My first successful shot put composite took a lot longer to edit than I had hoped. And after reviewing some of Racquel’s photo angles, I got a spark of inspiration. And now that I’ve tried it, I’m beating myself up for not having figured this out sooner.
I officially met Aja Johnson, the 2023 CA State Shot Put Champion and 2024 CA State Discus Champion, at the airport after Nike Nationals last year. She is a delightful young woman, so I decided to test out this action-composite concept on Aja’s efforts first.
Unfortunately, the idea came to me during a night prelim, so the lighting conditions were harsh, and I was shooting with a Sigma 60-600MM DG DN OS Sports lens. I couldn’t get enough distance from Aja to maintain a constant exposure. So, what I thought would be a 30-minute editing project took more than two hours. Each layer had to be matched to every other layer. For a first attempt, I’m pleased. I sent the original photos to Aja’s mom this morning. She seemed delighted as well. 🙂
Aja heads into tonight’s State Championship finals as the leader. Which probably means I may try again tonight. We’ll see if what I learned today makes a difference in the editing time. I hope so. Either way, I think the results were worth the effort.
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I’m sure you will get there. I admire the patience that it takes to do it just right.