Stemmy
26th February 2006, 10:39 AM
OK here is a method of easily merging two pictures. I saw it on another forum a long time ago but thought I would talk you through how its done.
You know where the sky is really bright and the landscape is really dark. How to get one perfectly exposed picture. You could meter for the sky but the landscape would be too dark and if you meter for the landscape you would blow the sky out.
So here is what to do. You will need a tripod to keep your camera still.
Take two pictures of the same landscape one metering for the landscape and one metering for the sky. See the original picture.
IMAGE 1 BELOW is the original image metered for the landscape.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image1.jpg
IMAGE 2 BELOW is the original image metered for the sky.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image2.jpg
OK open both images in photoshop.
Select the darker image and go to SELECT and ALL.
Then go to EDIT and COPY.
You can now close down the darker image.
Now click on the lighter image and go to EDIT and PASTE.
If you go to the layers section you should now have two layers as the image below shows. The background layer as the lighter image and the foreground layer as the darker image. You will only see the darker image as this is the image at the front of the stack.
IMAGE 3 BELOW shows how the layers should look now.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image3.jpg
Now go to the layers section and make sure the darker image is selected (as in the above image) now click the icon at the bottom of the layers section that looks like a white circle inside a grey square. This will create a layer mask and the layers section should look like this.
IMAGE 4 BELOW shows how the layers should look now
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image4.jpg
Now go back to the layers section and click the lighter image to select it.
Go to SELECT and click ALL.
Now go to EDIT and then COPY.
Now go back to the layers pallet.
Now with the ALT key pressed click on the white rectangle next to the darker image. This should select the adjustment layer and the image you see on the screen should go white.
Now go to EDIT and PASTE.
You should see a B&W version of the lighter image on the white image.
If you now go to the layers section and select the background image you should see them blended together as one image as IMAGE 5 BELOW.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image5.jpg
Sounds really complicated if you haven't done it before. Copy the images to your computer then print this tutorial. After ten minutes you will get the idea. It actually takes less than a minute to do.
This is a really quick way of getting that perfectly exposed picture.
You can experiment more. Once you get to the section where you have the white adjustment layer viewing in photoshop try adding a gradient or using a brush paint to paint onto the adjustment layer. Then have a look at the blended effect. Loads of playing to be done here.
To give you a quick idea about adjustment layers. Once you have the white adjustment layer viewing in photoshop then select a brush. If you go to the colours palette then select a colour you will notice that only shades of grey and black will paint onto the adjustment layer. If you imagine the adjustment layer dictates how much of the background layer shows through to the front of the image. White means non of the background shows through - black means all of the image shows through. Shades of grey in between mean parts of the background show through.
Have fun.
If you have any problems doing this post here.
You know where the sky is really bright and the landscape is really dark. How to get one perfectly exposed picture. You could meter for the sky but the landscape would be too dark and if you meter for the landscape you would blow the sky out.
So here is what to do. You will need a tripod to keep your camera still.
Take two pictures of the same landscape one metering for the landscape and one metering for the sky. See the original picture.
IMAGE 1 BELOW is the original image metered for the landscape.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image1.jpg
IMAGE 2 BELOW is the original image metered for the sky.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image2.jpg
OK open both images in photoshop.
Select the darker image and go to SELECT and ALL.
Then go to EDIT and COPY.
You can now close down the darker image.
Now click on the lighter image and go to EDIT and PASTE.
If you go to the layers section you should now have two layers as the image below shows. The background layer as the lighter image and the foreground layer as the darker image. You will only see the darker image as this is the image at the front of the stack.
IMAGE 3 BELOW shows how the layers should look now.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image3.jpg
Now go to the layers section and make sure the darker image is selected (as in the above image) now click the icon at the bottom of the layers section that looks like a white circle inside a grey square. This will create a layer mask and the layers section should look like this.
IMAGE 4 BELOW shows how the layers should look now
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image4.jpg
Now go back to the layers section and click the lighter image to select it.
Go to SELECT and click ALL.
Now go to EDIT and then COPY.
Now go back to the layers pallet.
Now with the ALT key pressed click on the white rectangle next to the darker image. This should select the adjustment layer and the image you see on the screen should go white.
Now go to EDIT and PASTE.
You should see a B&W version of the lighter image on the white image.
If you now go to the layers section and select the background image you should see them blended together as one image as IMAGE 5 BELOW.
http://www.wedding-photography.org/attachments/image5.jpg
Sounds really complicated if you haven't done it before. Copy the images to your computer then print this tutorial. After ten minutes you will get the idea. It actually takes less than a minute to do.
This is a really quick way of getting that perfectly exposed picture.
You can experiment more. Once you get to the section where you have the white adjustment layer viewing in photoshop try adding a gradient or using a brush paint to paint onto the adjustment layer. Then have a look at the blended effect. Loads of playing to be done here.
To give you a quick idea about adjustment layers. Once you have the white adjustment layer viewing in photoshop then select a brush. If you go to the colours palette then select a colour you will notice that only shades of grey and black will paint onto the adjustment layer. If you imagine the adjustment layer dictates how much of the background layer shows through to the front of the image. White means non of the background shows through - black means all of the image shows through. Shades of grey in between mean parts of the background show through.
Have fun.
If you have any problems doing this post here.