CS3 Layer Mask Question

[WTP07]

I have done this before, but I cannot for the life of me remeber how.....must be senility setting it a TAD early.

I want to take the cloud cover from this shot:


And overlay it on this shot:


This is not a super landscape, but I need to know how to do it for some others upcoming.

Can anyone point me into a tutorial or step-by-step me through this?

Thanks,

Randy.

[Photo-John]

Are they two exposures that you shot with a tripod? Which version of Photoshop do you have? If you have CS3, you can use Automate > Photomerge to create two perfectly matched layers. The go to Layer > Layer Mask to create your mask. I would put the dark layer on top, mask the whole thing, then use big soft brushes to edit the mask.

[Greg McCary]

I have PS 7, but I opened both images and grabbed parts of the sky with the magic wand and overlayed it like a puzzle on to the second image. It took four moves but this is what I got. It could use some dressing up around the tree line but it only took about three or four minutes to do. I hope you don't mind the edit.

[mjs1973]

My method is very similar to PJ's. I opened both images, and grabbed the layer from the darker image, and drug it onto the lighter image, while holding the space bar down. Holding the space bar down will keep the images lined up, assuming they were shot on a tripod. Next I added a layer mask to the top layer, and painted away the areas I wanted to hide using a soft edge brush. Once I got that to the point were it was pretty close to what I wanted, I then clicked on the Add Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers Pallet. It's the little Fx. In there I used the very bottom slider and moved it a bit to the right. When it got to the point where is started making the edge look bad, I backed it off a bit. Then I held down the Alt key to "split" the slider. I then took the right half of the slider and moved it over a bit more. Splitting the slider helps to smooth out the transition. Here is a screen shot to help show the Layer Style box. This whole process only took a few minutes. Tree tops like this can be pretty tricky to get it to look really nice.

[WTP07]

Wow!

Thanks for the replies.

I will try this myself and see what I can come up with.

the images are actually one image, the darker one with no PP, the lighter PP'd to get the brighter greens and browns. So they should line up perfectly.

Cheers,

Randy.

[Photo-John]

Randy-
I just stumbled on this thread again and read your last post. If you made two files, one with adjustments and one without, there's an easier way. You need to get hip to Photoshop masked adjustment layers. In my opinion, that's where the real power of Photoshop lies. Plus, it's the right way to do what you're trying to do.

Create an adjutsment layer by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer and selecting the type of adjustment you'd like to do. Make your adjustment and note that you now have an Adjustment Layer in the Layers Pallete. The great thing about adjustment layers is they don't touch your actual image - the Background layer. Further, you can turn them on and off and edit them to your heart's content. Look at your image in 6 months and decide you don't like how you set it up? Open up your layered master file and edit your adjustment layers.

Finally, you need to add a mask so that your adjustment is selectively applied to the area of the photo you want changed. In this case, you want to mask the sky. If you look at the Channels pallete, you'll discover there's a new channel for your adjustment layer. Select that channel and use a paintbrush or whatever tool you want to create your mask. For this image I'd probably start with the gradient tool. That's the graduated neutral density filter of the digital age

I hope you see this and I hope it streamlines your Photoshop processing. When I was introduced to Photoshop masked adjustment layers, it was like someone took the blinders off. I swear it was a religious experience. That was in 1997 or 98. A long time ago...