PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 11 IMAGE BLENDING TECHNIQUE

[skip_wilson]

<p>Hi all,<br>

I am wondering about the steps I go through in PSE 11 in order to blend a photo that is separately exposed for the foreground and the background? This would most likely be similar to what a ND Grad filter might do for a overly bright sky with mountain scene and a darker foreground. I am not sure how I open two views at the same time in the expert editor to be able to work with layers. Thank you. Skip</p>

[mac_hordam]

<p>Launch Elements and go to the Editor then open both of the files you want to work with. <strong><em>Make copies of these files to work with so that you don't do anything you might regret to the originals. Just use Save As and give them a new name (you might for instance just add "Blendcopy" to the title). Now close the originals.</em></strong> With the copies open you'll see they each occupy a tab at the top of the work area window so that by clicking on the tabs you can move between the two files. With one of them in view select the whole image (use keyboard shortcut Ctrl-A). Then copy what you have selected (shortcut Ctrl-C). Go to the other tab for the second of your images and get that into view and now use shortcut Ctrl-V and the first of your images will be pasted as a new layer over the top of the second image. At this point it will obscure it so you'll only see the top layer. You don't need the image on the other tab open any more so you can close it.</p>

<p>To blend the two you need to gradually remove parts of one to reveal parts of the other. This can be done by adding a layer mask to the top layer and adding a gradient to the mask layer with the Gradient tool (shortcut G to select the tool) If you have a fairly straightforward sky from one image and foreground from the other then you may get a pleasing result quite easily.</p>

<p>With the gradient tool selected and black to transparent chosen in the gradient picker just click and hold at the top of the picture and drag the mouse downwards to a point where you think the effect will be needed and then release. You can assess the impact and modify the technique by dragging in a different direction (at an angle or from the side) you can vary the tool opacity to reduce the effect, you can set the opacity low and do multiple gradient passes in various directions to affect the areas where it is needed.</p>

<p>Depending on which way round you have your two image layers you may find you need to drag from the bottom upwards to get the right result. You can also work with a Brush to paint on the layer mask with either Black to conceal or White to reveal and this can also be done at varying opacities. You can go back over areas that have been revealed too much to obscure them a little if you overdo it, just change between black and white to get the effect you need. Build up the effect gradually, i.e use low opacity settings, rather than trying to get it all done with one hit. Use a brush set to Zero hardness or the effect will be too coarse and vary the brush size to suit.</p>

<p>With Elements you'll probably need to have your images in 8 bit before you work on them, I don't think Elements supports 16 bit with layers but you'll find that out.</p>

<p>All the shortcut commands are for a PC but using Cmnd instead of Ctrl with a Mac I think gets you the same result.</p>

<p>Take a look here http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/blended_exposures.shtml and here http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml for a more detailed overview of the general technique and some further refinements.</p>