I find it best to go back and forth with Paint In and Paint Out to refine the edges in this view. You can work with a 100 percent view to enlarge areas and then move them around with the Hand tool as you stroke. From there you paint in or out or erase to combine the images. You can slide the Opacity slider in the Layers palette to see where and how they merge. You select the images in Lightroom or Aperture and then go to File>Plug-In Extras and select Perfect Layers. The technique for gathering images remains as above. There are many who will find the tools here tempting to create all sorts of combined images, using many elements, but I tend to be a bit more conservative in their use and image creation. The technique for creating composites is equally easy, though you have to be a bit more careful in your borders and edges in the images. This is a simple matter in Perfect Layers.
The cloud in the ground exposure is quite overexposed and would not be sufficiently fixed in an edited version, so combining the two exposures is the best bet. I made two exposures, one for the sky and one for the bright foliage. In these exposures made in Taos Ski Valley, at about 10k altitude, the light is very bright, #3 and #4. You can make these exposures in the field or simply make a light and dark version of the same shot in Lightroom or Aperture and then load them atop one another and paint away. While there are plenty of good HDR programs available, one of the earliest and still effective ways of getting a wide range of values into an otherwise high contrast image was to shoot two different exposures of the same image (one for highlight and one for shadow detail) and then combine them later in Layers, and then paint away the overlapping areas to bring the most out of each exposure.
#PERFECT LAYERS TOOL TRIAL#
If you want to try it out there’s a 30-day free trial available at and the site has plenty of fun and helpful lessons and tutorials.
#PERFECT LAYERS TOOL SOFTWARE#
The best way to show you what you can do with this ingenious software is to work through a few examples. You can work with a mouse but my preference for this work is a tablet, and for this report I used the new Bamboo Capture from Wacom tablet, which I consider an essential accessory for this kind of work. Finally, there is the Masking Bug modifier, which allows you to work in shapes using this tool.Īt first this array of options might seem daunting, and admittedly it takes a few hours of practice to get a feel for what each tool and modifier does. My advice is to use a fairly low opacity and build to the look you desire. You can modify the brush or whatever tools you are using by size, feathering (blend on the edges of the brush), and opacity. The Masking panel is where the fine work is done where you can selectively paint in, paint out, or erase areas within the various layers. Finally in that panel is the Opacity slider, which can be used as a working guide as you apply the effects with the tools or simply as a way to bring one layer into play with the other or others. The best way to see their effects is to try them, as the program instantly responds with the look they produce. These are more limited than in Photoshop but I think distill down to the ones most used by photographers, including Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, etc. You then see the Layers you have loaded, followed by a panel that allows you to copy, delete, and merge the layers, as well as add a Fill layer, like the Color Fill layer in Photoshop.Īlso as in Photoshop you have various Blending modes, which can be used as presets for blending the Layers or as foundation builders for further work on the image. On the right are panels that allow you to place the image on the workspace, including various percentages of size, including 100 percent for fine detail work. As we go through some setups you’ll see how each one is used. The Masking Bug comes next, which is like a selection tool that combines with an intensity and range tool. Next is the Brush tool for painting in and out and erasing areas of an image on one or both layers. A pair of scissors indicates the Trim tool, for cropping should you need it and for making crops if you lay a vertical onto a horizontal image. Starting from the top you have a cross, which is the Transform tool that lets you crop, size, and move one or both layers. Take a look at the workspace shown in #1.
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