Merging timelapse images

I took two 25 second timelapse images of a rocket last night and am having trouble merging them together. If I had an external shutter release handy I would have used it, but I didn't trust holding the shutter in bulb mode with my hand. Any ideas? I have RAW versions but they are huge, so hopefully I can edit them myself using dinosaur Photoshop 7.0. Thank you.

Load into PS as layers, set the top layer to blend mode difference and line them up manually.
Then set blend mode to normal again and mask as needed (I'd probably go for the lower part of the left and the top of the right image, using the shore as the boundary.

I have no trouble lining them up at all, it's the actual blending. I'll try to do it tonight and post the result so you can see my trouble.

Just set the top layer (the one with the rocket and exhaust trail in it) to the lighten blend mode and that should be a good start for you. The end result will essentially be the second picture you posted; however, the blast for the first picture will also be there. It looks like you missed a second or two, so you may have to clone in a bit between the blast and the exhaust trail on your final image.

If that doesn't make sense you send me links to the full size pics in a PM I can do it for you this evening if you like.

See if they can launch the rocket for you again, so that you can make sure you have your shutter release with you.



That must have been a pretty awesome sight to see in the dark.

kirk

Here is what I came up with using the lo-res files.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/27883438@N07/8​076217920/