How to use layers in Photoshop Elements?

[Panama Hat & Camera]

Thursday, march 20, 10:29 PM, the Moon passed in front of Saturn and I took some photos of this occultation with my Canon SX50 HS. I took two kinds of photos:
1- Photos of the Moon (and of Saturn). I adapted the Sunshine 16 rule and used shutter priority, 1/125, f/6.5, ISO 80 and 1200 FFE (in this picture, the Moon is OK, but Saturn is almost invisible);
2- Photos of Saturn (and of the Moon). Because brightness of Saturn is very faint, I used the photometer indication, that is aperture priority, 1/8, f/6.5, ISO 80 and 1200 FFE (in this picture, Saturn is OK, but the Moon is very much overexposed);.
Now, I would like to combine the two pictures using the layers tool of Photshop Elements, but I don't know how to do. Anyone can help me with a step by step procedure?
Cheers,
Antonio.

#1 - Shutter priority, 1/125, f/6.5, ISO 80 and 1200 FFE


#2 - Aperture priority, 1/8, f/6.5, ISO 80 and 1200 FFE

[Polar01]

You can' t, however you can, using layers in Elements. First put both images thru the raw converter if still in raw format. Now open let say the darker of the two (your #1), now go File>place (find file and say ok), file image should appear with an "X" thru it, and above the image is a Check Mark hit it. You now have both files open one above the other. Now add a make to the brighter image, invert it to make it black, take brush make it white say 10% and start to slowly start to reveal the image by brushing the mask away.

Cheers: Allan

[Geoff F]

There are many ways of achieving this, Antonio. But your question was about layers, so I have done it that way instead of a simple selection then copy and paste from one image into another.

And I have worked directly on your images, not Elements but this should be the same. The most complicated part is going to be describing how I did it!

Open both images as layers on the same window. Copy and paste or what I did was to open both images alongside each other then drag a copy into one and remove the unwanted image.

Then I turned the Background image into a layer. Whether this is needed depends on how you continue editing.

I tried to Auto Align the layers (select similar layers first) but it wouldn't work. Possibly if I roughly aligned them first it might have been better but there is a lot of variation between them.

So as an alternative, I dragged some guide lines to position top, bottom and sides of the bright image plus one to position Saturn.

Then I dragged the darker moon into this position.

Selected the brighter moon and added a Hide All Mask from the Layers Menu. Image now 'disappears'. Painted over the area of Saturn (using the guides for position) with a reveal brush (white) until the required area appeared.

I worked with a small brush which had a fairly low opacity so I had to go over the area several times to gradually reveal what was required. Because the moon surface was so close I used a slightly hard brush. A too soft brush would show part of the moon. If you go wrong, switch to the other brush option (hide brush - which would be a black brush) and do a correction.

Eventually I merged the layers to create a suitable image for uploading.



If you aren't familiar with layers and masks; terms like Hide or Reveal and black/white brushes which are actually working in transparency so aren't working with actual colour will sound complicated and confusing. But it is quite easy once you grasp the basics.

ps. If you need more information on Layers than you can find in the CinC Tutorials, try this site.

http://ronbigelow.com/articles/layers-1/layers-1.htm

But it does go into quite a bit of depth over several articles; so I would start with the CinC information.

[patrickjohnson]

Layers in Photoshop Elements are probably the most important feature to be considered in this photo editing program.Layers are like stacked, transparent sheets of glass on which you can paint images. You can work on each layer independently, experimenting to create the effect you want. Each layer remains independent until you merge the layers.The bottommost layer in the Layers panel, the Background layer, is always protected meaning you cannot change its stacking order, blending mode unless you convert it into a regular layer.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm using a very old version of Elements, so my menus may not be exactly the same as yours. The instructions below assume you are working with two flattened images (only one layer in each image).

To get the two images into one image file perfectly aligned:

1. Open one image and then open the other image.
2. Drag one of the image windows to the side.
3. Determine the image that you want to be on the top layer. I would choose the image with the properly exposed planet.
4. Click the Move tool. Hold the Shift key as you drag the image that you want to be on the top layer into the other window. (Using the Shift key automatically aligns the two images.)

One way to do the rest:

1. Ensure that the top layer is active.
2. Click the Magnifier tool and click the image until it is at least 100%, allowing you to easily see working space between the planet and the moon.
3. Click either the Magnetic Lasso Tool or the Lasso tool. Trace around the planet to select it or it and a small part of the sky.
4. Feather the selection three pixels. (The Feather tool is probably in the Selection menu.)
5. Invert the selection (the Invert tool is probably in the Selection menu).
6. Press the Delete key to erase everything except the planet or the planet and a small part of the sky.