Composite image of stages of total eclipse - how to do.

[Michael Liskay]

I have a collection of 12-16 images of the total solar eclipse from beginning to end that I would like to make a montage of, that is combine into one most likely panoramic format image for printing. I am sure that there is a relatively easy way to do this in Photoshop but I am not sure where to start. Anyone out there familiar with a procedure for doing this??

 

[Ben Egbert]

I had the same issue with mine, and just figured it out. But since I was not using a real filter, the sun is just white and the rest of the image black, which made it easy to cut and paste. I simply made a selection around the moon in each subordinate image and copied it and pasted it as a layer on the master image, which for me was the closest one I had to totality, I think 93%. Then I arranged them in a straight diagonal line

 

[Michael Liskay]

I had the same issue with mine, and just figured it out. But since I was not using a real filter, the sun is just white and the rest of the image black, which made it easy to cut and paste. I simply made a selection around the moon in each subordinate image and copied it and pasted it as a layer on the master image, which for me was the closest one I had to totality, I think 93%. Then I arranged them in a straight diagonal line


View attachment 686

Ben

thanks much for the advice. Working on it now. Rather simple really thanks to your sage advice!!

Best

Mike

PS will post later as I am trying to stitch in 14 images!

 

[Ben Egbert]

Note, this won't work so well if you have sun trails or stars or other detail outside the actual sphere. I have seen so many great shots of this event using a real sun filter that show sunspots, coronas etc, that I have not bothered to show mine.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Mike,

Another way besides cut and paste is to use the Lighten Blending Mode.

Just put all of the images into 1 file, each image being a layer. Then simply change the Blending Mode to Lighten for each layer.

Each layer will be moveable since its a layer, so then just click on each layer and drag into place.

The one issue with this could be depending on how much the background sky changes.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with,

Jim

 

[Michael Liskay]

Well Ben and Jim I went ahead and cut and pasted into a master image. Not the speediest method and Jim's sounds a little quicker but you can see my result in the Landscape Forum: http://www.focalworld.com/index.php?threads/eclipse-montage.481/

thanks guys!!

Mike

 

[Michael Liskay]

Note, this won't work so well if you have sun trails or stars or other detail outside the actual sphere. I have seen so many great shots of this event using a real sun filter that show sunspots, coronas etc, that I have not bothered to show mine.

PS I was fortunate and captured sunspots and coronas. Difficult to see in the small image size that I uploaded. Hmm, BTW, what is the maximum size allowed on this site??

 

[Ben Egbert]

1600 wide is the max listed in Forum guidelines at Landscape.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Mike,

Ben is correct that 1600 wide is the max. The system will resize anything larger then that down to 1600 automatically for viewing. How big was the image you did post?

Jim