Lucis InterplayArt by Barbara Williams

Creating the image Cartwheels

My niece and her friend were kind enough to perform cartwheels for me. I took seven pictures from the beginning to end of the cartwheel. In this example I interplayed all seven images.

The seven original images are shown below. These images are not available for download. For all the other images click on the image to view and download a high resolution version of the image.


Image 1: First cartwheel image.	Image 2: Second cartwheel image.	Image 3: Third cartwheel image.

Image 4: Fourth cartwheel image.	Image 5: Fifth cartwheel image.	Image 6: Sixth cartwheel image.

Image 7: Seventh cartwheel image
Creating the merged image: To begin with in Photoshop I placed a copy of all the images on individual layers. Then I duplicated the layers so there were 14 of them. Then I grouped one set of the images so they were in order from seven to one with image seven on the bottom most layer and made these layers the only layers that were visible. (You place the image you wish to emphasize most on the bottom layer of the layers you wish to merge because that is the layer where the opacity will be 100%. At least that is what seems easiest to me.) To begin with I made the opacity of the layers with images 1-6 equal to 25% and left the opacity of the layer with image 7 at 100%. Then I used Merge Visible in Photoshop to combine the images. The merged image is below.

Image 8: Merged image. The seven cartwheel images merged with images 1-6 at 25% opacity and image 7 (the bottom layer) at 100% opacity. Click here or on the image above to view and download a high resolution version of the image.
I could see even from the unprocessed image that this was uneven, meaning that images one through six were not evenly emphasized. Some of the middle images were too faint compared to the others. Processing this merged image made the differences even more pronounced. The processed image is below. The Lucis settings were Split Channel mode, Red Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 31, Green Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61, and Blue Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61. Then I moved the Assign Original Color slider to 0% Original and 100% processed to remove the color shifts from increasing detail in the Red Channel much more than the Green and Blue channels.

Image 9: The Lucis-processed merged image (Image 8). Split Channel mode, Red Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 31, Green Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61, and Blue Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61, and the Assign Original Color slider to 0% Original. Click here or on the image above to view and download a high resolution version of the image.
So given the result above I knew I had to create a different merged image and shift the opacities of the layers so I could emphasize some of the middle images more. So I created another seven layers each with one of the images again (with the seventh image on the bottom layer) and made these the only visible layers. Then I adjusted the opacities until images one through six were evenly emphasized and image 7 was a little more emphasized. The merged image and the opacities I used for each layer are below.

Image 10. The second merged image. This image was created from merging seven layers in Photoshop: Top layer with Image 1 at 19% opacity, the next layer below that with Image 2 at 20% opacity, the next layer below that with Image 3 at 29% opacity, the next layer below that with Image 4 at 28% opacity, the next layer below that with Image 5 at 28% opacity, the next layer below that with Image 6 at 20% opacity, and the bottom layer with Image 7 at 100% opacity.
Then I processed this second merged image using the same Lucis settings as I used to create Image 9. The result is below.

Image 11. The Lucis-processed second merged image (Image 10). Split Channel mode, Red Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 31, Green Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61, and Blue Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 61, and the Assign Original Color slider to 0% Original.
This was close to what I wanted but not quite what I wanted. So I decided to try enhancing the second merged image even more to create an image that I could combine with Image 11 using layers in Photoshop to add some more detail.

Image 12: The Lucis-processed second merged image (Image 10). Split Channel mode, Red Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 15, Green Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 1 and the Enhance Detail slider at 37, and Blue Channel with the Smooth Detail slider at 15 and the Enhance Detail slider at 37, and the Assign Original Color slider to 0% Original.
So create the final image (Image 13) I placed Image 12 on one layer and Image 11 on the layer below it. I made these two layers the only visible layers. I left the opacity of the layer with image 11 at 100% and set the opacity of the layer with Image 12 to 50%. Then I merged the two layers. The result is below.

Image 13: The final image, Cartwheels.