Why take two bottles into the shower?

[wulf]

That was the slogan for an ad campaign about a combined shampoo and conditioner. The picture below has nothing to do with showers but does combine two exposures in one:



It was one of those scenes where it was impossible to capture the foreground and background in a single exposure because of both the light and the depth of field. What I've done is combine the two using the steps outlined below. It isn't exactly a HDR shot - I didn't use a tripod and so the elements wouldn't have lined up perfectly - but does have an extended range. If anything, it is more like the effect I could have got with a graduated neutral density filter but without having to fiddle around with clipping anything onto the front of the lens on a frosty morning.

1. Put the two source images on two separate layers (I used The Gimp but any program allowing you to work with layers would suffice). Slide transparency up and down to align (noting a key point of correspondence, like a particular knobble on a branch, speeds this up)

2. Use a layer mask to blend the two. I started with a black to white gradient but then air brushed around the twigs in the foreground to give a better fit.

3. Apply processing as required to enhance the two separate layers, such as sharpening and curves adjustments.

4. To finish off, I applied a graduated orange -> purple overlay (although very translucent) to enhance the colours) and cropped to a 4:3 format.

This is a great way to get more out of some otherwise failed photos that aren't aligned enough to unleash normal HDR processing techniques.

Wulf