Ray Demski is a photographer based in Munich, Germany. He grew up traveling the world on a sailboat with his family and developed a passion for photography. His work focuses on action and adventure sports. One of Demski's techniques is photo bursting, where he uses a fast shutter speed to capture an athlete in motion without blur over multiple frames. He then stitches the frames together in post-production. For some images, he experiments with colorization and different exposures. Double exposure is a technique that combines two separate images. The artist will make a selection around a subject and paste a second image behind it, playing with opacity and blending the two. Zoom bursting involves zooming the lens while keeping a

1. Experimental
Photography
Jamie Mellors
1
Case Study

2. Photo Burst

3. Artist and bio: “Ray has always been a bit different. He grew up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When he
was three, he slept on a beach in Thailand for 3 months.
Raised by crazy hippie parents, Ray was homeschooled… Really he just spent a lot of time outside.
At the age of 14, he moved with his two brothers and parents onto a 45-foot sailboat in Trinidad, and, after an
extended fixing period, they set sail on the Mangwana. As they sailed around the world, Ray trained in martial
arts and took plenty of photos. 40 countries and 7 years later, he dried out a bit in France, and started shooting
professionally.
As a life long athlete and explorer Ray’s primary focus is on action and adventure sports.
He splits his time between high profile commercial work, and expeditions to beautiful places with amazing
people.
And tries to keep things a bit different.
Ray is currently based in Munich, Germany, he is almost never home.”
-An extract taken from Ray Demski’s Website
http://www.raydemski.com/About/1/
He has acquired partnership and clients in high places including Adidas, BMW, Nikon, Red Bull and f-stop.
Category:
The image fits into the non-traditional category as it uses techniques that are only possible on a modern
camera and using modern computer software.
The photograph could be seen:
Internet blogs, google searches, experimental photography websites, photography's website
Techniques used:
Quick Release shutter speed, Capturing Motion, Athletes, Fast shutter speed, Contrast, decolourisation,
underwater perspective

4. Technique:
Of the images that Demski has provided on his website of the Red Bull Cliff Jumping event he has used a similar method in a large amount of
his images that results in an effect as seen below. To create something that looks like this with multiple still shots of the same motion he has
used a very fast shutter speed to capture action clearly with no motion blur. To perform this technique he will have first mounted the camera
on a tripod to ensure that in every frame the sequence was fluid. As the athlete begins the jump he will start a camera process that takes
multiple pictures in quick succession. Otherwise known as “burst mode”. This results in roughly 40 images depending on how long it take for
the diver to reach the water. It is difficult to tell how many photos per second will have been taken as Demski has selected to use only ones
that do not overlap for the final image, my guess is between 8-16fps. With these final images he will go into post-production using Photoshop
to stitch each part of the motion together against the background to achieve the final photo showing each part of the motion. There are minor
difference between each image. The two on the left have used a small fish eye effect, it is difficult to tell if an lens has been used or if the
effect was added in post-production. Of all the images the one I have posted on slide 1 is the most unique parts of the images have been
decolourised to highlight the water and the athlete. Waterproof casing has been used to allow the images to be shot from under water. It
might have been mounted on a boat or more likely a walkway as it would be nearly impossible to keep the camera 100% still for the shots on a
boat. The 3rd image on this slide is an interesting one as it looks as if the photos have been taken using different exposures. Looking at the cliff,
sky and water gives me this idea. What is difficult the understand here is that I'm not sure that a camera is capable of capturing a photo bust
while taking 3 or so picture for each slide with different exposures. I suspect the diver has been capture performing the motion and later on a
photo has been taken from the same position with different exposures to achieve this effect the divers were later cut out and pasted onto this
image using the lasso tool.

5. 5
Double Exposure

6. Artist and bio:
Category:
The photograph could be seen:
Google images, photographer's website, dedicated photography websites
Techniques used:
Double exposure, merging two or more separate images, decolourisation, Portraiture, Architectural
I was unable to find much information about Yaser Almajed. I
learned that he was from Dammam in Saudi Arabia and described
his own style of photography as “Digital Photography, Digital Art”.
He does not seam to have written a bio anywhere that I can find
online despite his work seaming to have a large presence.

7. 7
Technique
The techniques applied to create an image such as the one shown at the bottom left of the screen begins with two separate images.
Firstly open the image that will contain the other image (in this case the portrait of the model). From here the aim is to create a selection
of the outline where the model meets the background. Make sure there is a duplicate of this layer before beginning, hide this layer for
now. To do this a way to make the selection easier and more precise is to adjust the levels of the image of the model move the slider to
the right to increase the contrast, you can also try turning the image to black and white if this helps. From here trace round the edge using
a lasso tool of your choice, I find that the magnetic tool is best for images such as the one below as the contrast is high. When
approaching areas of hair trace roughly past the area and continue on until the circuit is complete. This is where the benefit of increasing
the contrast becomes worthwhile. Select the refine edge tool any coat the areas of detail, such as hair, which this selection. Adjust the
sliders to get the correct selection and click accept. Then delete the selected area around the woman’s outline. This is when the second
image is added in. Paste in the image of the mountain range and position it on the layer beneath the original layer, at this point the
mountains should be visible through the outline of the model. Unhide the duplicate of the original image from earlier and lower the
opacity to wherever fits your taste. Elements of both images are now converged together. To further refine this for simplicity use the
eraser tool. The artist here has erased almost all of the defining features of the woman except facial features, this should be done with a
soft brush to avoid sharp and ugly edges. At this point the image could be considered complete. Other adjustments can be made to
enhance the final piece. For example this final design has a gradient (or other similar tool) over the background to match the mountain
blue and white tones.

