Tutorial on Blending Sky & Land: I've frequently read that I can expose a frame for the sky, and another for the land, and somehow combine them in Photoshop. I'm seeking a suggested...

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

I've frequently read that I can expose a frame for the sky, and another for the land, and somehow combine them in Photoshop. I'm seeking a suggested tutorial on how to do this, or advice that it really can't be done well.

TheDman Loc: USA

Oh it can be done very well, and is as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Plenty of stuff on YouTube to get you started, but I can't check specific ones at the moment.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

cbtsam wrote:

I've frequently read that I can expose a frame for the sky, and another for the land, and somehow combine them in Photoshop. I'm seeking a suggested tutorial on how to do this, or advice that it really can't be done well.

Oh it can be done very well, and is as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Plenty of stuff on YouTube to get you started, but I can't check specific ones at the moment.[/quote]

You can make a composite, where you open the two images as layers, with the layer of the properly exposed land at the top, and the sky exposed layer beneath it. You can carefully erase the sky parts on the top layer, revealing the sky layer below, or you can create a selection of the sky on the top layer and delete it, revealing the proper sky on the layer below. Or you can create a layer mask on the top layer, and edit the mask to reveal the parts of the layer below that you want to see.

In concept that's how it's done - nearly all decent pixel editors can do this - Corel, Photoshop, On1, etc etc etc.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

cbtsam wrote:

I've frequently read that I can expose a frame for the sky, and another for the land, and somehow combine them in Photoshop. I'm seeking a suggested tutorial on how to do this, or advice that it really can't be done well.

take a look at these:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/replace-sky/
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-replace-a-sky-in-photoshop/
https://www.on1.com/blog/on1-short-clips-replacing-a-dull-sky/

TheDman Loc: USA

I posted this example in a thread a while back. The first two are screenshots of the raw files as opened in Camera Raw, and the last is the finished blend.

SonyBug

Wow, nice.

davefales Loc: Virginia

You might want to look into luminosity masking for tuning a single shot.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Thanks Gene51, that's exactly what I'm after. The key seems to be in the selection/masking process, which I often do in other contexts, and sometimes find tedious but doable, and sometimes, well, for me, not doable.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

cbtsam wrote:

I've frequently read that I can expose a frame for the sky, and another for the land, and somehow combine them in Photoshop. I'm seeking a suggested tutorial on how to do this, or advice that it really can't be done well.

Changing the sky in a photo is something we all should learn if we like to do landscape images. Too often Mom Nature doesn't cooperate with us and to get were we want to go PP is required. The 2nd link Gene posted is to a method that comes in handy when you have to work with trees. A while back my brother asked me for a pano of a part of his farm that he has opened for use by through hikers on the Appalachian Trail. The sky originally was UGLY and replacing it was tedious. If I had learned the blend control method before this shot it would have been finished days sooner.

(Download)

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Thanks again Gene; I think that first URL will show me how to mask things when they get dicey.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

cbtsam is not alone when it comes to making selections. Selections are the first skill one needs to acquire and continue practicing. It also helps to some artistic talent, for which God dealt me a short deck. Sometime using a Wacom tablet helps.

cbtsam wrote:

Thanks Gene51, that's exactly what I'm after. The key seems to be in the selection/masking process, which I often do in other contexts, and sometimes find tedious but doable, and sometimes, well, for me, not doable.