Photoshop Help: Compositing (I think)

[h2oskierc]

I am wondering if somebody can help me learn how to merge two or more photos in Photoshop. I have a film camera, and want to play around with multiple exposures, but I think that it may be nice to know how to do this.

Maybe I should just invest in a good book? Any suggestions? Should I give up, and pretend I don't know what Photoshop is?

For somebody who works with photoshop on an almost daily basis, I seem to know little about it, but I do like Photoshop CS...

[Photo-John]

You'll notice that I moved your post to the Digital Imaging forum. That's where we ask questions and discuss how to enhance, optimize, and combine digital images. And I know there are people here who can help.

The first step is learning how to use the layers features in Photoshop...

[Sebastian]

There are several different ways of doing it. You will need to knowlayers and masking. Both are just too broad too go into on a forum like this. Bust out the manual for PS and start experimenting, that's the best way to learn.

I'll ive you some tips though. One exposure will be on a layer, a seocnd on another layer. You will use a mask to selectively hide parts of one layer to show the layer underneath. You can have as many layers as you want, and each one can have a mask.

[ACArmstrong]

Also, depending on what you're trying to achieve, play around with each layer's opacity type (normal, screen, multiply, linear burn, linear dodge, etc.) - you'll find that you can achieve some really cool effects that way, as well as drop out certain colors you're trying to avoid.

From a minimalists standpoint, you could simply put one photo on top of the other in layers, then lower the opacity of the top layer - you'll see through it and have a "blended" pic.

BTW, the best way to learn photoshop is to get in there and play around with everything. I use it every day for two separate jobs and am still learning something new everyday. For example, Seb uses a masking tool to block out areas - not here - I use the path and clipping tools to clip out the image I want and save it to a layer by itself - I find I get crisper edges that way. To each his own, but you have to play around with all the tools to learn. The best part of photoshop is that you can always fix what you've screwed around with.

[Asylum Steve]

I just want to note that a mask can be ANY kind of selection you want, from a razor-edged outline to an airbrushed, semi-transparent one. That's the beauty of the feature...

Hard edged brushes will give you a crisp edged mask, making it virtually identical to using one of the selection tools unfeathered (or path converted).

BTW, one thing a mask can do that cannot be done with any tool is select an area with one (or two) HARD edges and the rest softer or feathered. This can be very valuable in photo montage when you have an image element that goes to the edge of your frame.

Also, depending on what you're trying to achieve, play around with each layer's opacity type (normal, screen, multiply, linear burn, linear dodge, etc.) - you'll find that you can achieve some really cool effects that way, as well as drop out certain colors you're trying to avoid.

From a minimalists standpoint, you could simply put one photo on top of the other in layers, then lower the opacity of the top layer - you'll see through it and have a "blended" pic.

BTW, the best way to learn photoshop is to get in there and play around with everything. I use it every day for two separate jobs and am still learning something new everyday. For example, Seb uses a masking tool to block out areas - not here - I use the path and clipping tools to clip out the image I want and save it to a layer by itself - I find I get crisper edges that way. To each his own, but you have to play around with all the tools to learn. The best part of photoshop is that you can always fix what you've screwed around with.

[Sebastian]

I just want to note that a mask can be ANY kind of selection you want, from a razor-edged outline to an airbrushed, semi-transparent one. That's the beauty of the feature...

Hard edged brushes will give you a crisp edged mask, making it virtually identical to using one of the selection tools unfeathered (or path converted).

BTW, one thing a mask can do that cannot be done with any tool is select an area with one (or two) HARD edges and the rest softer or feathered. This can be very valuable in photo montage when you have an image element that goes to the edge of your frame.

Thanks Steve, I was about to write the very same thing.