Merging an overexposed picture

[Tao]

Okay so I was taking pictures at my church today and I had all the lights off but the stained glass windows were really strong and always came out overexposed. So I took 2 versions of each picture. One normal exposure for everything but the windows and a normal exposure for the windows, which would pretty much turn everything else black. Now I'm trying to figure out whats the easiest way of merging them in photoshop. Right now I'm just cutting out the windows with a layer mask and the pen tool. But I can't help but think there's an easier way. So basically the setup is 2 layers one that has a few windows in it properly exposed and everything else black. Then another layer that has the windows completely overexposed and everything else properly exposed.

[Japaslavian]

Originally Posted by Tao

Okay so I was taking pictures at my church today and I had all the lights off but the stained glass windows were really strong and always came out overexposed. So I took 2 versions of each picture. One normal exposure for everything but the windows and a normal exposure for the windows, which would pretty much turn everything else black. Now I'm trying to figure out whats the easiest way of merging them in photoshop. Right now I'm just cutting out the windows with a layer mask and the pen tool. But I can't help but think there's an easier way. So basically the setup is 2 layers one that has a few windows in it properly exposed and everything else black. Then another layer that has the windows completely overexposed and everything else properly exposed.

The pen tool/mask way is going to be the most accurate.
You could just make a mask, and with a large 0% hardness brush, just hit spots until it looks good, but I would probably stick to what you're doing.
There's nothing automated that I'm aware of that will do it for you.

[kencaleno]

Here's how it's done:

1. Open both images in photoshop
2. Shift plus Move tool- add window image to darker image
3. Select>color range-click "highlights" Check "invert" click "OK"
4. Add layer mask
5. Filter>Gaussian Blur-250 pixels
6. Flatten and save

Regards, Ken