Statues?

[bazza]

I went to my local church and found quite a nice statue.

I took the pic in RAW and made 2 conversions. (exposure only) Can anybody tell me how to put the moody sky on the lighter statue without cutting out the latter or placing the two on top of each other and erasing one of them. Must be an easier way.

Here are the two i have in mind.

Thanks for looking.. (any edits and how you did them would be welcome) Ta!

 

[Big Mike]

That's the basic premise of HDR (high dynamic range). If you have Photoshop CS2 or CS3, it will merge them for you.

Layering them in photoshop isn't really hard to do. Here is how I would do it.

Layer them (drag & drop...cut & paste) into one photoshop file. Then use the magic wand to select the light or dark part of the top image. There is a significant difference, so it shouldn't be too hard. (play with the tolerance if it's not getting it right). (Another trick is to create an adjustment layer first, crank up the contrast, make the selection then trash the adjustment layer).

Once you have the selection, create a layer mask...making sure you mask the part that you want. If it's wrong, just undo it an inverse the selection first.

That should be it. You then have the option to edit the layer mask to fine tune the line between what shows and what's hidden.

 

[bazza]

Thanks, that sounds fantastic, but although i have cs2 I've not got to grips with it at the mo.

I'll have to use the HDR conversion in cs2.. didn't think of that.

Heres one i done in Photomatix but i only have the trial version at the mo.

Don't suppose you know how much it is for the full version..
Cheers!!