Blended Kate

Blended Kate, originally uploaded by Stephanie A. Richer.

Why blended? Just fooling around, and this is what I did:

1. Shoot Katie at normal exposure in RAW.

2. Tell her to go away. Shoot two stops underexposed and two overexposed at 1-stop intervals, in RAW.

3. Create multi-exposure HDR image of background in Photomatix.

4. Create single exposure with Katie in Photomatix.

5. Layer them in Photoshop, with a layer mask so that only Katherine shows on the shot with her.

6. Flatten. Apply effect from Nik Color Efex. Set Soft Light as blending mode.. Set it down in opacity until just so.

7. Make dulplicate of bottom layer. Desaturate it. Set Overlay as blending mode. Again, adjust to liking with opacity.

8. Crop

There must be a 12-step program for people like me. "Hello, my name is Stephanie R. I am a pixel-head."

Taken February 17, 2012 in my woodlot.