Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

When combining multiple images in Photoshop or
Photoshop Elements for this technique, it helps if
the different images are shot the same way, mean-
ing the camera was locked into a tripod during the
different shots. The images then need to be opened

ABOUT THIS PHOTO I wanted the guitar to be the focus of the
image so I made sure to paint it with a little more light to get it to have
the brighest spot in the image. The viewer’s eye will always be drawn to
the brighest area in the image. Taken at 25 seconds, f/16, and ISO 100.

9-13

For more details about creating star

trail photographs, see Chapter 7.

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in Photoshop and combined into a single file with

multiple layers. If you are using Photoshop

Lightroom to sort your images, then select all the

images that you want to stack together, right-click

them, and choose Photo ➪ Edit in ➪ Open as

Layers in Photoshop. If you are using Adobe Bridge

to sort your images, then select the images that you

want to combine and click Tools ➪ Photoshop ➪

Load Files into Photoshop Layers. When using

Elements, you have to manually combine the lay-

ers. Just do the following:

1. Open Elements.


2. Open the files that you want to combine.


3. Use the Move tool to grab an image and,
   with the left mouse button held down,
   hover over the filename on the top bar
   where you want to drop the file.


4. Once the destination is showing on the
   screen, press Shift and release the left
   mouse button.


5. This automatically aligns the image with
   the edges of the frame, and because all the
   images are of the same subject, it aligns
   properly.


6. Repeat for all the files you want to stack.
   In Photoshop and Elements, you can now start
   to change the layer blend mode to Screen or
   Lighten. Then you can adjust the layer’s opacity
   and even the order of the layers to get the result
   you want. Because these adjustments are a per-
   sonal preference, there are no right or wrong
   settings. If you find that you like a certain combi-
   nation of Screen and Lighten modes, then save
   the file and try a different order or a different
   opacity. The image will change each time and you
   will be better able to judge what you like. Figure
   9-14 was not the first combination of layers and
   opacities that I tried, but it was my favorite.