Photoshop layers question

[Matty B]

Hi,

I'm shooting sunsets. It's difficult to get a good exposure for sky and foreground in a single exposure. I can take two exposures - a good sky exp.and a good foregroundexp. I wish to experiment blending them in Photoshop CS.
How do I open one image file -edit to opacity etc. reqired and then open the other file, do the same and then blend or rasterise/multiply the two files to make the one multi-layered image.

Do I have the concept right and can it be done?

Any tips most gratefully accepted (by hopeless image twiddler)
Cheers,

[r2160]

What I would do is bring both pictures into photoshop into two layers.

You then create a path on both images so that you can remove the parts of each image that you dont require.

Select the path, use make selection with a 2 pixel feather.

Remove the parts you dont require.

Flatten image.

This is perhaps the quickest w3ay I can think of.

Let me know how you go

Glenn

[jdear]

i think this link is what your after - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml

should answer your question!

All the Best!

JD

[Deano]

I had a problem with this image where the outside was correctly exposed but the shaded inside of the building was underexposed.



This is one of the beauties of raw files. What I did was process the raw file twice to create two images, one correctly exposing the outside (darker) and one the inside (lighter). Then copy the darker as a layer on top of the lighter and erase through the top layer to reveal the lighter parts underneath. In this case the door frame created some nice straight edges to erase along making it quite a bit easier than with other shots.

What you see here is the end result of a blend...





Cheers
Dean

[Matty B]

Thanks all,
I have some reading and experimenting to do. So it appears there is more than 1 way to skin this cat. Deano, many thanks for pictorial explanation, not a dramatic difference, but just enough to see all and keep it looking realistic.

Thankyou.

Cheers,

Matty B.