Last night I made an error. I set out to create a star trail shot using a hedgerow as a frame and @neilru75 as a bit of human interest on the lower right hand third. What I failed to aniticipate is how damned difficult I found it merging the foreground and star trails together in Photoshop! The hedgerow is so complicated and intricate, I nearly deleted the files in frustration. But here @neilru75 came to the rescue!
Where I went wrong....
Before I started photographing the sequence of stars, I shot the foreground, focussing nearer to camera with Neil very kindly posing in the frame:
I then shot approximately 140 x 20 second exposures refocussing on the sky. I then sucessfully stacked them in Photoshop. Easy:
Normally I shoot lightpainting images where no Photoshop faffery is done. I know enough about Photoshop to crop, apply levels, sharpening and various other odd tools. But I'll never consider myself an expert.
When I realised the hedgerow wasn't going to merge how I wanted it, I turned to YouTube and faithfully followed the steps by various YouTubers. Unfortunately no matter how closely I followed the steps, my image just wouldn't fall in to place!
The mistake I made was not using a longer exposure for the foreground image and the colour tone is way different. Normally it wouldn't matter but the complexity of the hedgerow just bamboozled me!
So @neilru75 came to the rescue! I transferred the two TIFF files I'd created and by the following morning Neil had successfully merged the two together. Thanks very much Neil!
I've decided to carry on being a non Photoshop expert because the techniques involved are just too damned difficult! I'll stick to the lightpainting!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
Photoshop is a great tool, especially when you're in the hands of an expert who has mastered design and work with it, nice photos bruh.
Thanks, I usually prefer to get it right in camera but star trails is a whole different ball game when there's a hedgerow involved!
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I used pretty much to PH and the macro focus stacking know-how. not that I consider myself an expert, but I can operate it at advanced levels. its really worth researching, useful tool. focus stacking from multiple images can be comically easy, and produce good results, especially if you take captures using tripod.love both posts, yours and @neilru75's
Thanks, I know where I went wrong for next time but it's still frustrating layer masking for a non Photoshop regular user haha
Love the final result and the composition 👌
Manual selection by @qwerrie.