Photomerge - Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 for Photographers - page 377

AFTER

1

2

The Photomerge Exposure options blends together several images of the same
subject but with different exposures to create a single image with more detail
in highlight and shadow areas. Here, there is a difference of 2 stops between the
exposure of each of the source files. (1) 1/1000th sec @ f 11. (2) 1/250th sec @ f
11. (3) 1/60th sec @ f 11. Notice the shutter speed has been changed and not the
aperture setting to ensure that the depth of sharpness in the source files remains
the same.

3

exposed, to record the delicate highlight details, to over exposed for capturing shadow
information, and then set this new tool to work. When the source files are brought into
Photomerge Exposure the images are aligned ensuring the registration of key details in each
photo. Next, the brightness of each file is assessed and used as part of the blending process.
A preview of the stitched image is then displayed in the Photomerge workspace.

Taking control of the exposure blending
This is not the finished photo as the user can now decide on how the brightness values of the
source files are mixed together. There are two basic approaches - Automatic and Manual.

Automatic - The automatic mode is displayed by default. In this mode you have a choice of
two blending styles - Simple Blending, where Elements makes all the decisions for you, and
Smart Blending, where Elements provides a starting point and then the user fine-tunes the
result with the aid of three slider controls. The Highlight Details and Shadow sliders adjust
the brightness of these key areas and the Saturation control alters the strength of the images
colors. The mode settings and the sliders are contained on the right hand side of the dialog.

Manual - Selecting the manual mode changes the workspace to a side-by-side arrange-
ment of foreground and background images. Working in a similar way to the Photomerge
Scene Cleaner feature, the user starts by selecting the image to use as the background. In
most cases this is the source photo capture with 'normal' exposure settings. The photo is
dragged to the right side preview space (background). Next, one of the other source files
is selected from the Photo Bin. This places the image in the left side preview space (fore-
ground). Now the Selection tool (pencil icon) is chosen and the user draws over parts of the