A place to seek advice and answers on those particularly challenging issues.
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I saw something today - play of light and shadows - that I thought I could do something with. I am stuck on how to work around the translucent swags. It is easy enough to process the image twice exposing once for the stained glass windows and a second time for the swags.

Church-1.jpg
Church-1.jpg (187.34 KiB) Viewed 2543 times


The windows are so angular, selection is easy. But, I can't figure out what to do with the places where the swags cross over the windows. Tried all sorts of blend mode changes; can't find anything that works. If anybody has any bright ideas, here is the original file:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hew1py

It may be that, even if it can be done, the conclusion becomes ... there ain't anything there :roll:

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty,
I think you can get a satisfactory result with your two versions. The background being the lighter version, add the second one (stained glass) and add a mask. I have chosen a luminosity mask: simply copying the stained glass layer and pasting it into the mask. Even without tweaking the mask contrast or changing the blend mode, the effect is natural enough and you just have to lower opacity lightly to taste.
I think your two versions are good for this. For the stained glass version, I have set black point higher, some negative clarity and vibrance boost. My idea was to use a saturation mask, but the luminosity one is much simpler and as effective.
I'll post a link to my version if you want to.
DSC_3366W.jpg
DSC_3366W.jpg (176.11 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
I saw that you were on line when I made my post. My thought was, "I hope Michel sees this. He is likely to know how to do what I am after." :biggrin:

I have never used a luminosity mask. Yes, I would like to see a follow up post of your version. That will help me better understand what you are telling me.

Rusty :thanks:
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty,
You may give Kimi's contrast mask a try. It's really great at opening up blocked up shadows.
Chas
Chas's Gallery
f/16 on a sunny day.....:)
Rusty wrote: I saw that you were on line when I made my post. My thought was, "I hope Michel sees this. He is likely to know how to do what I am after." :biggrin:

I have never used a luminosity mask. Yes, I would like to see a follow up post of your version. That will help me better understand what you are telling me.

Rusty :thanks:


Yes, Rusty, I was there and very interested because there is never a standard, do-it-all way for such a combination of layers. The main difference I saw between both layers was that apart from being much clearer, the stained glass was very colourful, and that was what had to be added to the 'normal' church view. One good way to prevent the dark parts of the stained glass layer from darkening the resulting image was to mask those.
Once you have your two layers in your layer palette:
- Add a mask to the stained glass layer
- select all of this layer (Ctrl A) and copy (Ctrl C)
- activate its mask by Alt clicking in its icon on the right part, showing a blank screen
- paste (Ctrl V), which is what a luminosity mask simply is.
- click into the stained glass layer in the layers palette to show the result, and tone down opacity

I have tried other blend mode than normal without finding anything better.
You can add adjustment layers (hue/sat, levels...) to each layer if you wish.

http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/1235296/21411

Churchlayers.jpg
Churchlayers.jpg (48.95 KiB) Viewed 2465 times
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Yes, what a nice result; thank you for explaining.

This is what I did with another image taken at the same time. In this instance I processed in ACR three times with the midtones giving me most of what I wanted.

Church.jpg
Church.jpg (205.16 KiB) Viewed 2432 times


Not sure if you can tell from the screenshot, I did some tweaking of both layer masks in various places painting with either white or black. The luminosity mask was the perfect starting point. Thanks to you I now know how to use one.

When I look at this at 100%, I find several 'pictures within the picture'.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Glad it did help, Rusty!
Now I'll have to think about the way to mix 3 exposures...
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
rusty dont know if this will help for future pics,but i read an article on hdr a while ago,when they were shooting difficult lighting projects they were taking a lot more than 2 stops + or - to make sure that all areas of light and dark were caught,as 2 stops just didnt get enough info.hope this helps?
min.
I have been playing and reading about HDR for a while and th erecommendation is for 3 or 5 or 7 - whatever is needed to capture all of the detail in your image.

PHOTOMATIX does that and pulls all the pieces together, Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4 can also merge multiple shots - wither form JPEG or RAW.
John
I'd like to resurect this thread. Only with a twist. I'm trying to double process a photo in camera raw. One over exposed and the other under exposed. I've seen tutorials about this but I get so far and get stuck. You're supposed to open two versions and add a layer mask. I open two photos but they never both end up in the layers palette at the same time.(only as two separate photos) What am I missing here? The desired effect is the best of both photos blended into one. BTW I'm using PSE7. Or is this for Photoshop only? I do have Graffi's layer mask action.
Chas
Chas's Gallery
f/16 on a sunny day.....:)
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