Combining exposures

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Okay, your cruise ship got into port and, in order to beat the crowds, you hired a private guide to take you to Macchu Picchu. Hah! You will probably get there before they have even finished loading the buses. Sure enough, you get there and no one is in sight. You already have studied guide books and layouts of the site thoroughly, so you already know where you want those precious overall shots. You have, maybe, fifteen minutes before the first tour bus arrives.

The trouble is, it is already high noon and the sky is marked by only a few scattered cirrus clouds. Worse, the glaring high altitude sun has intensified the shadows. Not what you want at all. It will be great for those close-up details which you will shoot after the crowds arrive, but not now!

You quickly mount your DSLR onto a sturdy tripod and shoot three exposures of each view: one for highlights, one for midtones, and one for shadows. You finish just as the first tour bus pulls into the parking lot.
Now, how do you combine these three exposures in Photoshop to get one perfectly exposed picture?

—
Christopher J. Campbell
World Famous Flight Instructor
Port Orchard, WA

If you go around beating the Bush, don’t complain if you rile the animals.

Christopher,

Just the basics: bring each exposure (image) into PS as a Layer. Provided that you have used a sturdy tripod and not jiggled the camera between exposures, they should line up nicely. If not, the Move Tool and the cursor keys can help. If not exact, then you need to use Transform>Scale/Free Transform to make them exact to whichever one you choose as your control image. I’d next begin playing with the Opacity sliders on each Layer, until you get close to what you want. Finally, I’d add an Adjustment Layer(s) to each Layer to modify exposure/saturation/color balance. You might end up with several Adjustment Layers per Layer, but that’s OK, so long as you have HDD real estate to spare. The Blending Modes of the Layers Palette can also yield some good results – try them.

If you have PS CS, my first step would be to take the best overall image, and play with Highlight/Shadow Adjustment first, then use that image as you " control." Heck, you might even like the result so much, that you will forget the other two exposurs.

Hunt

http://perswww.kuleuven.ac.be/~u0039093/dl/Tajamulco_pano_sm all.jpg

"C J Campbell" wrote in message

Okay, your cruise ship got into port and, in order to beat the crowds, you hired a private guide to take you to Macchu Picchu. Hah! You will probably get there before they have even finished loading the buses. Sure enough,

you

get there and no one is in sight. You already have studied guide books and layouts of the site thoroughly, so you already know where you want those precious overall shots. You have, maybe, fifteen minutes before the first tour bus arrives.

The trouble is, it is already high noon and the sky is marked by only a

few

scattered cirrus clouds. Worse, the glaring high altitude sun has intensified the shadows. Not what you want at all. It will be great for those close-up details which you will shoot after the crowds arrive, but

not

now!

You quickly mount your DSLR onto a sturdy tripod and shoot three exposures of each view: one for highlights, one for midtones, and one for shadows.

You

finish just as the first tour bus pulls into the parking lot.
Now, how do you combine these three exposures in Photoshop to get one perfectly exposed picture?

—
Christopher J. Campbell
World Famous Flight Instructor
Port Orchard, WA

If you go around beating the Bush, don’t complain if you rile the animals.

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 09:36:42 -0800, "C J Campbell" wrote:

Okay, your cruise ship got into port and, in order to beat the crowds, you hired a private guide to take you to Macchu Picchu. Hah! You will probably get there before they have even finished loading the buses. Sure enough, you get there and no one is in sight. You already have studied guide books and layouts of the site thoroughly, so you already know where you want those precious overall shots. You have, maybe, fifteen minutes before the first tour bus arrives.

The trouble is, it is already high noon and the sky is marked by only a few scattered cirrus clouds. Worse, the glaring high altitude sun has intensified the shadows. Not what you want at all. It will be great for those close-up details which you will shoot after the crowds arrive, but not now!

You quickly mount your DSLR onto a sturdy tripod and shoot three exposures of each view: one for highlights, one for midtones, and one for shadows. You finish just as the first tour bus pulls into the parking lot.
Now, how do you combine these three exposures in Photoshop to get one perfectly exposed picture?

********************************
You may find that only two images are needed in order to create an image that includes detail at both ends of a very, very long luminance range scene. For the following technique, use the lighest image in your 3-image set, and the darkest one.

Assuming the exposures are identical except for exposure, try this:

1. Make the overexposed (washed out) image your Background layer.
2. Copy the underexposed (dark) image and paste it, in perfect register, on
top of the washed out one. It will become Layer 1.
3. Copy the Background (light image) layer.
4. Add a layer mask to Layer 1.
5. Alt (Opt for Mac) click on the mask in the Layers palette. The image will go completely white because you are now seeing only the mask.
6. Paste the Background Copy (from Step 3) into the mask.
7. Click on the eye in the layers palette to see the result so far.
8. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur and blur the mask for a smoother blend.
Watch the image as you do this and choose the amount of blur that produces the most pleasing result.
9. Go to Curves, if necessary, and alter the mask contrast. I hope this description is clear. Good luck.

–sanders
e-mail?Please erase theboard

"C J Campbell" wrote in
news::

Now, how do you combine these three exposures in Photoshop to get one

Make a blank document. Place each of the three images on a new layer. In the layers palette click on the "add layer mask" button. Now use black ink on a brush to paint away whatever layer is on top to reveal the one below.

If you paint away too much, switch to white, and paint it back in.

Use a brush with soft edges, or hard edges as required. Use the magic wand to make large, easy selections, like your clear sky.

Bob