Digital SLR Photography - UK (2020-01)

Lightroom & Photoshop CC

Bl endyour

exposures

HELP TWOBECOMEONEWITH THIS

SIMPLEPROCESSOFBLENDING

Y

OUHAVEGOTYOURtwo exposures

• oneforthestaticelementsandan
  extendedexposureforthemoving
  waterandsky– so,nowwhat?The process
  forblendingtogethertheseshotsis mostly
  automatedandcanbereplicatedin almost
  anyeditingsuitethatcanstackimages.Here,
  however, you'll see how to do it in a
  combination of Lightroom and Photoshop.
  As a filtered long exposure can often cause a
  colourcast,thiswillneedcorrectingand
  matchingin Lightroombeforeblendingthe
  imagein Photoshop.You can use Photoshop
  for this too – it's all down to your preference.

42 Digital SLR Photography Januar y 2020

If you’dprefertotakea

more controlled approach

toconvertingimagesto

black& white,youcan

dothisusingaBlack &

White adjustment layer.

Once selected, this option

provides six sliders that

allow you to adjust how

the colours in the image

convert to greyscale.

Draggingthesliderstothe

leftdarkensspecifictoneswhiledraggingto

therightlightensthem.The advantage of this

techniqueis thatyouhavefullcontrolandcan

achievemoreuniqueandcreativeconversions.

Youcanal sousethePreset drop-down menu to

apply one of 12 preset options.

MANUALMONO CONVERSIONS

NORMAL EXPOSURE

1

WORKONONEIMAGESelect the first image

• whether that’s the long or standard
  exposure – and apply all your usual basic
  adjustments.Forlandscapephotography,this
  willnormallyincludeaddingcontrast,using
  theShadowsandHighlights sliders to recover
  detail in these areas, and then the Blacks and
  Whites sliders to remove muddiness from the
  image and tighten the tonal range.

2

APPLYLOCALADJUSTMENTSAt thisstage,

youmayfindthatyouneedtousethe

GraduatedFilter,RadialFilterorAdjustment

Brushtoapplylocalisedadjustmentsto

specificareasof theimage.ForthisshotI used

theGraduatedFiltertodarkentheskya small

amountandincreasethemoodinessof this

partof theimage.Remember that multiple

local adjustments can be applied.

3

SYNCSETTINGSWiththefirstimagestill

selected,holddowntheCtrlkey(PC)/

Command(Mac)andleft-mouseclickon

yoursecondimage.Next,clickontheSync

buttonat thebottomof thepanelontheright

andclickonCheckAllbeforepressingOK.

Once the settings from the first image are

synced to the second, you’ll need to adjust

the White Balance so they match.