Layering

[Michael_2010]

Thanks for all your effort! I think I am getting it now. Except for the thin yellow overlay. Did you just create a new raster layer, fill it with a shade of yellow and then adjust opacity?

Not the best of examples to work with, but it did hit on most of the primary aspects of blending layers. Irregular horizon lines, delicate lines crossing the dividing line and slightly mismatched exposures kind of cover most of the situations I will encounter, when trying to use this technique.

Now I am eager to go get some better shots to work with and see if I can get this down!

[Michael_2010]

Originally Posted by RecurrentNerve

Michael, as I mentioned before, feathering is the way to go to prevent an artificially sharp transition, or if you are using a gradient fill, making sure the gradient is soft where the two exposures meet.

Personally I don't like using gradient fill as it limits you to straight horizons. Check out the technique I use in this tutorial, specifically in the 'The Sky's the Limit' section.

To isolate the plant you simply need to paint it out of (or into, depending on which way round you masked it) the mask. Grab a slightly soft brush, set the colour to black, click the Layer Mask, then paint over the plant.

RN - I will definitely go through your tutorials, but what do you mean by feathering the transition? Are you saying I should rope off the foreground and set the feathering in the selection tool, or are you talking about the settings for a brush or something?

[wulf]

Originally Posted by Michael_2010

Thanks for all your effort! I think I am getting it now. Except for the thin yellow overlay. Did you just create a new raster layer, fill it with a shade of yellow and then adjust opacity?

I'm working with the GIMP, so terminology may be a bit different, but my steps were to create a new layer, fill it with a flat golden yellow, turn the layer mode to overlay and turn the opacity down to about 4%. It is like putting a colour filter in front of the lens except, by waiting until post-production, you have a lot more flexibility.

FWIW, here is a picture I did a while back which plays with the idea of filter overlays:



Because you can see the boundaries of the colour areas, you get an idea of how they are working.

Wulf

[Eileen D]

Wulf, great image to illustrate your point!

[Michael_2010]

Shucks, I will have to wait and see the example later this afternoon. This work stuff really gets in the way of my good times. lol

Do you choose different colors for different situations? If so, what is the determining factor?

[wulf]

Colours depends on what works - you can use the filters to either enhance a colour or to counteract a colour cast you don't want (not the most subtle way of white balancing but good for a quick effect).

In my example shot, orange and purple were the two colours I had used a few days earlier when working on some firework pictures.

Wulf

[RecurrentNerve]

Are you saying I should rope off the foreground and set the feathering in the selection tool,

Pretty much. Not sure what software you're using but whatever it is you want a soft transition between the two exposures. Feathering gives you fine control over this transition.