Best way to blend the two images

[Ads1976]

Hi again Damien,

I am very inexperienced with photoshop, i know its a powerful tool, and i want to aid my photography.  I used the merge function in LR, but seeing at the sky image is at F2.8 and the abbey is at F11, the blending means that the top of the abbey and tress are out of focus.  I have attached my LR effort so you can see the composition.  

Any help and advice would be great 

Many thanks

Adam

[Damien Symonds]

Hi mate, is this what you meant?

[Ads1976]

Hi Damien,

Thats its, i'd need to look at the post processing again, and composition.  How did you achieve the result?

Cheers

Adam

[Damien Symonds]

I'll be back shortly to explain the steps.

[Damien Symonds]

First, I opened the sky image and cloned out part of the top of the building, to give myself a bit more room to play with:

I saved that file as a PSD, and closed it.

Then I opened the building photo, and extended the canvas size upwards:

Then File>Placed the sky PSD file:

I lowered its opacity so I could see where I was positioning it, and put it where I wanted it:

Then I increased the opacity to 100% again, and added a mask and masked it on:

Finally, I noticed that your sky photo had a weird circle in the middle where it was grey, not really blue.  So I added a cooling Photo Filter to that area:

(I could have gone back to the sky PSD file and added the cooling there.  That would be the more thorough way to do it, actually).

If any of the above doesn't make sense, I urge you to take The Layers & Masks Class.  It's only a few dollars, and it will change your Photoshop life.

[Ads1976]

Thanks,

Great help, I just purchased the layers and mask class.

Cheers

Adam

[Damien Symonds]

Um, no, you just purchased The Raw Class.

But don't worry, that one will rock you too.