Continued...
For the second part of this exercise, I chose an image of this desert scene and decided to combine two different versions of it (one exposed for the sky and the other exposed for the foreground) using Photomatix. I like Photomatix and use it occasionally though my personal preference remains with performing a manual conversion in Photoshop.
Picture 9: Two images combined in Photomatix – version one
Picture 10: Two images combined in Photomatix – version two
The conversion in Photomatix was easy to manage but I was not too satisfied with the outcome. I think that the sky is still slightly overexposed and I decided to use this image to practice dropping the sky in.
I followed the process used with the first two images though I had to use some extra steps to combine these two images. These extra steps were:
1) Making multiple selections (lighter foreground rocks; then darker rocks at the back of the image; the sky)
2) Using Select / Deselect function to define the area to be moved
3) Using eraser, Blur, Dodge and Burn tools to adjust the tone, the edges and the shape of the cut-out
4) Using eraser to join and burn/dodge tools to join the two parts of the new image
5) Using Ctrl function to move parts of the image around
6) Using the Curves tool to adjust the tonal range of the selection.
