[Russt]

hi all

Thought I would share a couple of holiday shots...........I didn't get to shoot as much as I would like, but managed to get a few. Still processing some others.

#1


#2 the one time I managed to get out of bed early.....

[Toad]

I think these are pretty good, Russt. Do you shoot RAW? If so, in #2, I would lighten up the foregorund a touch - or alternately - sel;ect the foreground and lighten it up in PhotoShop. Don't change the background though - exposure is perfect.

Just a touch though - nothing dramatic - like this maybe?

[Russt]

Do you shoot RAW? If so, in #2,

Thanks for your comments Toad. I do shoot in raw. I also tried some multi exposure shots but didn't get the results I was after. My idea was the same as yours in so much as to have good detail in the forground while keeping the sky exposed well. I still need to work my way round the different programs. For #2 I did 2 curves and brightness adjustments one for the sky and one for the forground then used layer mask to reveal the area I wanted. If there is an easier way feel free to tell me.............. :/


Here's some more from that shoot ..........I picked the worst morning because there was heaps of sea mist around which made it hard to get the exposure right without blowing the sky.

for this one I liked the colours on the rocks and the comp
#3


#4

[Petographer]

Great shots Russ. #1 is pretty cool. Was Toad out visiting? I also really like #2, Beautiful.

[Toad]

Me in Aus? I guarantee you the forum would have heard about that kind of trip well in advance...

Russt: I really like #4 as well.

As for techniques - your layer mask technique works as well as anything else.

As for multi-exposures, you can take a single RAW exposure - expose it 2 ways in your converter - 1 for the sky and for the foreground. Save the 2 exposures separately and combine them as 2 layers of the same shot. At that point, I like to use a gradient mask to combine them - just because it is less work than layer masks, and the blend is virtualy undetectable as it fades in gradually. This even works for combining 2 completely different shots into a montage - it is often hard to get that blend right by other techniques.

[Russt]

Thanks for the input and tips Toad.

I have a feeling I should have put pic #2 in fix me up. Anyway I gave it a go...........I have not worked with gradient mask before, so I hope after playing I am on the right track.

Made 2 pics (from raw) with different exposure one for sky one for foreground.
Opened both in PS7
with the first shot up I added a new blank layer
apply image to this layer (pic 2)
in layers palate clicked on new fill /gradient
set the gradient to hide the part of the pick I didn't want
still in the layers palate set the blend to multiply

This is what I came up with don't know if I went about it right........ :/



any way I thought not too bad.......it did lose some detail in the resize

thanks for your comments Peto

cheers

[Toad]

That's just about perfect, Russt. Nice technique, eh?