help with merging bird pics

[trevorc]

I've done this before but I can't remember how other than a cut and paste of each picture into a master.  Can anybody point me to a tutorial that shows me how to merge 6 pictures each with a bird in a different position into a single picture that gives the different stages of the bird flying across the sky.  I will need to manipulate the bird into position for each overlay.  Thanks.

[Pšenda]

Menu File, Place? 

[Dan C]

Hi @trevorc,

Could you please provide a copy of the bird images that you are looking to merge into one - so that we can provide personalised advice for you?

Many thanks in advance

[trevorc]

Thanks for getting back I am looking to take a sequence of in flight shots like these and mergee into a single picture, showing them as an in order sequence acrooss thye widthe of the picture.

[thomaso]

Use the selection brush to select the birds in every image + copy them as new layers to the image with the sky you prefer + arrange all of them as wanted.
Cmd-J (mac) / Ctrl-J (win) will cause a selection to be copied as a new layer.

It reminds me to this recent topic...

 

[firstdefence]

Another option would be to change all but the bottom layer to darken or darker colour and position the layers in sequence, then use the erase tool with some feather to feather the edges of the skies that can be seen overlapping.

Skies edges visible

 

 

After using the erase tool on the skies edges

Bird sequence example.afphoto Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

[trevorc]

Thanks Thomaso and firstdefence, I shall have a play tomorrow

[firstdefence]

[trevorc]

On 9/30/2020 at 11:27 PM, Pšenda said:

Menu File, Place? 

Thanks again for the help.  With your help, I managed this

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, trevorc said:

Thanks again for the help.  With your help, I managed this

Great - well done 🙂

[trevorc]

On 10/2/2020 at 7:23 AM, firstdefence said:

Another option would be to change all but the bottom layer to darken or darker colour and position the layers in sequence, then use the erase tool with some feather to feather the edges of the skies that can be seen overlapping.

Skies edges visible

 

 

After using the erase tool on the skies edges

Bird sequence example.afphoto Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

Sorry a few months on and I have another question.  When I follow the above process with some other pictures I get the result below.  The large bird has been blended to darken and looked OK but as soon as I placed the small bird on top both birds show the sky through where the body is pale.  I'm must be doing something very silly.  warsash g9 20210226 00261.RW2

[firstdefence]

Hi Trevor, the rw2 file is unavailable.

The sky is grinning through the larger hawk where white shows. I think a slightly different method might be required. like cutting the smaller bird out with some feathering of the sky.

Export the images to jpeg to make it easier to upload for demonstration purposes.

 

[thomaso]

Using a blend mode for color masking doesn't work sufficiently if back- & foreground contain a similar total range (of color, brightness, saturation – depending on the mode). The issue occurred in your first image, too, but was less obvious because the sky was closer to bird's bright parts (in both brightness and hue). Your second image has a darker + more colorful sky which makes the "darken" / "darker color" mode less efficient than wanted because of being more different in the bird's bright parts.

However, it will be easy to mask the birds, e.g. via the selection brush tool and copy/paste the selected bird only, not the entire image as in the workflow before.

 

[trevorc]

On 3/8/2021 at 1:02 PM, thomaso said:

Using a blend mode for color masking doesn't work sufficiently if back- & foreground contain a similar total range (of color, brightness, saturation – depending on the mode). The issue occurred in your first image, too, but was less obvious because the sky was closer to bird's bright parts (in both brightness and hue). Your second image has a darker + more colorful sky which makes the "darken" / "darker color" mode less efficient than wanted because of being more different in the bird's bright parts.

However, it will be easy to mask the birds, e.g. via the selection brush tool and copy/paste the selected bird only, not the entire image as in the workflow before.

 

Thanks for the explanation.  I had worked out that it was the blue sky that was making the difference but I wasn't clear why.