3 exposure blend in photoshop PSE

[2stroke]

Hi all it has been a while since I have posted or done much shooting and this is a revisit to a shot I captured last Nov. I had previously processed it in Photomatix but it looked a little overbaked for what I wanted. I was searching for a better way to make masks in photoshop and found this tutorial, threshold mask. I knew there was a way to make the threshold a mask, I just couldnt get it pasted until I read the tutorial. Altho the tut is for photoshop, it worked in PSE6 just fine using masks.

Here is how I got the shot- Composed pic, shot trial shot to check composure and starting point exposure, then shot 3 exposure using my A300 with kit lens (still my widest lens).

Light shot
18mm
f-22
ex 6 seconds
+2 EV

Medium shot
18mm
f-22
ex 4 seconds
0 EV

Dark shot
18mm
f-22
ex 1 second
0 EV

I opened all 3 RAW shots in ACR and adjusted to taste.
Then opened all to PSE6 and stacked layers with lightest on bottom.
duplicated layers.
used threshold on dark and medium layers to create black and white image.
this basically got me sky and some ocean on dark layer
ocean and some rocks on med layer
and grass and rocks on light layer.
Used gausian blur to threshold image
copy pasted to the mask layer (alt click mask was the key I missed on earlier attempts)
I played with curves on each layer to get desired results and altered the masks in parts I thought necessary.
Did some hi pass layer for sharpening on the rocks and grass layer
and levels on flattened image.

I am much more pleased with the outcome for what I wanted over the photomatix produced image as posted HERE. Im sure I could get there with photomatix adjustments, but I thought Id give this a go. I had a couple attempts at the HDR on the multiple images but got the best result from the single Medium Image but the sky later replaced with the sky from the dark image, that is for the HDR image posted in the link.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

nice... i like

[Southern Composition]

Gorgeous shot! I have been wanting to test out HDR photos and your image has inspired me to get off my butt and do it! Thanks!

[PhilD41]

Well done!! I like the HDR as well, but I agree, This one is much nicer and more balanced. I will have to remember this the next time I play with a multi exposure set. Yours is simply beautiful!!

[neptune000]

actually one of the best looking HDR's I've seen so far. Not over the top surreal/ridiculous processing.
Very balanced tones. If I have to nit pick, the rocks behind the tree could have been "burnt" a little. They stand out too bright for the rest of the image.

Its also interesting to note that you varied even the exposure times on each of the shots. Interesting, I havent done that yet!

Overall Top shot!

[Glayva]

Superb shot with lovely balanced tones and very well composed. I agree, it is very easy to overdue a Photomatix shot and sometimes less processing brings out a better image. Very welll done and thanks for the link and your exclamation.

[2stroke]

Thanks for the replys and kudos.

Neptune, I agree that that area of rocks looked a little bright, it is reflecting more light or the rocks are just lighter, it is that was in the original.

Just as a note, while this is "technically" a HDR, I didnt use any HDR tone mapping program, only exposure blended using photoshop elements 6 for mac. I liked the tutorial from the link I posted for making and improving masks, now I need to get the "channels" tools for PSE.

In looking at the image, I thought the sky without clouds was flat compared to what was going on with the wood and rocks, so I cheated more and blended in a sky shot I got from the Cali desert and added a warming or orange (i forgot which one) to the ocean and rocks as if reflecting the more orange sky, this also seems to have done something for the brighter rocks.

What do you think?

Edit: I know there are some missing pixels on the left side of the image, something that may have happened when aligning the stack? I have fixed it on my home machine with a slight crop.

[modgers]

I liked sky you blended in, it looks natural and ads a lot to the picture