long exposure single shot?

[Forriner]

Another experiment to show 'my' process.

I took two photos (25 seconds) of a bicycle crossing the frame from bottom to top during a local electricity blackout years ago. The miracle was that the bicycle has lights. The white light you see is the middle is a car's headlights.
The left part of the attachment shows the first half of her/his route and the middle shows the second half. Blended in PSP (menu File/Photo Blend...) it followed the bicycle from bottom to top in the rightmost part.
The blending took a bit more effort than the ash trays which blended well with a few clicks, as I had to paint the lower (left image) light path green (like a "show" mask in a layered image) to keep it. So Blend can take a little getting used to depending on original images.
Now the truth The right photo IS a blend of the left two, only the original was just like the rightmost. In PSP I used the scratch remover to remove the top of the trial in the left photo, and the bottom of the trial in the middle photo, and then Blended the two to reproduce the original.

Again, about the original clouds and tree.
The photographer had a problem: he wanted lots of movement in the clouds, but he had limited resources, like neutral density (ND) filters to make a really long exposure. Either that, or the decision to blend was conscious so he could use the exposure meter on his camera for a number of correct exposures and then blend later. Most cameras I know have a maximum exposure time of 30 seconds (like all the tree photos), before you have to go "bulb exposure" and you're on your own calculating exposure time.
So he did what I pretended to do here: he took a number of correct long exposures while the target moved, and blended them into one image covering 2.5 minutes of movement instead of 30 seconds a piece.

So, as photodrawken already said/asked: If you're going to go through the trouble of shooting a video, why not simply do a long exposure single shot?

And I add: and then if it's the 30-second metering limit, take two or more and blend. Like the tree and clouds, or the bicycle light trial.

If this post it too off topic or long or whatever, I'll delete the contents if you want. It's your thread after all

Edit: In the "Now the truth" paragraph, the forum keeps changing the spelling of "t r a i l" to "t r i a l", as in light trial, when the post is submitted. Weird, because it leaves it alone in this paragraph.

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Thanks again to all involved for your valuable input on this - this has become a fun little project (to me)

Yes, this does seem like a fun project!

Your fourth example does show some potential, but it looks like all the lights are streaked, not just the running lights of the cars.

Uhhh...I don't want to rain on your parade , but I have to ask: If you're going to go through the trouble of shooting a video, why not simply do a long exposure single shot?

Another experiment to show 'my' process.

I took two photos (25 seconds) of a bicycle crossing the frame from bottom to top during a local electricity blackout years ago. The miracle was that the bicycle has lights. The white light you see is the middle is a car's headlights.
The left part of the attachment shows the first half of her/his route and the middle shows the second half. Blended in PSP (menu File/Photo Blend...) it followed the bicycle from bottom to top in the rightmost part.
The blending took a bit more effort than the ash trays which blended well with a few clicks, as I had to paint the lower (left image) light path green (like a "show" mask in a layered image) to keep it. So Blend can take a little getting used to depending on original images.
Now the truth The right photo IS a blend of the left two, only the original was just like the rightmost. In PSP I used the scratch remover to remove the top of the trial in the left photo, and the bottom of the trial in the middle photo, and then Blended the two to reproduce the original.

Again, about the original clouds and tree.
The photographer had a problem: he wanted lots of movement in the clouds, but he had limited resources, like neutral density (ND) filters to make a really long exposure. Either that, or the decision to blend was conscious so he could use the exposure meter on his camera for a number of correct exposures and then blend later. Most cameras I know have a maximum exposure time of 30 seconds (like all the tree photos), before you have to go "bulb exposure" and you're on your own calculating exposure time.
So he did what I pretended to do here: he took a number of correct long exposures while the target moved, and blended them into one image covering 2.5 minutes of movement instead of 30 seconds a piece.

So, as photodrawken already said/asked: If you're going to go through the trouble of shooting a video, why not simply do a long exposure single shot?

And I add: and then if it's the 30-second metering limit, take two or more and blend. Like the tree and clouds, or the bicycle light trial.

Great ideas - I actually had the idea of messing around a bit with PSP's Push and Smudge Tools yesterday, dragging a point from the car lights outward in a line - and it gave me a nice light line, similar to what you have there, but it was hard to make a straight line (holding SHIFT, etc. did not seem to work with the Tool) and I'm not quite sure yet if I want to do this potentially many, many times, when blending together multiple traffic shots - but I think it showed potential after combining it with Flagpole's 'Lighten'-ing idea (using layers with the pushed/smudged light trails as Lighten layers):

To answer the question of "just shooting a Long Exposure shot", it's because I can't, heh - sorry, but I eventually want to do this with still shots from a game - and although games are looking more realistic these days

I still have the restriction of 'one shot at a time' or a video, unfortunately... Hmmm, I wonder if I could just use a real camera to take a Long Exposure shot of the monitor I just have a cheap Sony point-and-shoot, but I may have to try it sometime...

