Is anyone able to do something to this picture to make it look more like the prop is spinning, some sort of blur effect or somthing?

The photgrapher loves the picture but feels the frozen looking prop is ruining it.



cheers

I tried playing around with motion blur in Photoshop for a couple of mins, but its actually really hard to get a decent effect because its not one solid piece (like a moving car for instance)

that looks pretty good to me, I'll pass it on to him cheers.

Pah to photoshop I say, GIMP to the rescue!

it's not that great, don't zoom in too far, but here's my 5 minute attempt



If your mate likes it I can have a go on the full res version

pants I've just realised I missed a bit! anyway, if you/your mate like it I'll redo

I'm crap at photoshop etc... but it would look better if it was an (almost) solid bit with a trail behind it...

p.s. what kind of crazy fast shutter speed did he use to catch it still like that ?

Quote from: knighty on October 30, 2012, 15:21:26 PM
I'm crap at photoshop etc... but it would look better if it was an (almost) solid bit with a trail behind it...

I can see where you're coming from Knighty but that's not what prop blur looks like IRL.

Hi people.
I'm the guy that DEViANCE set out to help.  Mongoose, thanks for the edit on the prop.  The pic now sits on my desktop!  I hadn't noticed the bit you missed (until I read your comment....DEViANCE sent me the link to this thread and I've now registered.
I have GIMP, but can't work out how to do the job on the props.  I've looked at the radial blur, but am obviously missing something.  Are you able to explain how you did it?

Incidenatlly, I've posted below the original unedited pic.  It may surprise you!



The shot was taken of a 'gatekeeper' at RAF Hendon.  I used a combination of Picasa and Photbucket to get it as far as the pic DEViANCE posted (it's the prop blur I was missing).  Now hopefully everyone will understand why the prop was frozen!!

If you are able to explain how to do the prop blur, I'll be eternally grateful

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike! welcome to the forums, hope you stick around, we're a friendly bunch (mostly!)

I'll try and explain how I did my edit, I don't guarantee it's the best way, but this is what I did (and actually is pretty much what I always do when editing in GIMP).

1. Duplicate the layer so you've now got two Spitfires overlayed on one another. This is almost always my first step.

2. Since GIMP's radial blur tool isn't particularly clever or user friendly, so you need to determine the position of the centre of the prop. Just hover your mouse over the image and judge the right position, there's a pixel position readout in the bottom left of the image window.

3. With the top layer selected, run the Motion Blur tool. Select "radial", set the centre to the position you measured in step 2, and set the effect fairly small, from memory I used an angle of about 15 degrees. Obviously this is going to blur the whole spitfire and you don't want the rest of the plane to run into the prop area, so use as low a value as you can while still getting a good effect on the prop.

4. Create a layer mask on the top layer with full transparency (flood fill the mask black if you hit the wrong button when creating it). The blurred spitfire will disappear and you can just see the original image.

5. Being careful that you still have the Mask selected, take your painting tool of choice and paint the mask white around the prop. The blurred copy will become visible where you paint. Don't worry about being 100% precise, but try not to overrun the edges of the prop by too far.

6. As a finishing touch, use the smudge tool to blend any obvious edges where the blur effect looks "pasted on" due to running into the body of the plane. This is the hardest bit and can be a little time consuming on complex projects, but it adds to the believability of the final result.

I hope that's clear, but if you have any questions either reply here or drop me a PM.

Come to think of it, if you PM me an e-mail address I'll send you a link to the .xcf

  That's a much better method than I used, I simply selected and motion blurred each piece seperately in Photoshop with a estimated angle of blur.

Quote from: Mongoose on November 08, 2012, 08:34:54 AM
Hi Mike! welcome to the forums, hope you stick around, we're a friendly bunch (mostly!)

I'll try and explain how I did my edit, I don't guarantee it's the best way, but this is what I did (and actually is pretty much what I always do when editing in GIMP).

1. Duplicate the layer so you've now got two Spitfires overlayed on one another. This is almost always my first step.

2. Since GIMP's radial blur tool isn't particularly clever or user friendly, so you need to determine the position of the centre of the prop. Just hover your mouse over the image and judge the right position, there's a pixel position readout in the bottom left of the image window.

3. With the top layer selected, run the Motion Blur tool. Select "radial", set the centre to the position you measured in step 2, and set the effect fairly small, from memory I used an angle of about 15 degrees. Obviously this is going to blur the whole spitfire and you don't want the rest of the plane to run into the prop area, so use as low a value as you can while still getting a good effect on the prop.

4. Create a layer mask on the top layer with full transparency (flood fill the mask black if you hit the wrong button when creating it). The blurred spitfire will disappear and you can just see the original image.

5. Being careful that you still have the Mask selected, take your painting tool of choice and paint the mask white around the prop. The blurred copy will become visible where you paint. Don't worry about being 100% precise, but try not to overrun the edges of the prop by too far.

6. As a finishing touch, use the smudge tool to blend any obvious edges where the blur effect looks "pasted on" due to running into the body of the plane. This is the hardest bit and can be a little time consuming on complex projects, but it adds to the believability of the final result.

I hope that's clear, but if you have any questions either reply here or drop me a PM.

Come to think of it, if you PM me an e-mail address I'll send you a link to the .xcf

Many thanks for this....and the welcome!  I've sent a PM

Thanks also Clock'd ONe for your input