To P/S or not to P/S ?

gus

My camera has a function that can let me take several shots at different exposures. (Auto Bracketing) Is this going to give me anything that P/S wont ?

ta

Humungus

wxwax

Yeah, one thing you get is the opportunity to blend the brightest and the darkest layers, discarding the middle one. The link is to a description of how to do it, and the benefits.

I'm having some trouble making the first tip work but no doubt Shay or some similar PS genius will come along and explain that I haven't plugged in the computer, or it doesn't work until I take out the trash.

Don't forget to use a tripod if you bracket your exposures, you want the three shots to be exact matches.

gus

Hmm...ok that sounds reasonable. Ta mate.

wxwax

I did it to shots I took this evening. I figured out a workaround to the problem I was having.

Here are three shots: the lightest shot from the bracketing, the darkest shot from the bracketing, and the final composite. Not art, but you get the idea - I wanted to darken the sky and keep the building's golden light.


Light bracket shot.


Dark bracket shot.


Composite shot.

gus

So sid did you pay the 8 bucks for the prog ? Or did you find it free somewhere ?

wxwax

I got Photoshop. Really expensive program ((maybe you know someone who has it.)

gus

Got PS...come on mate...now i need a blow by blow of "how did he do that"

wxwax

Oh. Well then. I followed the directions for Painted Mask halfway down the page. Actually, they didn't quite work for me. Either he's using a different version of PS (I'm using 6) or his instructions are wrong.

So I've bodged a workaround that would horrify the experts. Here's what I did.

Open the dark photo.

On the bottom of the tools menu, I make sure that my Foreground Color is white. Then I select a paintbrush, whatever size fits best, fuzzy might be better than hard edge. At the top of the screen, I change the Opacity of the brush to 30% or so, so every swipe doesn't brighten things too much. Then I start to move the brush over the parts of the photo I want to lighten.

I'm careful to stay within the boundaries of what I want to lighten. On the tricky tight bits, I click on the magnifying glass, and zoom in to the small areas, change my brush to a samller one, and do the detail work.

I'm really careful not to overdo it. If I go to far, I click back a step or two in the History palette.

I think I'm "dodging" the shot. It keeps getting brighter and brighter until it burns out. That's why you have to be careful not to overdo it.

Anyway, that's my crude workaround. Good luck mate, maybe the Luminous Landscape instructions will work for you. If they do, it's a better way to go, you have more control.

Post something if you try either method, I'm really curious to know if I'm the only twit who can't make it work right.

wxwax

Wait!!!!!

I just read Zero-Zero's feedback, he's spotted my error. I had my brush in "Overlay" mode from the drop down menu at the top of thescreen. If you don't, the above technique won't work!!!

I'm going to change my brush to "Normal" mode and try the Luminous Landscape technique again.

wxwax

I'm back.

Zero-Zero's a genius he figured the whole thing out. I was making a mistake, and the Luminous Landscape instructions are also wrong.

Here's the work flow.

1/ Open light photo.

2/ Open Dark photo.

3/ Click on dark photo. Keystroke Control-A (this selects the entire photo.) Keystroke Control-C (this copies the whole thing.) Close dark photo, its useful life is over.

4/ Click on bright photo. Keystroke Control-V (this pastes the dark photo over the bright photo.) Check yer layers palette. Should see two layers, the dark one on top.

5/ Top of your computer screen. Click on '"Layer." On the drop down menu, go to "Add Layer Mask." When the little box slides out to the right, click on "Reveal All." (This is where the Luminous Landscape instructions are wrong.)

6/ Select a paintbrush. Soft edge is better. You'll use different sizes as you do this - large brush for the big areas, small brushes for the detail areas.

7/ Swipe your brush over the area you want to make lighter. You're wiping away the top layer and revealing the bottom layer. So you're erasing the dark photo with each brush swipe, and revealing the light photo beneath. If you get careless and swipe into an area you didn't mean to, go to your History palette and click back a step or two, to undo the mistakes.

8/ When you get to the small detailed areas, go to your tools menu, click on the magnifying glass, and zoom into the detailed areas. Pick a smaller brush and work your way through the details. To get back to normal size, either hold the Alt key when you click on the magnifying glass. Or Keystroke Control-0 (that's zero, I mean zed, not the letter o) and the photo will resize to "fit on screen."

Voila!

gus

ta mate...i'll try it this week-end. Am heading to http://lamington.nrsm.uq.edu.au/MainMenu.html

this week-end for some photos. Its only about 30 mins away.

wxwax

Do the treetop walk and making sure you're shooting when you fall.