Blending exposures using Photoshop Elements 2.0

[samusiskin]

Hello all.

 

I'd be very grateful if somebody could post a link to, or (if

anybody can be bothered) write some instructions about how to blend

two different exposures (one for shadows, one for highlights) in

Photoshop Elements 2.0. I am using an EOS 300D, processing RAW files

in Capture One and then using TIFF's in Elements.

 

Unfortunately my PS skills are limited (but I'm keen to learn), so I

really need step-by-step instructions. I tried some on the Luminous

Landscape site, but they were not meant for Elements and I couldn't

make it work (probably me being dumb).

 

If anybody has the time or inclination to help me out, that would be

fantastic.

 

Cheers!

 

Sam.

[beauh44]

Hey Sam, That's why we're here - to be bothered! ;-) Is this the same link you went to at LL?

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.sht

 

Anyway, if that is it and didn't help, you can try a very crude approach that might work:

 

1) Make two exposures (using a tripod) of your subject, one exposed for highlights and one for shadows

 

2) Open both images

 

3) Working with the darker of the two, select the entire image (CTRL-A) then copy it to your clipboard (CTRL-C)

 

4) Now go to your brigher image. Paste the contents of the daker image into a layer above it (CTRL-V should do it)

 

5) You now have the dark image sitting on top of the bright image which are hopefully registerd correctly above one another because you did use a tripod, right? ;-)

 

6) Simply use the eraser tool at a very low opacity at first, to erase away parts of the dark image to enable the brighter bits below it to come through. Save your work with different filenames along the way so you can revert back to a previous copy if something goes wrong.

 

This is admittedly not the *best* way to do it, but it should work. Good luck!

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>A small improvement over Beau method. Ideally you would want layer masks instead

of the eraser tools so you can undo your mistakes. Unfortunately they are not available in

Elements but you can simulate them as follow.

<p>Create a adjustment layer under the second photo, do NOT set any value (just click

OK, accept the default). Alt+click (probably Ctrl+click on a PC) on the line between the

adjustement layers and the second photo. The top layer moves to the right and an arrow

appears.

<p>Now the adjustment layer acts like a mask to the second photo. You can paint into the

layer mask of the adjustment layer to hide from the top layer. The procedure is identical to

what Beau described except that you paint in black the layer mask instead of using the

eraser.

<p>There's a serious benefit though: if you find you've "erased" too much of the top

photo, just reverse the brush to white and you'll restore the lost pixels.

<p>Ultimately if you like this kind of thing, you will find CS is worth the upgrade but this

kind of trick kept me waiting.

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com">marchal.com</a>