THEEDIT
EXPERTADVICE HOW LAYERS HELP
96 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY
G
REATWILDLIFE
photographyis a fine
mixtureof cameraskills
and fieldcraft,in whichpatiencealso
pl aysa bigpart.Professionalwildlife
photographerscanwaitfordaysand
weeksata timeforan elusivesubject
toappearin therightplaceto get
theirshot.But formostof us,there’s
si mplynotthetimeto waitthatlong
fo r perfectionto happen.
One of thetrickieraspectsthat
takesup thistimeis dealingwith
distractionsin theframe.Whileyou
mightfindyoursubjectin a good
composition, there may be other
animals around, cluttering the
frame, and that’s the case with our
start images. You’ll often find this
with animals like deer, which move
in herds, so you can end up with one
standing too near another, or worstofall,directlybehindthemain
subject,makingit looklikeyou’re
shootingOdin’shorse.Uselayersto fix shots
Byshootingtwoor morenearly
id enticalframes,we canfix those
problemsusingPhotoshop’slayers.
Ifwe placeoneimageon topof the
other,we canmaskthelayersto
showonlythepartsof eachthat
wewant.If youshootin continuous
mode,youmighthavea stackof
wildlifepicsyoucanimprovein this
way a l ready.
Because the images are so similar
in framing, focus and exposure, we
can also use layers to recompose,
so you’ll see that in the final version
of the image, the distant church
spire has been moved down to
tighten the composition.SHOTONE
SHOT TWO
Improve wildlife
shots with layers
Get the best from a scene by
combining two separate exposures.Kingsley Singleton explains how...Above & right Two separate frames give us all
we need to make the final composition, where
the two deer are alone in the frame.AboveLonglensesmakecombiningimages
easy,as longas you don’tmovetoomuch.Priorto digitaltechniques,compositeimagesof thiskindwerehardto
make. You’d have needed to print both shots, then physically cut out part
of one to show the other through, and rephotograph the composite at
the end. But with layers we simply align the two images in Photoshop
and use a Layer Mask to decide what’s visible. In this case, all we need
to do is mask out the deer in the bottom left to complete the effect.Combined
Shot 1 layered imageShot 2