Multiple Sams

Before I even begin, this photo was directly inspired by Gwyneth Glissmann. She did a photo exactly like this last year, and ever since I saw it, I wanted to try to figure out the technique she used.
Here is her original photo.

It's a very simple photo when you look at it closely. Just original stills with blurred copies next to them. It's such a, dare I say basic, technique, but it work marvelously. And when I say basic, I mean basic to a photographer that knows their way around Ps like Gwynth does. It's a really cool idea with awesome results.

Here's how I made my version.

First I got all my photos that I woulds stitch together. I took them using a 560 with a 1/8 grid pointed down on me. I could have used a bare strobe, but I just really like the look of a grid, and I couldn't copy Gwyneth with everything.

Settings: f2.2, 1/80, ISO100. The 560 was at 1/64 power.

When I got all the photos into Lr, I selected my three favorites. I chose 3 because 7 was too much, Gwyneth used 5, and 1 would be lame. Even numbers don't have as much visual weight or balance that odd numbers do.

I raised the clarity and contrast, and that was it. I used them basically out of camera.

In Ps, I just lined them all up on a canvas 250% as wide as one of the frames. I merged them all, duplicated it, and applied motion blur to that new layer. Finally, I put that blurred layer under the crisp photos which I then proceeded to set to lighten.

All done. Here's what it looks like.

Even thought it's the same technique, it has a very different feel. Comparing the two, I actually prefer the five frames in Gwyneth's than the three in mine. The extra negative space at the bottom of her's works really well too. And obviously, she had a better model than me. I am wondering why one of her blurs is on the left side of the figure instead of the right like all the others.

Anyway, I accomplished what I set out to do and I'm happy with the results. See you tomorrow and thank you Gwyneth for the idea!