Oxeye daisy sunset

Taken the same night as the other thread!

2 images expsoure blended into 1 - one for foreground exposure and focus and the other for sky exposure and focus.

Pentax K1 & Irix 15mm


Wild Flowers Sunset by Gareth Williams, on Flickr

Thanks Serge

Looks great.
For someone who doesn't understand complicated software, how is it done?

Thanks David.

Have everything in manual, use live view and set exposure for the foreground. Zoom in and manual focus. Depending on the scene as a rule I usually focus 1/3 into the scene. 2 second timer and take the shot. Then adjust your exposure to suit the sky, live view zoom in again and focus on the distance. Again take the shot.

Now you have 2 images, one focused on the foreground correctly exposed and one on the sky, also correctly exposed and focused.

Make your edits in LR and then click ctrl so both images are selected. Then right click and select edit in PS as layers.

Once loaded into PS, the top layer I like to have as the sky layer. You can click, hold and drag to rearrange the layers. Then press Alt and press the mask button to make a filled in layer mask that's filled in. Then select a soft hardness brush and paint the one layer in over the other.

Once you're happy, flatten the image and press save to bring the new edited Tiff file back into LR.

If you have something that could have moved or you didn't use a tripod between image 2 and 2 then when the two images come into PS as layers then click on one, press shift and click the other. Then go to edit and auto align layers.

Hope this helps! I can do a YouTube video also if easier

Thanks all, appreciate the comments.

Steve, wanted to make sure it was as sharp as it could be so by focusing at different areas meant nowt was soft! The difference between the dark area and light in the sky was more than my 3 stop ND could handle so I exposure bracketed instead.

Dave, its all dark magic I tell you which requires much chanting.

Flan, as long as you can have layers and layer masks then you're away. To shoot professionally as my job would be the dream

Thanks both