Exposure blending - tutorial?

ST Colin

ST Colin

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Hi all,

I have a lot of photos I think would benefit highly from blending two exposures. Namely, landscapes. It's either the skt is exposed correctly with dark foreground, or the other way about.

With most photos not having a simple change from land to sky (tress etc), how can I go about blending two exposures? I'm trying not to dive into HDR stuff, but want to keep the photo looking real and not over processed. I don't want the view to ask if it has been edited in a specific way.

I hope someone out there can guide me,

Thanks in advance

Colin
 
I do this quite often. It's not a lot different to using a Graduated filter in the field.

I guess you know about the basics - two layers one of each exposure - then erase the bit of the top one to show the correct exposure of the bottom one. If not let me know - I can send you a scan of a magazine document showing the basic way to do it.

Unfortunately getting the land / sky transition looking right is the tricky bit. Especially if the transition is complicated. Careful , detailed using of the eraser and selection of brush, brush size and opacity trying to avoid a 'halo' in the sky or dark line on the ground.

To be honest this method is best used when the horizon is simple.

Does this help?
 
The easiest way to do it...assuming there are no complex objects breaking the horizon line and that youve used a tripod,is using a layer mask and the gradient tool in ps.

#Drag your foreground exposure over your sky exposure whilst holding ctrl.

#when the two have snapped together active a layer mask on the top layer.

#now select the gradient tool black to white and drag the line to the horizon line....then adjust your opacity to suit.

try that first:)
 
Thanks guys, both methods would be worth trying by the sound of things.

Generally as long as both exposures haven't blown highlights or completely unrecoverable shadows, I should get some good results...

Colin
 
Here are a few I've done using the 2 layers / erase method.
 
Those are very nice Freester, pretty much the results I'm after.

Colin
 
ST Colin said:
Those are very nice Freester, pretty much the results I'm after.

Colin
Click to expand...

Thanks Colin. Let me know if you want the magazine tutorial.
 
Hi Freester, that would be great. I'll drop you a PM
 
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