Exercise 4.04 – Addition

The images taken for this exercise were from the top of Winney Nab, overlooking Wheeldale moor on a day with sunshine and heavy showers, which gave the kind of skies I was looking for and well lit moorland.

The first image was exposed for the land, using one stop underexposure from the matrix metering.

The second image was exposed for the sky, using one stop over exposure from the matrix metering.

Placing the lighter image over the darker one in Photoshop, I erased the sky area from the lighter image, using a layer mask and a large, soft brush.

This method gave a pleasing blend with the aerial perspective effect in the distance:

Using the quick selection tool, with a fairly large feather, then deleting the selection gave a line above the horizon. This was softened using a low opacity soft brush on a layer mask:

Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 in ‘highlight / shadow’ adjustment in ‘exposure blending’ mode produced the best blend of all:

Using the selection method and a different sky gave this image:

I think it still works, but the weather now looks more threatening.

As I said in exercise 4.01, I don’t have a problem with this type of manipulation. It’s down to what I perceive to be right for the image and how it’s to be used – obviously putting in tornadoes and then sending it to the local newspaper wouldn’t be acceptable, but for a view of what I like about the North Yorkshire moors, then I feel it’s justified.