Combining Images

[brian_ellis19]

I've been playing around with a very simple method of combining two exposures

of the same subject (e.g. one exposure for the foreground, the other for the

sky or other background). The method is explained at

www.kevinmillsphoto.com/Articles/Seeing Beyond The Camera. Omitting some things

he does to the image that are irrelevant to compositing (e.g. he eliminates a

contrail in the sky, changes contrast, etc.) he basically combines the two

files by pasting the foreground image into the sky image as a new layer, makes

a rough mask of the sky area, applies a Gaussian blur to the mask, and ends up

with two layers, a foreground layer and a sky layer with the mask. All of which

is very easy to do. But he stops there. He doesn't explain how he then combines

the two to make his final image (or if he does I've missed it).

 

I'm sure this is very simple but I haven't been able to do it successfully once

I have the two layers and the mask. Anyone know how to get from the two layers

and the mask to the final image? Also, anyone have any suggestions for a better

method?

[cfimages]

Try this. <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml">Digital Blending</a>

[ronald_moravec1]

Go to tool bar across the top

 

Layer-merge layers. everything become the background layer.

 

If I understand your question

[greg lockrey]

Have you tried HDR by Photomatix? http://www.hdrsoft.com/ This sounds like what this program will do for you but more "automatically".

[mag_miksch]

merge layers with CTRL +E when 2 or CTRL +shift +E when more.

[Ed_Ingold]

You are describing masking and compositing, which I find works more reliably than HDR Merge. Photoshop abounds with tools for this process.

 

The definitive reference is "Photoshop Masking and Compositing" by Katrin Eismann.

[JeffOwen]

Unless the two images were taken using a tripod you may have difficulty getting the two images to register.