Composite photos of airplanes in flight

AirPortraits

Photographer Mike Kelley visited airports around the world, took pictures of airplanes leaving, and then pieced the photos together in a series of composite photos. The result was Airportraits.

A bit about the arduous process:

I often get asked exactly just how ‘real’ these images are. And on one hand, they are as real as they get. I’d sit in one place for an entire day, and take a burst of pictures of each plane as it crossed in front of me. I’d then take one of those captures, wherever I thought I’d like that plane to be, and put it on my base image. Every plane in every picture was actually right in front of me at that point in time, and they are all exactly where they were relative to other planes in the frame. If you went to some of these spots, you’d see the exact same thing that I saw.

I want to buy a camera.

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Composite Olympic moments

Hernandez balance beam

One more Olympics-related piece for the road. The New York Times used photo compositing to show a handful of critical moments for individual athletes. The above is the Laurie Hernandez’ dismount during the team event.

And, I can’t go without mentioning the Nike human chain commercial from six years years ago, which is the video version of this.

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Seagull skytrails

Seegull skytrails

Watch one bird fly around, and it's hard to make out its flight pattern. Time shift multiple copies of that bird, creating an echo effect, and it's easy. Parker Paul did this with seagulls flapping around at the beach and After Effects.

Watch below:

We saw a similar technique used back in 2010 to show airplanes flying in and out of the airport.

My favorite use is still the human chain Nike commercial, in which you see athletes practicing, competing, and failing. Starring Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistrious, the ad definitely shows its topical age.

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