Posted by Mark Seaver on August 22, 2011 at 6:56 PM
I just posted a shot in Landscape that is one of my first efforts and combining exposures to hold the dynamic range. I spent 4 -5 hours getting a mask that looks reasonably good at the sizes posted, but when I blow up the tree/sky region to 200%, there are very noticeable artifacts (some haloing and mostly dark lines) I suspect that such artifacts would be visible in a large print (say 20 x 30). Is that true and are there processing techniques that avoid such artifacts? The mask was developed using the green channel in PS, with a levels adjustment and black painting in the dark areas of the mask.
Posted by John Mumaw on August 22, 2011 at 7:28 PM
A 200% view is totally unrealistic, Mark. That falls in the realm of 'pixel peeping'. I wouldn't base any judgements on such a tight zoom view. Hardly any image could pass muster under such a near microscopic perusal.
In fact, I abandoned 100% views a few months in favor of 50% views, which are closer to enlarged prints to my eye. Hasn't affected my editing nor final print results, and I feel a whole lot better about the lack of slight imperfections that I used to see handily at 100%.
Things I have been reading say you should look at 50%. That's just a RUMOR I am forwarding!!! :)
Posted by Lance Warley on August 23, 2011 at 7:28 AM
My comment isn't about the artifacts. It's about the hours it took you to create the mask.
You might want to start a separate thread about that, because there are multiple ways to do this in a much shorter time frame.
The Feather slider in the Mask pallet is a huge help here, especially when you move it out to 255.
Posted by Wick Smith on August 23, 2011 at 10:03 AM
I concur with Lance on this one. In short, in a typical sunrise/sunset shot, once you get the hang of how to go about it, it shouldn't take more that 5-10 minutes to blend two shots together. The feathering of the mask is the heat when blending images. If you have an older version of PS that doesn't offer that, you can add a gaussian blur to the mask & generally accomplish the same thing. If the light/dark areas are more mixed, as in a forest scene, it certainly would take longer. You didn't mention what the shot was of or how many exposures you took for that. Can you post the photo & how many & perhaps you'll get a lot of great info from this crowd.
Posted by Mark Seaver on August 23, 2011 at 3:30 PM
The end result is posted in the Landscape gallery. Are you asking to see the two originals? I've got PS5 and tried Lance's suggestion earlier today. It worked pretty well, with some loss of color in the sky to trees transition and only with the feathering pushed above 200 but it only took maybe 10 minutes. I've got several other sequences from Sunday evening so I'll test this more.
Posted by John Williams on September 1, 2011 at 2:27 PM
In my experience:
-How easy or hard the mask is to create varies widely depending on the individual image. Sometimes it is super simple, sometimes it is very tedious and complicated.
-Arifacts can be minimized if the originals are adjusted _prior_ to blending, to be similar in luminosity and color in the region(s) of the blend. (More info here.)
Posted by John Williams on September 1, 2011 at 2:27 PM
In my experience:
-How easy or hard the mask is to create varies widely depending on the individual image. Sometimes it is super simple, sometimes it is very tedious and complicated.
-Arifacts can be minimized if the originals are adjusted _prior_ to blending, to be similar in luminosity and color in the region(s) of the blend. (More info here.)
Discussion
7 repliesIn fact, I abandoned 100% views a few months in favor of 50% views, which are closer to enlarged prints to my eye. Hasn't affected my editing nor final print results, and I feel a whole lot better about the lack of slight imperfections that I used to see handily at 100%.
You might want to start a separate thread about that, because there are multiple ways to do this in a much shorter time frame.
The Feather slider in the Mask pallet is a huge help here, especially when you move it out to 255.
-How easy or hard the mask is to create varies widely depending on the individual image. Sometimes it is super simple, sometimes it is very tedious and complicated.
-Arifacts can be minimized if the originals are adjusted _prior_ to blending, to be similar in luminosity and color in the region(s) of the blend. (More info here.)
-How easy or hard the mask is to create varies widely depending on the individual image. Sometimes it is super simple, sometimes it is very tedious and complicated.
-Arifacts can be minimized if the originals are adjusted _prior_ to blending, to be similar in luminosity and color in the region(s) of the blend. (More info here.)