I have commented before about my ongoing project of documenting renovation work at my church. I am after a simple factual record of what's happening and, while my goal is not to 'create art', I am not going to ignore opportunities to make average shots better.
One ongoing problem is a rim of stained glass right under the roof. That along with hanging lights will always be blown out by any attempt to exposure for the interior of the church and, what's happening to the interior is exactly what I'm supposed to be recording. I have started using a simple and fast way to shoot if I decide a view is worth spending a bit more time on. I am shooting with available light with a tripod so multiple exposures of the exact same thing are simple.
I take two shots. The first is exposed for the interior view and, for the second, I use the thumb-wheel to dial in an exposure compensation of two stops or so...
In Elements I stack the two shots and apply a mask to the top (dark) image. I'm using an add-on from Graffi, "Handy Actions". Fill the mask with black to hide all; then paint over with white where you want to replace the blown out glass/lights with the top layer view...
Merge the two layers and finish with any desired PSE editing...
This adds about five to seven minutes to my PSE routine and works a lot better than any attempt to do heroic things with a single image.
Rusty
One ongoing problem is a rim of stained glass right under the roof. That along with hanging lights will always be blown out by any attempt to exposure for the interior of the church and, what's happening to the interior is exactly what I'm supposed to be recording. I have started using a simple and fast way to shoot if I decide a view is worth spending a bit more time on. I am shooting with available light with a tripod so multiple exposures of the exact same thing are simple.
I take two shots. The first is exposed for the interior view and, for the second, I use the thumb-wheel to dial in an exposure compensation of two stops or so...
In Elements I stack the two shots and apply a mask to the top (dark) image. I'm using an add-on from Graffi, "Handy Actions". Fill the mask with black to hide all; then paint over with white where you want to replace the blown out glass/lights with the top layer view...
Merge the two layers and finish with any desired PSE editing...
This adds about five to seven minutes to my PSE routine and works a lot better than any attempt to do heroic things with a single image.
Rusty