Advice on how to create a pic like this one

[_Belial]

Hi all,

Whilst browsing flicr i came accross this pic which i really like



What I want to know is how did he do it? i'm assuming there's some photoshop work in there somewhere, now i don't actually own photoshop, have been happily using phtoshop elements and lately paint.net for any editing for ages, but to me that looks like it's 2 seperate pics which start to merge around the middle between the blue sky and dark night.

I really want to have a go at doing a similar pic, just wondered if anyone had any tips on how he achiveved it.

thanks

[marcode]

looks like hes just taken an image of a tree, cropped it so theres just a corner of branches and sky, then extended the image and merged it with the darker colour (or night time shot) at the opposite corner. OR, thats just how the sky looked.. but i doubt it.

doesnt look too complex, but its a nice effect.

[Deadly]

My guess is that its two seperate exposures merged together, ie, he had his camera on the tripod, took one photo just before it got dark and then another when it was dark. Then layed them on top of each other in photoshop and removed part of one so they blended into each other.

Cool idea with the night/day thing, but i think that example is a bit boring, i'd have liked to see more of the tree/ground. Still, not bad though.

No doubt Slarti will be along soon with a better explanation

[slartibartfast]

I've got two possible explanations.

The first would be as the others have said, 2 images combined and blended together with a graduated layer mask.

The second possibilty is, it's a single image, and there was some illumination falling on the tree, or a flash was fired during the exposure to illuminate it.

Using a wide angle lens it's possible to capture the sky both light and dark at the same time. Here's one I shot using a 17mm and which has had an 's' curve adjustment applied to boost the contrast.

[_Belial]

Cheers guys, despite not knowing what on earth a layer mask is i'm gonna give it a go in a bit, and go try to take a wide angle shot with a flash as well as a few more to try and apply a "graduated layer mask"