Help, please. Merging and/or replacing.

Molsondog

image.

edgework

Molsondog wrote:

I took photos at dusk and shot into the sun. Before the brickbats fly note that there was no choice. To accomodate the circumstances I took multiple exposures: Some for the sky and some for the rest of the image.

Now I want to either:

1) Replace the blown out sky with good sky from the other shot or

2) Merge the two photos and make the necessary adjustments.

I'd like to know how to do both for future reference.

I have searched this forum to no avail. Photoshop Help (CS) confuses me even more. I have tried replace color, copy/paste, merge layers and nothing works for my little brain. I know just enough to be a noob, so be kind.

Can anyone help? It can't be this tough.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. I'll post the results when successful.

Hard to know without seeing a couple of images, but at some point you'll need to create a mask of one area or other. Are the shots just of sky? If not, is there any contrast between the blown out sky and other elements in the image? Is there a color difference? Contrasts can be effectively exploited in any color space. Color differences can often be more easily exploited in lab mode because it's so easy to isolate reds, blues, greens and yellows, using the blending sliders.

rainforest1155

First off - shots need to be taken with a good tripod to ensure that the shots are identical in terms of framing. When you took them handheld it might be not worth the hassle - could be impossible to stack them properly.

Without seing the pictures I would say that you open one picture and then copy/paste all the other into the one which should create a separte layer for every picture. Now you can create layer masks and paint areas in these layer masks to define what should be transparent in order to let another picture from the stack shine through.

Hard to describe - so just ask if you didn't understood anything. Be sure to post the images you want to stack or at least some.


Hope that helps,
Sebastian

Rohirrim

Molsondog wrote:

Same image shot from the tripod with different exposures, seconds apart. In theory I should be able to pull the sky from shot A and replace it in its entirety with the sky from shot B.

Yep. There are multiple was to do it. The one described by Sebastian is relatively easy. Layer masks can be intimidating at first, but once you figure them out they become an extremely valuable tool.

Feel free to post again if you don't understand what he is saying and posting the images would also be very helpful.

Regards,