I've noticed that many people desire for grad-ND filters but can't afford them or don't want to buy them so I figured I'd make this tutorial of a technique I use to get the same effect without having the filter. It is more tedious to do than simply having a grad-ND filter but is great for the people who can't afford one.
Requirements:
- Post processing software, I'll be using Photoshop CS4 but anything that lets you use layers and erasers will work just fine
- Two exposures, will be detailed below
- Tripod
- Bit of patience
In this example we will be recreating this scene:
In this scene, metering for the waves and rocks in the foreground completely blew out the sky and metering for the sky made the rocks and water way too dark so I decided to use my technique.
Exposures
To use this technique you need two exposures, in our example we will need one exposed for the water:
and the sky:
As you can see each on its own is not desirable at all. Also be sure you use a tripod because you want each picture to have the exact same composition or as close to it as you can get to make it easier on yourself.
After you have these two exposures do your regular post production on the parts you want, so for the foreground shot adjust so that it looks like you want it to and same for the sky part.
After the pictures are post processed to what you desire you can combine them into one.
You can create a new document or drag one on top of the other, I've chosen to drag the foreground picture into the sky picture:
Continued in next post to embed more screenshots.