Project: Digital photography and truth

Exercise: Addition
With short daylight hours and unpredictable weather, I grabbed a chance to get the images for this exercise on the Zig-Zag in Selborne this morning. With fast moving light I had to choose my exposures carefully. I set the camera on manual and have selected these two frames. The dark foreground also meant I had to average the exposure for the best result. See footnote*


4698 1/80s f20 22mm ISO400 Exposure for the sky




4699 1/40s f20 22mm ISO400 Exposure for the landscape



As I am not really used to working with layers in Photoshop, there was a steep learning curve as I prepared to make the composite image. The result is OK but I had trouble refining the edge of  the horizon (more practice is required).

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Adding a new sky
For this part of the exercise I searched my archive for similarly lit landscapes with a compatible field of view (around 22mm wide angle). I found this one taken in similar lighting of Hope Cove in S Devon.



Using the PSE selection tools and layers, I added this sky to today’s image of Selborne:



This is a believable addition and on a calmer winter’s day in similar weather,  I’m sure it could be seen. I’m not sure if it is something I would bother to do. Again it is down to the purpose of the image and the authors intention. It is not an objective record of the weather on 7th December 2013 in this part of Hampshire. As my interpretation of a winter scene with this type of sky then it is acceptable.

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*Notes:  On posting this exercise to Blogger from Windows Live Writer, it seems that Picasa has enhanced my images automatically.  The foreground in frames 4698 and 4699 appear to have very similar exposure whereas the difference in the sky is still noticeable. By way of an experiment I have posted a screen shot of the two frames side by side taken from  my image editing window. This definitely shows the difference. A timely reminder that the only way to view and share images reliably  is as a print!

Here is a link to the OCA Forum discussion where I found the answer to enable me to correct this problem: http://www.oca-student.com/content/blogger-picasa-and-image-enhancement