How can I combine two identical photos with different exposures?

[patrickjohnson]

I've heard it is possible to combine a photo exposed for the light coloured sky with an identical photo exposed for the dark coloured foreground, using layers in Elements. Is this possible?
Thank you!
Patrick

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Patrick,

Please advise which image editors you have available to you.

(then we can answer)

Thanks,

[ajohnw]

Try this irrespective of which editors you have

http://software.bergmark.com/enfuseGUI/Main.html

Be aware that the sliders in it do not directly relate to their names in the same way as most post processing software. They basically alter the weighting of these factors when the image are fused together. The defaults are usually fine for what you are trying to do. When used consider the factors from one image compared with the other that you want to have more effect on the final image. It can be easy to mess up that way or sometimes changing them hardly has any effect at all.

John
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[Colin Southern]

Here you go Dave, oops, I mean Patrick!

http://www.essential-photoshop-eleme...exposures.html

[ajohnw]

This seems to be an explanation of using luminosity masks in Elements. These might get you all the way there but some of the method Colin linked to might be needed to tidy up.

https://forums.adobe.com/message/5583997

I don't use Adobe products and part of this link mentions PS. IGoogling Elements luminosity masks should bring up more information.

Enfuse will do it all in one go especially if the shots are as you describe.

John
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[Manfred M]

The following was done in Elements "big brother", Photoshop, but I would assume the technique would be similar.

I combined three individual shots (two stops underexposed, "correctly" exposed and two stops overexposed). I used various masking techniques to generate the final image, but essentially the bottom three layers do what you are asking about.

[Geoff F]

There is a lot of detailed advice on using layers here http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/l...1/layers-1.htm

And Selections/Masks http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/s...lections-1.htm

But I would recommend starting with the CinC Tutorials to get a good basic grounding before jumping into anything extra complicated.

[patrickjohnson]

Thanks for your kind information!

[FrankMi]

There are techniques available for combining almost any two images. The results can sometimes be unexpected such as in this image:



Just let us know what software you are using and perhaps provide an example Patrick, and we can help guide you with specific steps that match your goals.