layering 2 exposures in PS7

I'd like to be able to edit this picture in RAW so the car is exposed properly in one picture and teh backround in another and combine them in Photoshop. I have PS7 and I've having a hard time figuring out how to do this.

Does anyone have a brief explanation or a good link that teaches this?

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What you're asking to do is called High Dynamic Range. It's the mathematical combination of light and dark exposures. I've never tried it in PS7 so you'll have to search the help for HDR images if it can even do it.

The poor man's HDR is to stack the two photos on top of each other and then erase a portion of the top layer to reveal the layer beneath. I would put the darker layer on bottom, then erase the top (brighter) layer's bright portion to reveal the layer underneath.

What I do when not using HDR photomatix, if just using PS, I just put the shot the blown out BG on top, and use the select by colorange, and click on th ehot spots, then delete. This doesn't look really good though. If you shot these in raw, you can easily under and overexpose them and toos them into that program and PRESTO!
Here is an exaple of the first way, as you can see, it's not too hot.

Here you go: Click for a Quicktime movie. I'm sure it works with CS and up, but IIRC it should also work with PS7...

Hi Wile_E,

I use the method of two conversions of the RAW file, one underexposed to get back the highlights, combine them in PS and use a layer mask to bring the highlights in as you want to do. This thread may explain things better https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=302150

You will see links by PhotosGuy in that thread to a more sophisticated method which will probably give better results than the one I use. Worth reading his method - I found it quite educational. Layer masks should work fine in PS7.

RVsForFun - appreciate you are saying that this is a 'poor man's HDR' but am I correct in thinking that you must take a number of shots on the camera to get good HDR as opposed to just making several conversions of the one RAW image? I use the 'poor man's method' because it is the only way of Exposure Bracketing on a moving subject. Am I misunderstanding about how HDR should be used?

Try this:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …ls/digital-blending.shtml

Thanks for the tips and links. I've got a basic understanding of it now but it's not coming out quite like I expected. Maybe I just need some more practice.

It's hard for me to learn without having smoeone teaching me with a "hands on" method.

I see how to do it now but the images tend to turn gray and lose their "bursting color" (I don't know how else to really explain it) look.

How do I keep from turning the images drab and gray?

Here's what I came up with.

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What method are you using?

try photomatix, they have a free trial!

Try adjusting curves, that should make it pop more too.

Wile_E wrote in post #3056364
Does anyone have a brief explanation or a good link that teaches this?

Wile_E. There are at least 6-8 methods of doing this. The three easiest, most reliable, methods I wrote step-by-step tutorials and put them as numbers 32, 33, 34, here in this document: http://postit.rutgers.​edu …iContrast%5FOut​doors2.pdf

The contrast masking techniques, first described by George deWolf in Camera Arts magazine, has a downloadable .pdf tutorial on Adobe's web site. There are many many variants of this on the web, like on Luminous-Landscape, but they all work similar to my #33.

In your case I would just TRY the layer erase method (#32, ignore J-i) first.

Jack

That could be fixed in Layer> Adjustment Layer / Curves or Levels. You could paint on the Adjustment Layer mask to show/hide the changes.
Airport runway shoot

Adjustment layer basics

Livinthalife wrote in post #3059088
What method are you using?

try photomatix, they have a free trial!

Try adjusting curves, that should make it pop more too.

Basically, I'm just saving 2 pics from RAW format, one underexposed and one overexposed and layering them together in PS7.

J Rabin wrote in post #3059216
Wile_E. There are at least 6-8 methods of doing this. The three easiest, most reliable, methods I wrote step-by-step tutorials and put them as numbers 32, 33, 34, here in this document: http://postit.rutgers.​edu …iContrast%5FOut​doors2.pdf

The contrast masking techniques, first described by George deWolf in Camera Arts magazine, has a downloadable .pdf tutorial on Adobe's web site. There are many many variants of this on the web, like on Luminous-Landscape, but they all work similar to my #33.

In your case I would just TRY the layer erase method (#32, ignore J-i) first.

Jack

Thanks for the write up. I'll give it a shot.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #3060010
That could be fixed in Layer> Adjustment Layer / Curves or Levels. You could paint on the Adjustment Layer mask to show/hide the changes.
Airport runway shoot

Adjustment layer basics

Thanks. Pugwash already posted a link to your runway shot thread.

I'll try the adjustment layer and see if I have any luck with it.