[flagpole]

interesting merging with lighten works quite well. There's only the 3 images but if there were more I reckon it would do the headlight thing we were after.

[photodrawken]

Hmmm, I wonder if I could just use a real camera to take a Long Exposure shot of the monitor I just have a cheap Sony point-and-shoot, but I may have to try it sometime...

I think you're on to something there....

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Hmmm, I wonder if I could just use a real camera to take a Long Exposure shot of the monitor I just have a cheap Sony point-and-shoot, but I may have to try it sometime...

I think you're on to something there....

Thanks, but the whole point is to keep it purely in the Digital Realm... I feel like I'm 'cheating' even by using a video and VSP to get it done, heh. Also I want to be able to share the technique, so that others can use it to create Simulated Long Exposure shots that could never do with my limited hardware/knowledge...

I looked it up some more, and it seems that many others have been working on it too (after looking it up more online) - even arriving at our idea(s) of 'stacking' the images and processing them with 'Lightening':

https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comment ... _skyrim_i/

Neat! Maybe sharing all of our findings near the end, we can perfect this technique

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

interesting merging with lighten works quite well. There's only the 3 images but if there were more I reckon it would do the headlight thing we were after.

combined.jpg

Yes - although it would feel a bit like I'm 'cheating' to me, to get it done if I used a Video and kept it entirely within the realm of Video Editing [using Filters, etc]... I'm going to try a video and convert it to frames perhaps, exporting those frames as a set of PNGs and import those into PSP to try the 'Lightening' approach - what is the maximum number of Layers that PSP can handle?

[photodrawken]

Also I want to be able to share the technique, so that others can use it to create Simulated Long Exposure shots ...

By all means, go for it!

However, IMO, the general concept of simulating a long exposure shot is flawed, as I explained in my first message.

For me, at least, the appeal of these types of images is in the contrast between the sharply defined static elements and the smoothly flowing streaks of light:

car lights at night 01.jpg (15.37 KiB) Viewed 6108 times

This effect, which I like so much, will never even be approached by simulations....

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Also I want to be able to share the technique, so that others can use it to create Simulated Long Exposure shots ...

By all means, go for it!

However, IMO, the general concept of simulating a long exposure shot is flawed, as I explained in my first message.

For me, at least, the appeal of these types of images is in the contrast between the sharply defined static elements and the smoothly flowing streaks of light:

car lights at night 01.jpg

This effect, which I like so much, will never even be approached by simulations....

I agree Beautiful picture!
I'm sorry, I did not mean "the point of ____ is to keep it in the digital realm" as though it is 'superior' or anything - I merely meant, to try to find a technique that might 'come close' and that others can replicate [digitally]...

I suppose there is never any 'real' way to simulate Life and Reality and never will be.... heh

[photodrawken]

...to try to find a technique that might 'come close' and that others can replicate [digitally]...

Sounds good to me!

I'll paraphrase a quote (I think it's from Melville) that went something like this: "The importance of a journey is the voyage itself, not the arrival."

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Just updating on a couple of Tests and Techniques seen so far (done with a slightly different source)...

I tried a couple of Video Editing Applications, to see if they had any 'built-in' effects that could come close to, or at least help in, the 'emulation of a long exposure shot' and here's what I found [images resized as per Forum limitations]:

Corel's VideoStudio Pro ("Ghost Blur")

In VSP, there are a couple of Blurring effects - one is NewBlue's Motion Blur, which looks good in and of itself, having many options; but it 'blurs everything' (in accordance to the many settings you can configure). The other Motion Blurring effect is Corel's own Motion Blur, which has a few different options and looks good by itself as well, but again 'blurs everything'. The third type of Blur effect I saw in VSP, called Ghost Blur, produces very similar output to what we have formulated in the thread already [with the very knowledgeable help here], creating a 'stuttered' look to the light sources, mixed with a 'Lighten' layering effect - but keeping everything that is static as it is:

I think this could be useful, as it combines many layers and images in an automated manner - it will just require some more Post-Processing (blurring, blending, etc) in PSP.


CyberLink's PowerDirector ("Delay")

If it is alright to name competitors here [competition breeds innovation? heh], I next tried a video editing application called PowerDirector - and the closest 'FX' in that program towards what I am trying to do ('a beam of colour from traffic lights') came from an effect called Delay in PDR. It seemed to produce similar output to VSP's Ghost Blur, but within the automation of the effect, also 'blended' or 'blurred' the frames together, creating the 'streak of light' that I desired - while also keeping everything that is static as it is:

This shows promise - and although it will take some Post-Processing done in PSP as well (the 'light lines' aren't very long, they would need to be spliced together, blended, etc) it is still a step towards digitally simulating this effect.

Just sharing some findings so far, for those still interested