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Adobe Photoshop 101

Lesson 20 of 48

Combining Exposures Composite

 

Adobe Photoshop 101

Lesson 20 of 48

Combining Exposures Composite

 

Lesson Info

Combining Exposures Composite

Do you remember that? Yesterday we did something called HDR in HDR was where we had more than one exposure that varied in brightness. And we combine them together in a way where when we were done, we were presented with the camera on dialogue box where I could move sliders to optimize the picture. Well, sometimes it's a little less than ideal because the results just don't always look exactly the way you wanted to. And so sometimes you manually put these together where you're just gonna paint to say I want to use one picture right here where I'm painting and I want to use another picture in this area. And so that's gonna be the case here. Gonna piece something together here. These were shot in Iceland, and here are the three shots I have one to in three. All they do is very in brightness. So let's look at where I might want to use each one of these particular images. This image. I think the rocks at the bottom looked the best because in the other images, the rocks at the bottom are get...

ting to be too dark. Does that make sense? So we're gonna use that for the rocks of the bottom. But I think the icebergs that are above they're too bright. So for the icebergs, I'm gonna use this version. I love how blue it is in there. But then if you look in the distance, that's an iceberg out in the water floating out to sea. Just so you know, to the left is the ocean to the right. If you could see what's over, there is a big lagoon with icebergs. Floating at the end of the lagoon is a glacier where those icebergs air carving off and falling into the into the lagoon. Goto Iceland. Okay, that that's an iceberg that melted down enough that I could float out to sea between the lagoon and the ocean. Now, that iceberg in the distance I like better here. So for the iceberg and distance and maybe parts of the sky will use this, um and that's what we're gonna do. So I'm gonna take those three exposures. This 4th 1 is an end result. That's just sitting there in case I wanted to show it, but those are the three. I want to get him into one photo shopped file So I'm gonna do load files this photo shop players so I don't have to do the copy and paste thing that should stack them. I don't think my camera moved when I shot these, so I'm not going to use auto align layers. But if I think it did like my shooting hand held and it did, and I noticed that I would select these three layers and I choose auto align layers to make sure that any movement of the camera was compensated for with the images really line up just so you know. And these might not line up if they do. Oh, I could do it afterwards. So we have the top most layer, and what I'm gonna do now is I'm simply gonna delete away part of the top most layer to reveal what's underneath it in for now. Use the eraser tool, and then we'll progress to something better than the eraser tool cell with the eraser tool active. I'm gonna come in here with a soft edged brush them using the eraser, and I'm just going to erase away and in fact, let me hide the other two layers first, so that when I erase away, you see something disappearing? So by click up here, do you see this turning to emptiness? Remember, Checkerboard always means it's empty. So all I'm gonna do is come over here and say, Get rid of all this stuff, get a smaller brushes. I get down here so I could be a little bit more accurate, and I'm gonna get rid of everything except for where the rocks are Now, I don't want to see a checkerboard, so I'm gonna turn on something that's underneath this so that something can fill in that emptiness. But that part of the bottom where we see the rocks, it's gonna obscure our view of whatever is on the layer that's underneath this. So I will turn on the middle there, and it just filled in the empty parts. So if I turn off the top layer, you see the rocks showing up and disappearing because that is what's on the top layer is just the rock part. Now I'm gonna work on the middle layer and for the middle layer. I want the area where you can see the iceberg in the distance to use instead of what's currently there. what's in the layer underneath because it's darker and I like it better, So I'm gonna turn on the layer that's underneath. I won't be able to see it, because right now can you see any checkerboard anywhere here. That's where this would be empty, where I could see something if I would've put something underneath it. There's no checkerboard showing up right now, so when I turn on the later underneath, this doesn't visually change. It's just there's the potential of seeing something under there. If I poke a hole through enough other layers where I can reveal it, I'm working on the middle layer. Now I'll get a brush that's little smaller. I'm using the eraser tool. I'm gonna erase it away, and when I do, I'm going to see the layer that's on the bottom, which is the darkest version. Okay, I might also want to use that for the sky up here. For now. I'm gonna be a little sloppy in that I'm not the most precise that my painting, but at least you'll be able to tell that the sky is different. I'm a racing away the middle layer to reveal the layers that is below, So now we have a composite of three layers. Composite use mean is a combination of multiple layers. There are multiple images in this case, and I'll turn off the eyeballs on all the layers we start off with nothing. I'll turn on the top layer to begin with. That's our top layer that's gonna cover up anything that we put underneath. Then I turn on the layer that's directly underneath that in what we're filling in that checkerboard with is this, which is still missing some areas, and that's the only part will be able to see down through further to what's under there, which is the final one. Now, if I were to go up to the file menu and choose save ass, I could save the send result default settings, and I close it done. But here's the problem. If I go to reopen that image, and I think I can just go to the file menu and she's open recent, this gives me a list of what I worked on recently. I just open it there now if I've saved that, closed it and reopened it next week, what if I decide that I really wish I used Mawr of the rocks at the bottom from the first shot. I wish I could bring back some of this. Problem is, I can't even if I go over here to that thing we once used called the history panel. The problem is, the history panel gets cleared out when you close your picture. It only remembers what you've done in this session with this picture since I've opened it last in. So there's no memory of what it looked like a previous steps because that's cleared out every time. And so to me, this is very much less than ideal because I've permanently throwed away those layers. I can always go reopen that first bright image, copy it and paste it on the top of the layers panel and start over where I have a fresh version of its sitting there. But that's what if I can't find it, What if it's at home on a drive there? I don't have it with me, so I Anyway, I think that's a little less than ideal. So what we're gonna do next is we're gonna talk about something called a layer mask. A layer mask is the equivalent to using the eraser tool on a layer in a way that's not permanent, so that when you use the eraser tool instead of deleting things, it's hiding things. We're When I look in the layers palette, we will still see the entire original picture sitting there. I can still paint where it looks like more racing it away. But if you looked in the layers panel, the entire picture would still be there. And there's just something attached to it that saying this part of layers hidden and that's what a layer mask is, uh.