8. Zoom Burst
8

9. Artist and bio:
Robert Rhead
“I’m an experienced web designer, graphic designer and photographer working on contract
basis for businesses and large enterprises in and around Chester. I work either in-house
with your team on a project by project basis or by pre-defined term. I have successfully
delivered design and web work for large businesses on high profile projects with The
Realbuzz Group, MBNA, Bank of America, Virgin Atlantic and American Express.”
Zoom burst is a easy and simple technique to perform therefore there are not really any
specialist photographers. Robert Rhead is a talented photographer so I found some images
he has taken in the zoom burst category. The images on the pervious slide are not his
however the image I example on the next slide is his own work.
Category:
The photograph could be seen:
Google images, photographer's website, dedicated photography websites
Techniques used:
Zoom burst, adjustable zoom lens, Long shutter speed, motion, centre subject

10. 10
The basic technique to get a zoom burst effect is to have the camera in motion while
taking a single frame with a long exposure time. Specifically the way to obtain this
effect is to zoom in while the frame is capturing, a variable lens is required for this.
The shutter speed should be set to longer than half a second to get the correct look.
All manually adjusted camera setting can work to effect the final image. Here are
some examples with the settings listed below. Shown on the left is the original image
to get a comparison of how the different experimtation can change the final image.
The first has been done with half a second resulting in a minimal amount of
distortion, a tripod has also not been used meaning that there is no clear centre of
this image. This constant can be seen in the second image which has used a tripod. A
5sec shutter speed had been chosen for this image which has allowed the entire
frame to fill with streams of colour coming from the centre. The final image shows
some experimentation. This time the photographer has opted to hold the camera
free-hand. To form the spiral, wave like effect the camera must be rotated in a
horizontal corkscrew motion. It is likely that each of the images below will have
undergone some degree of post-production. Changes to the levels and other finite
optimisation.
Technique

11. 11
Contact sheet

12. 12

13. Chosen images:
13

14. 14

15. 15
What techniques were used?
Double exposure
How was the technique used?
Double exposure work by taking two separately shot image and combining the two into one heavily edited piece of
work. This often work by positioning one photo inside the shape of the other, as I have done. Typically one image will
break free from these boundaries in some way usually only at one edge. I chose not to do this as my background
image (York College) did not have features that spread out and can be distinguished independently from the entirety
of the image. A model is commonly used with this technique as seen in my experimental photography research.
What is your opinion of the image?
Of the images I created during this practice period this was my favourite. When cutting the shape of the subject
(model) I was able to cut very accurately around her hair and other difficult boundaries. This was due to a well lit
studio and a white background. When the contrast between subject and background is more extreme use of
automatic tools such as the “refine edge” tool become far more effective. As seen in this example. The brightly
coloured image I have chosen to be the background splits off between blue sky and the exterior of college. Creating
not only geometric patterns but a sectioned final design. On the subject of shapes the architectural design of the glass
panels of college reflects natural light effectively. Placing this shape leading into the photograph has created a
captivating three dimensional look. The jacket the model wore that day was a blue denim one, the colour of the sky
that day mirrors this to a degree, this can be seen on the left sleeve. Before deciding the image was complete I added
3 rectangular semi opaque shape. My favourite of which crosses over the model’s eyes, highlighting them. This same
shape works as a barrier between the two main shades of the image. The light blue to match the models jacket and
the darker shades the pass over the face and hair, which also match the original image in tone, shade and colour. I
added another two stripes as this area of the image would be filled with too much empty shape, I wanted the space
on the image to be the blue sky. I felt a white background was appropriate as I wanted the focus of the image to all
that is seen, the final image is stand alone.

16. Contact sheet
16

17. 17
Chosen Image :

18. 18

19. 19
What techniques were used?
Zoom Burst technique
How was the technique used?
To create this technique a variable zoom lens must be used. The one I used alternated from
18mm to 55mm, I took advantage of all of this movement. In addition a slow shutter speed
was required, I used a speed of 1/5th of a second. Capturing the image while zooming
towards the subject creates the effect of distortion and movement.
What is your opinion of the image?
This final image I have produced I my favorited of the contact sheet I created. They are only
demonstrations and practice for a final piece of photography I intend to create. In the
original unedited image the figure is unfocused and blurred. I liked this although I though
that I could improve this. I darkened the entire image and specifically added more black to
the area the is the subject in the centre of the image, I did this by creating a new layer. I like
the mystery of the final outcome in black and white, I am pleased with how it turned out.
To further remove more of the detail and features of the image I added a very strong and
overwhelming blur to the sides of the image using the tilt shift blur tool. Excluding all the
post production work the initial shot has its own merits. The shot took place in a corridor
which is a setting the is always going to be symmetrical it is also defined by the natural lines
that lead towards the subject.

20. Idea generation

21. Mood Board