Photoshop Question, Layers and Opacity

I'm not great with Photoshop, but at a wedding last weekend I took a series of 13 photos of a couple walking towards each other and then kissing.

I'm trying to merge them all into one photo so you can see the progression of them walking together, getting more and more clear and the one of them actually kissing be at 100%.

Is there a way to do this in Photoshop aside from cutting them out of each picture and layering them that way over one background? Thanks!

You can do it using layers depending on how familiar you are with using them.

Open two images as layers in PS, then change the layer style on the top layer to somthing other than Normal as see what you get. Go through all the blend modes as see how they look. If you get somthing you like, add later images and use the same modes. You might want to lower opacity on all layers other than the bottom layer as well. Maybe you can do somthing different to each layer to get the upper layers clearer up until the final image.

I think you'll find 13 images will be way to many and it would be better to use a sequence of 3-5 from your set.

Cutting out each layer will give you a different effect, which may or may not be better.

Today is your day.

Start with the image you wanted at 100% opacity.

making sure its the same size, "select all" on one of the other images

copy

Paste over the starting image (the newer image should now be visible)

add layer mask to pasted image's layer

choose paint bucket tool

making sure color is "black" in the tool box, fill the image with the paint bucket (you should now see hte original image again)

select brush tool

making sure color in tool box is "white", paint in selection

if you over paint, change color to "black" and paint it out

adjust opacity to taste.

Unless you used a tripod, so that the background in each shot is perfectly registered with the background of all the other shots, merging them using layers and reduced opacity will probably result in the background looking a complete mess.

If the backgrounds don't register, the only way to do it will be along the lines of what twoshadows posted above, which effectively takes just the couple from each shot.

As mentioned above, if you shot on a tripod, this is cake. If not, try loading a few of the images in the progression (3 or 4 for starters, in this test) onto separate layers within the same document in PS. Then, select all of the layers and choose Edit > Auto-Align layers and use the "Auto" option when the dialog comes up. If you are lucky, this operation will effectively align the images based on the background elements.

If you are REALLY lucky, you can select all of the now-hopefully-aligned layers and choose Edit > Auto-blend layers and see if it will automagically create the look you are after. Otherwise, you can then make each sets of figures "appear" in the image by painting them in using layer masks. If you changed your focal length (zoomed) during the progression, you have more work to do to get a convincing result.

Give it a shot. If you post like 3 or 4 small JPEGs of the progression here, we can give it a go as well to better help you.

kirk