PS help Proposal Pic

Was hoping someone could help me the photos below.

I really like the sky on the 2nd pic and wanted to use it on the 1st pic.

Can someone edit it where I have a nice sunset? and if you could explain how i could do it on PSE 8 on a MAC.

Not going to work to just replace the sky as you would be lacking the reflection of the sun in the water.

IMO the image should go in the trash.

Theres no detail as the whole image is under exposed. It should have been exposed for the backgroung, and then filled with flash.

Didnt have a flash with me and i was trying under expose the proposal part, was going for a shadow look and nice orange sunset in the background.

Wanted to ask her to marry me around the time of the 2nd pic but dude was in my spot and didnt want to ask him to leave. By the time he left the sun was behind the clouds.

I

Sorry the exposure didn't turn out as you hoped. Hope the proposal did though. Did she say yes?

If you shot RAW format I bet you can salvage a worthwhile memory.

Sorry, don't know the powers of PSE8. But I think a good compromise is to use a masking selection tool to select just the subjects, cut them and paste them on the new background.

Might have to do a little cloning on the new background to get rid of the man standing on the dock, but it looks like the girl would completely cover him up, depending on placement.

Sizes, perspective, and lighting all match well so a cut and paste should work without any special problems (like halos).

Can you post the raw file ?

Hey, I spent about two minutes with your JPGs and Elements 9, and it looks very doable to me. Just one question (as I don't remember): does Elements 8 support layer masks? I think it does, but I'm not sure. I'm out of time this morning, but if you can do layer masks I can write up an explanation later. Here's a really quick job with no time spent on the necessary refinements.

A white mask reveals everything. A black one hides everything. So if you click on the white mask to get a line around it, then paint on the image with a black/gray brush at maybe 50% opacity, you'll see that changes as you work.

Layer Masks.

Some basic links in A question about sky and also be sure to look at post #9 of the Airport runway shoot link in my post.

Need to remove a background from something? Using masks to hide parts of the image.

^ thxs, i figure someone in here would be able to make the picture different. I write up would be greatly appreciated. I tried to figure out this stuff via youtube and reading forums, i just havent had much luck.

I shot in JPG so i dont have it in RAW.

Here are the selections i have around mask.

What I did was pretty simple, but it worked because the two images match up so well. (Apparently you had your camera on a tripod, which was very helpful.)

1. Open the image of the sunset with lone figure on the end of the pier in Elements.
2. Open the image of the couple in Elements.
3. Drag the image of the couple onto the image of the sunset. You will now have two layers with the couple on top and the sunset on the bottom.
4. Add a layer mask to the top layer (the couple).
5. Select the couple. I used the quick selection tool. You can further refine your selection with the selection brush.
6. Invert the selection with the Ctrl-Shift-I keystroke combination.
7. Refine the edge of your selection as needed with Select > Refine Edge.... You may need to experiment to get exactly what you want. (You probably won't be able to tell until you apply the mask, so be prepared to back up and re-try with the Ctrl-Z keystroke combination.)
8. Make sure your colors are set to default (press the "D" key) and that foreground is black and background is white.
9. Click on the layer mask to make sure it is active, then fill the selected area of the mask by pressing Alt-Backspace.
10. If you've done a good job with your selection you will be just about there. You can paint on the mask with black (hide) or white (reveal) if necessary to refine the blending.
11. Select the Straighten Tool and drag it along the horizon to get it level.

Good luck!

Here's a little bit better job, but still rough. It's difficult to work with such a small image and still get all the edges and tight areas right. Still, I think as a "proof of concept" it shows that it can be done. I also did a little dodging and burning to balance the lighting on the left and right sides a bit. (I used a third layer set to soft light mode and filled with 50% gray, then used a 5% opacity, 50% hardness brush, black for burn and white for dodge.)

There is nothing really that cant be done! The outcome depends on the quality of the files. Had these been raw files the possibilities would have been far greater.
Here is a couple of mins work.

NHBEY39 wrote in post #15147566
There is nothing really that cant be done! The outcome depends on the quality of the files. Had these been raw files the possibilities would have been far greater.
Here is a couple of mins work.

Pretty good save from a low res jpg!

About a minute with the sliders in ACR (same in Lightroom 4), and a quick gradient in the same tool. Would be exponentially better with an original file.