How To - Blending Exposures Together, Manually.
I thought I’d share a quick way to blend exposures.
Nothing at all to do with HDR, but more about achieving a more balanced looking image, exposure wise.
First off, you will need to bring into Photoshop 2 images shot at least one stop apart via your camera, or RAW processed will do too.
Then, just drag the lighter of the two images on to the darker one, making sure it is stacked perfectly.
Ok, now just go to the top menu and do
1. Select>Color Range and select Highlights from the drop-down.
2. Put a tick in the ‘invert’ box and click ok.
3. Add a Layer Mask, and then click on the Layer Mask to make it active.
4. Go up to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur 250pxls and click ok.
Choose Flatten from the Layer menu up top.
You’re done.
Adjust Levels/Curves to taste if you want.
I haven’t displayed any example because I wanted you to try it out for your self and make up your own mind whether or not you think it may be a useful tool to have up your sleeves for future stuff.
If you decide to give this a go, I’d love to know what you think.
Good Luck
Peter
George Lenz
Actually, you can do the same for an under/over exposed image by playing with the blending mode and opacity on the top layer to achieve some neat effects too. Use Screen for underexposed and Multiply for overexposed images. Nice part here is you don’t need a RAW image.
Kevin Kroeker
I must give this a try… thanks Peter :)
gerfoy3
Cool man, thanks…)
Paul Moore
Very kind of you Peter to share these tips, thankyou.
Diane Schuster
Thanks very much for the info, Peter, I’ll give it a whirl! Dee
Jo O'Brien
this has been featured in today’s daily wrap :)
Peter Marin
Great, thanks Jo.
I’m pleased that it was worthy of being featured. Thanks a lot.
Jan Timmons
Worth a try. Thank you.
izzybeth
Thank you
Heather Hartkamp
Hi Peter. Tried this and it works a treat.
I decided to go a bit further…..
1. I used an image that I took bracketed 3 times +f3 , f0, -f3
2. Opened the f0 and dragged the underexposed one over it and then the overexposed one on top of the three.
3. Did what you said to the overexposed one – layer mask – select/colour range/highlights/invert and Gaussian blur 250.
4. Then did the same to the underexposed one but selected ‘shadows’ instead of highlights in the colour range drop-down box.
5. Flatten.
Worked really well on this image because there was a huge range of shadows/highlights in the image to start with. It makes a slight difference whether you have the underexposed or the overexposed one as the top layer – just swap them around until you get the best result. Then make any other adjustments you want.
Thanks for the tip. It is similar to one I used some time ago but works much better.
Cheers, Heather
Heather Hartkamp
Hi again Peter,
Just thought I’d let you and others have a look at the results of my experiment with your tutorial….
1. Underexposed image:
2. Over exposed image:
3. Neutrally exposed image:
4. Result:
Peter Marin
That is a great display Heather of how it can be done. Glad you took the time to try it out. Looks great.
Rosalie Dale IPA
I’ve been doing similar to this for a while – by trial and error – and it certainly works a treat. Thanks for documenting it Peter!
JennyMac
Thanks for the tip… I’m only good at the basics so far but am eager to learn how to use PS more fully… I’ll definitely give this a go… cheers! : ))
Karen Scrimes
Thanks so much for this very useful tutorial. I will definitely give it a try!! Love your work by the way :))