These stunning photographs are some of the most incredible images I’ve ever seen.
The moment I saw Matt Molloy’s photographs I thought I was looking at an Impressionist paintings! But the tools he uses for creating these amazing images are very modern.
The Canadian photographer uses a technique he calls “time stacking”. By layering hundreds of photos digitally, Matt creates the final image. He begins by taking hundreds of photos of the same skyline using time-lapse techniques and then digitally stacks the images. The colors and shapes emerge from the multiple layers and are very reminiscent of paint brush strokes.
“Sunset Spectrum”. Photo credit: Matt Molloy
Matt’s time stack images were inspired by star trail images he took. “Once I made a few star trail images, I wondered why I’ve never seen this technique used on daylight time lapses,” he told 500px.
He says his best results come from shooting a scene which contains fixed and moving elements (e.g. clouds moving over a landscape). The speed at which the clouds move make a big difference in the end results. Here are a few more examples of his time stack work. Prepare to be awestruck!
Photo credit: Matt Molloy
“I cut myself out of one of the first photos from this timelapse and put myself into the “time stack” version because 1) I couldn’t stand perfectly still for that long, and 2) The way I make “time stacks” is by merging all the photos of a timelapse together which adds all the lighter elements together, and that would erase everything but the white parts of my coat.,” Matt wrote of the photo below.
Photo credit: Matt Molloy
“Land of the Giant Lollipops”. Photo credit: Matt Molloy
“Burning Cotton Candy Flying Through the Sky”. Photo credit: Matt Molloy
Matt also put together this useful “time stack” tutorial video for photographers that may want to give his photography technique a try.
You can see more of Matt’s spectacular time stack photographs on 500px, Flickr and Facebook.
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