How to create this echo trail or motion trail effect

[davidh62483053]

Can anyone tell me how to create the effect shown in these two pictures of birds in flight?  I don't know if these are stacked and blended still photos, or produced from a video clip.  It looks like a motion trail or echo trail.  If so, can this be done in After Effects and, if so, can someone point me to a tutorial on how to do this?  If it is easier to do this with stacked still photos (presumably in Photoshop) can someone point me to a totorial on how to do that?   

[Mylenium]

You basically answered your own question: The Echo effect is your friend.

Mylenium

[davidh62483053]

Thanks.  By way of background, I do still photography, not video, and I don't even have a copy of Premier or After Effects.  After doing some online research, I found the "Echo Effect" but wanted to hear some people who were familiar with this whether I was going down the right path. Sounds like this will work, so I appreaciate the advice.  I suspect that there is also a way of doing this with a short burst of still photos that are stacked and merged in PS, since all I want is a still as a final product, not a video. 

[Warren Heaton]

On the Photoshop side, this looks like Statistics with the Stack Mode set to Maximum, but maybe Mean.

You'd shoot in burst mode with your still camera locked down while a bird flies past (or anything, really).

In Photoshop, choose File > Scripts > Statistics... to open the Statistics dialob box.  Choose your Stack Mode and the files to be used, then click OK.

[davidh62483053]

Thanks very much for your advice.  I'll give it a try and if I get it to work I'll post some results.