Simpler Technique for Blending Two Exposures

[gmitchel]

I posted a tutorial that describes a simple technique for blending two exposures. I read about the technique briefly in a tutorial by Michael Reichmann on his site (www.luminous-landscape.com) and he credited it to George DeWolfe of CameraArts's Magazine.

Briefly, the technique uses a luminosity mask, followed by a Gaussian Blur and then a Curves/Levels adjustment of the mask.

It's a lot easier than painting in layer masks *OR* waving a graduated piece of acrylic in front of your lens.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/Tutorials/BlendedExposuresRevisited.pdf

Enjoy! The tutorial walks you through the steps with a practical example.

Cheers,

Mitch

[iwatkins]

Nice tutorial, does work quite well. I've ben playing with it for the past half an hour on shots when I didn't have my ND grads with me. By far the quickest "quality" way of doing it I have come across.

However, I'll probably stick to waving a graduated piece of glass in front of my lens, I still find this gives a more natural effect. But i'll keep this PDF for those times when I don't take all my filter gear. :D

Cheers

Ian

[mblanton]

I read the tutorial and then went out and snapped a couple of raw images. I wanted to see if I could actually do what I had just read. I ran into a snag trying to create a luminosity mask (I don't believe this can be done in PS Elements 2.0). So I used the background eraser and got the this result.

http://www.pbase.com/mblanton/image/38717257

I know this isn't perfect, but please let me know what I could do differently. I was thinking about purchasing a ND filter, but if I could improve this technique I probably would save the money for something else.

Mike

[gmitchel]

I read the tutorial and then went out and snapped a couple of raw images. I wanted to see if I could actually do what I had just read. I ran into a snag trying to create a luminosity mask (I don't believe this can be done in PS Elements 2.0). So I used the background eraser and got the this result.

http://www.pbase.com/mblanton/image/38717257

I know this isn't perfect, but please let me know what I could do differently. I was thinking about purchasing a ND filter, but if I could improve this technique I probably would save the money for something else.

Mike

Photoshop Elements does not support a luminosity mask.

You can make one with a few steps. Richard Lynch explains how on this link:

http://www.webreference.com/graphics/elements3/4.html

It would be easy enough to make an action for the steps.

Cheers,

Mitch

[robertwgross]

It's a lot easier than painting in layer masks *OR* waving a graduated piece of acrylic in front of your lens.


Mitch, there is a thing called a filter holder that you might try.

---Bob Gross---

[gmitchel]

Mitch, there is a thing called a filter holder that you might try.

---Bob Gross---

Yes. There is.

Most graduated ND filters do not screw on. They fit in a holder. To situate them for best effect, because they are outside the DOF of the lens, you need to move them up and down in the holder. That's a real PIA when you are standing on a slippery rock in the middle of a stream, etc. ;)

Cheers,

Mitch

[mblanton]

Ok, I got PS 7.0...now can someone tell me how to create a luminosity mask???

[gmitchel]

Ok, I got PS 7.0...now can someone tell me how to create a luminosity mask???

Yep. I describe it in the article.

On a PC, the keystrokes are alt+ctrl+shift+~ (tilde). On the Mac, the keystrokes are opt+cmd+shift+~ (tilde). Hold down four keys simultaneously. You will see a selection.

When blending two exposures, first turn off the visibility for all of the layers except the background layer. You want to use the background layer (the lighter image) for the luminosity mask. To turn off the other layers, alt-click on the eye icon for the background layer. Once you have the luminosity selection, just alt-click on the eye icon again to restore the visibility for the other layers.

If you want to save the selection, just go to the Channels palette and save the selection as an alpha channel. Since it is easy to regenerate, I don't bother. Just click on the layer for the darker image and then invoke Layer | Add Layer Mask | Reveal Selection. From there, you apply a Gaussian Blur and Levels or Curves correction to the layer mask to refine the blend.

Enjoy!

Mitch

[Spatch]

Nice tutorial Mitch, and I leaned quite a lot about layer masks as well.

Cheers