Photoshop Creative

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

Rusty, terrific results!

I don't think my P&S offers much in the way of exposure compensation. So, I rely on acr recovery & exposure for my dark layer. (I found that the acr exposure function is far better than the ps exposure adjustment layer - for what it's worth to anyone.)

Rusty, I love what you did.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

I agree with you, Betty. I don't have PS, only PSE. I shoot everything in RAW and process in ACR before going in to PSE edit. You can do it with a single image -- I think this might be what you are describing -- process it once in ACR as "light" and then do it a second time as "dark". I have done that often. But, if you are shooting on a tripod and, thus, can get a second image, exactly composed the same as the first, I always have better results with multiple images, as shot, rather than with the same image processed different ways.

The HDR folks talk about three or more images: one exposed for highlights, one for shadows and one (or more) for the mid-tones. And, you know what?, I think a lot of those creations end up looking pretty darned artificial. When you have the technology it's easy to fall in love with it and go overboard (just IMHO).

I think just attempting to compensate for the blown highlights in my posted example is a subtle use of a 2-image HDR that avoids looking artificial.
(and, no, I didn't break my arm just now patting myself on the back)

Thank you, Russ. A lot of times people will hesitate to share things thinking, "Oh, everybody knows that." HA --- I can't begin to remember how many times I have read something really simple posted on this forum and thought, "Gee, I didn't know that!"

Rusty

PS - a hint if you didn't know it: When you want to drag one file onto another to make a 2-layer file as in my example, hold down the shift key while you click and use the move tool to drag. That makes the added layer line up exactly with the first layer. (another thing we assume "everybody knows that")

Very nice final result, Rusty.

Courtney

Very nice Rusty. I appreciate the tips, I'd love to get into HDR more.

Rusty the results are fantastic. What a difference.

Rusty wrote: ...The HDR folks talk about three or more images: one exposed for highlights, one for shadows and one (or more) for the mid-tones. And, you know what?, I think a lot of those creations end up looking pretty darned artificial. When you have the technology it's easy to fall in love with it and go overboard...

Rusty, I totally agree that many HDR images look unreal, mostly because the person goes overboard. If one is going for that look, it can be OK at times, but you are using HDR the way I think is should be used, to bring back the details and color in either blown highlights or the dark shadows. Great work on this image. It looks like the construction project is coming along very nicely and your creative documentation of this project will be enjoyed for years to come.