Class Description


Adobe® Photoshop® lets you bring out the best in your photographs – learn how to navigate the powerful software in Adobe Photoshop 101 with Ben Willmore.

Ben will show you how to use the most important features of Adobe Photoshop by working through common, real-world projects and explaining the process. You’ll get to know the Adobe Photoshop interface and learn about the features you’ll use the most. 

Ben will teach you how to:

  • Enhance hair, eyes, and lips in portraits
  • Merge multiple images into a panorama
  • Fix bright reflections on glasses and closed eyes in a group shot
  • Correct photos that are under or overexposed
  • Create a collage of multiple images


You’ll learn how layers, selections, masks, and filters help you make a great image and find out why resolution, file formats, and color profiles matter. Ben will break down commonly-heard technical jargon so you know what others are saying and you’ll learn keyboard commands that will make your work easier.

By the end this class you’ll be confident and comfortable working in Adobe Photoshop and know how to troubleshoot when problems arise. 

This course is part of the Photoshop Tutorials series. 


Software Used: Adobe Photoshop CC 2014

Lessons

  1. Adobe Bridge Basics
  2. Sorting Images in Adobe Bridge
  3. Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 1
  4. Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 2
  5. Image Processing Q&A
  6. Contrast and Color
  7. Adjustment Brush and Auto Mask
  8. Adobe Camera Raw Optimized Images
  9. Lens Profile Corrections
  10. HDR Pro Part 1
  11. HDR Pro Part 2
  12. Panoramas Part 1
  13. Panoramas Part 2
  14. Intro to Photoshop
  15. Interface Overview
  16. Essential Adobe Photoshop Adjustments
  1. Flat vs Layers
  2. Simple Composites with Photomerge
  3. Stack of Prints Panorama
  4. Combining Exposures Composite
  5. Layer Mask Composite
  6. Selections and Masking Part 1
  7. Selections and Masking Part 2
  8. Adjustment Layers Part 1
  9. Adjustment Layer Part 2
  10. Creating a Postcard Layout
  11. Hand Drawn Photo Layouts
  12. Creating a Layout with Hand Drawn Frames
  13. Working with Frames and Textures
  14. Customizing Frames and Textures
  15. Saving for the Web
  1. Correcting for Noise
  2. Camera Profiles and Split Toning
  3. B&W Toning
  4. Post Crop Vignetting
  5. Selective Clarity
  6. Dust Spot Removal
  7. Content Aware Fill Part 1
  8. Content Aware Fill Part 2
  9. Healing Brushes: Basic, Spot, and Clone
  10. Retouching: Removing People
  11. Retouching: Building and Clone Source
  12. Other Retouching Techniques
  13. GIF Animations
  14. Creative Masking
  15. Displacement Mapping
  16. Creative Filters and Smart Objects
  17. Finishing Techniques

Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Ben, thanks again for this course. I have taken and purchased quite a few of your courses to date. I keep thinking I will only watch to make sure I am on the right track and you always bring more to the table than the last course. Your teaching methods are the best, sorry to all the other instructors from Creative Live, but you are very easy to understand and you speak in layman's terms so we all can understand. I am following your instructions and working along with your files and it is the best! It is hard to keep up with you even when I watch you on one computer and work with the same files on another computer, to do what you are doing...impossible but I gain so much by trying. You provide so much info on each topic, it is amazing. Thanks to Karen for the PDFs, she does a fantastic job and also, for her templates/layout documents. Thanks again and to anyone who thinks this is too much money for all the videos, the exercise files and the instruction PDF, I am sorry to say but you are mistaken.

John Taylor
 

Like all of the Creative Live courses, excellent training. Ben does a great job of explaining the entry part of Photoshop. A lot of things cleared up in my head and i like his easy pace into this complex program. Thanks Ben.

user-00c5e4
 

Ben, A note of thanks for a fabulous 3 day tutorial on Photoshop. I am new to CreativeLive site and just happen to stumble across your Photoshop 101 class online, wow I'm I glad I did. I've wanted to learn to navigate Photoshop for sometime but found myself becoming more and more confused and frustrated watching video instruction and reading various articles online. You have simplified the learning process by making the class material clear and concise; after 3 days I came away with a great foundation to build on in the future. Thank you!