Manual blends

[photoman]

Who on here is proficient in manually blending images?

I gave it my first go this evening with these two panos-

1. I really liked the lighting in this one including the background light

2. but I liked the sky in this one

The files weren't the same size and I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this- was mostly attempting to get the process down.
The Result:

Anyone have some suggestions or tips on doing manual blends?

 

[photoman]

No one has any experience with manual blends?

 

[FLYFISHEXPERT]

I have never done this. What software are you using?

 

[cruisertoy]

No experience here either, but I'd sure like to learn more about it.

 

[RHINO]

me too!!

 

[Tucson T4R]

I am no expert by any stretch but it seems like the same process I went through to make a clean night image. 2 exposures of the same composition. One shorter with high ISO to capture the star filled sky and the second a longer exposure at ISO 100 to capture a clean foreground. Then in Photoshop use the layers and masking tools to merge the night sky with the clean foreground for the final image.

If there is an easier way to do it I'm all ears.

 

[Pathfinder]

I don't think you want a blend, Aaron, I think you just want to swap out one sky for another, don't you?

Do you have CS3, CS4 or CS5? You do need the ability to make a good selection.

This is the basic technique I use, but it was written for CS3 or CS4. CS5 has even better Refine Edges commands, that really allow you to remove any light or dark edge fringing from your selection.

If the images are different sizes, you may need to use Image Size to enlarge your smaller image if it is to be copied to the larger image. I frequently capture skies and brick walls with a point and shoot, knowing that I will use them later in images from my DSLR as new sky replacements. If skies are noisy, I wash them in NoiseWare along the way, before copying to the final file.

This image is a composite, with the bull from a 40D and the sky from a point and shoot, for example.

Lots of items in museums have very cluttered backgrounds. I prefer to pull them out on a neutral gradient using the same technique.

 

[photoman]

Nice to see some discussion. Brad and I are on the same wave length on this. Rather than doing a cut and swap of the sky, manually blending seems to be a little more natural looking. This was my first attempt at manually blending and I used a process I found on Luminous Landscape : http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml. I do plan to do a lot more of these in the future though.

I found a couple alternative processes on dgrin.com's finishing school:
Layer Masks explained- http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2044
Digital Blending- http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=5127

 

[Pathfinder]

Aaron, once you have the sky selected, you can blend the new sky however you want, by setting the blending mode of your Clone brush to Overlay, Multiply, Screen, etc.

In Andy's link he overlayed two layers, and then painted on the mask to blend them, in essence, doing his selection after layering. I started with the selection, and then blend the layers. The end result will be the same


Lots of different ways to accomplish the same end.

 

[nwoods]

I've never done a blend, but I have done crop and swaps. Not the same thing I know. In your image above, the horizon line on the left looks unnatural to me. The sky just doesn't quite meet the mesa in a way that I find believable. I can't pinpoint my observation, but I feel it. Perhaps if it was crisper or even given an ever so small shadow outline to delineate the horizon?