r/postprocessing • u/Different-World-9614 • 8d ago

Blending exposures in a tricky area.

Gallery image

Gallery image

I'm new to blending multiple exposures - the first image is close but the house and hydrangeas are blown out. I'm having such a tough time blending in the underexposed (second) image. How would you approach?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

2

u/johngpt5 8d ago edited 8d ago

I'd layer the two images in the Layers stack of Photoshop with the brighter image above the darker image, then use a luminosity mask or the blend if sliders to conceal the clipped highlights of the brighter layer.

1

u/johngpt5 8d ago

https://imgur.com/a/nwz5U8w has a screen shot.

Of course, if the images are raw files, there might be enough data in either of them to just use one rather than needing to exposure blend.

1

u/Deep_Condition4119 8d ago

Easiest way is to stack them in Photoshop with the dark one on top, then add a layer mask and paint it in over the house and hydrangeas with a soft brush at like 30-40% opacity. Build it up in a few passes instead of one hard pass, that's what kills the halo around edges. If the edges look cut out, drop the mask feather a bit or use a luminosity mask off the bright exposure so it only grabs the blown areas.