Ok, these are my first manual blend attempts. i used the "apply image" technique in CS2 by opening two differently exposed images and changing the opacity. i am curious about any other techniques you know of or use. Any tips will be helpful, just putting "manual blending in photoshop" into a search engines turns up with lots of results and techniques. What works best? i'd really love to learn how to do this better. Into my 3rd year of photography it's time to take it up a notch. i've experimented with neutral grad filters and hdr. They work fine in certain situations, but i want a sure fire method to get unique exposures. Strange that i tried this manual blending for the first time tonight. Thanks for your help.
So, do you feel there is something lacking in this first attempt? Looks pretty darn good and natural to me! Nice photos to practice on as well? I use manual blending of RAW files processed for highlights, then shadows, and it works out pretty good for me. HDR has never worked for me, obviously my fault. Other than that, not sure of other techniques, but I think you've got a good start on the manual effort!
I manual blend as well, but I use layer masks and hand "paint" in or out layer by layer. I start with the darkest bracketed exposure, then layer on the middle one, do the blend, flatten, then layer on the brighter one for the foreground do the blend, flatten, then process as normal, resize and I'm done.
