Help needed... cannot find a previous thread...

[MattC]

....and yes I did try the search function. I have made a few attempts at finding it over the past week or so.

Within the last couple of months there was a thread dealing with blending of images with different exposures in PS using layers and masks. The difference with this one was that there was no "painting" involved (I think). I tried the technique at the time and seem to remember one of the layers in the image being used as the mask - I remember that the image did appear in the mask box in the layers palette (??? - if I knew the technique I wouldn't be asking). I thought I had bookmarked it but....

I am pretty sure that it was posted by one of our illustrious senior members.

Any help finding this thread would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Matt

[MattC]

OK, no dramas, I figured it out.

The technique goes like this:

Open the lightest image.
Create new layer, open darker image, and copy it into the new layer of the first image.
Select background layer and create a luminosity mask by pressing CTRL-ALT-Tilde (~) (or is it CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-Tilde -I am not exactly sure of the difference).
Select the second layer and create a layer mask. The luminosity mask is transferred to the new layer mask.

The luminosity layer is effectively a grey scale image of the background layer. Black where shadows are darkest, white where the highlights are lightest and all of the discreet gradations in between. Sure beats trying to do it with a paint brush. Now I just have to figure out how to get control over this technique.

Cheers

Matt

[gstark]

Matt,

I think either Stve (lKillakoala) or Sheepie posted the image/technique that you're referring to, as a part of one of the Jenolan shoots threads.

[MattC]

Gary,

No dramas, I knew it was in there somewhere but could not, for the life of me, find it. In the end, I just had to figure out how to do it based on what little I could remember about it. I am pretty sure I have got it down now.

Perhaps I should invest some time in learning how to use the forum search more effectively. I seem to get hundreds of entirely unrelated hits to wade through. This is the only forum package that I have difficulty with (other sites as well as this one).

Cheers

Matt

[mudder]

G'day,

One way I find really quick and easy, no painting involved, only takes a couple of seconds to merge and it takes care of the tricky complicated areas within images like foliage etc... Looks complicated and lots of steps but once you've done it more than once or twice, it literally takes me only 2-3 seconds to merge two exposures...

Found this simple procedure on a site, and use it heaps, only takes a few seconds using two different exposures, or even the same pic with different EV settings when converting from NEF:

1) open both the low exposure and high exposure images,
2) make the low exposure image current
3) ^A (to select all) then ^C (to copy to buffer)
4) make high exposure image current
5) ^V to paste the low exposure image into the high exposure image
6) Go to layers, make sure the pasted low exposure layer is current
then make a mask but clicking the icon that looks like a camera from
the front (didn't know how else to explain it...)
7) Alt-click on the mask window (the white window in the pasted layer
pallette) This should give you a white screen/image
'8)' Then paste into the white screen, this should give you a black and
white image
9) Then just click on the background layer to make it current and hey
presto! Merged exposures...
10) Then you can make the mask layer current and hide the background
and clean up erasing the bits of the mask you don't want...

[MattC]

Thanks Mudder,

I think that is the technique that I was chasing. I will add that one to my blending techniques file.

I love Photoshop - there seems to be 101 ways of doing the same thing.

Cheers

Matt