Time-stack photo technique paints the sky like Monet
posted Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 1:13 PM EST
Artist Matt Molloy brings new meaning to the phrase “painting with light.” His photos make the sky and clouds look like they’ve been painted into the frame with an Impressionist’s brush.
These “time-stack” images are created by stacking and blending hundreds of individual shots together in Photoshop. Each frame is usually an exposure of a couple seconds, and they’re captured over the course of a few hours. The subjects on the ground barely move, but the clouds are in constant motion. And as the color of sunlight changes, it introduces a remarkable range of color into the images, reminiscent of Monet’s palette.
Molloy got the idea for these photos after shooting some star-trail photos, and figuring that there had to be some way to capture something similar during the daytime. With some time, patience, his Canon 60D, some super-wide Tamron lenses, an intervalometer and a tripod—plus the assistance of Photoshop and a stacking script—Molloy started blending cloud photos into the images we see here.
Over at 500px, Molloy has posted a tutorial on his process, and his best photos are hosted there as well. He’s also on Facebook and at FineArtAmerica.com. It's some stunning work that's well worth checking out.
(Via SLR Lounge)