#fakeblur

[Black Pearl]

There's a neat trick if you forget your ND filter, don't have your tripod or can't get the shutter speed long enough but still want a little blur in your water.

Take a short sequence of shots at as low a shutter speed as you can get then load them to your computer and fiddle with them as you see fit in LR or ACR.

When the images are done open/export them into Photoshop, go to File → Scripts → Load Files into Stack. In the scrip box choose Add Open Files to make the set of images appear under files to use for stacking. If you didn't use a tripod (naughty I know but it happens) remember to check the Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images then make sure the Create Smart Object after Loading Layers is also ticked.

Once PS has chewed on that go to the menu Layer → Smart Objects → Stack Mode → Mean. This sets Photoshop away automatically blending the files in the stack into a smooth long-exposure.

The more shots you took the smoother the blur - conversely if you want a little texture in your blur (something a ND can't replicate) shorten the sequence and use a faster shutter speed.

This was five shots taken at 1/20s

 

[kev7d]

Good trick that.