Light trails and question for post processing

[P Plates]

Decided to have a go at shooting light trails. Now I live in regional Queensland so limited for good vantage points. Found a goat track leading to hill overlooking a reasonably busy bypass road.

In a recent photo magazine they had an article on light trails and advice for PP if traffic isn't very dense to combine different exposures.
"Copy and paste images over each other. Copy the contents (Ctrl-A & Ctrl-C) of the 2nd photo and paste into the first image (Ctrl-V) This appears as a new layer. Do the same with other exposures as necessary." Then went on to say click on each new layer and change blending mode to lighten to allow light trails to show through and mask as necessary.

I tried the first part Ctrl-A etc without success. Either I'm missing a step or need far more detailed description - anyone have better idea?

This shot was 2 trucks coming towards me and I took 2 shots to get the trails around the whole frame and blended.

066 light trails by AusGabby, on Flickr


063 light trails by AusGabby, on Flickr

Next time have to remember the aeroguard - mossies chased me home fairly quickly.

[beeb]

Worked fine for me...



Ctrl+A is just 'Select All', alternatively you could use the marquee tool (the rectangular 'marching ants' box tool...) but it's easier with Ctrl+A. You probably know these, but Ctrl+C means Copy, and then Pasting onto the other image can be done with Ctrl+V - or all the options can be found under the "Edit" Menu at the top of the screen. Only suggestion I could offer would just be to make sure you have the image active before you try to select it all with Ctrl+A, sometimes Photoshop can be the visible screen but not actually the active program/application...

I dropped the first shot over the second, so when I deleted the sky (otherwise they get all mixed together by the "Lighten" blend mode...), the shot kept the sky with the warmer tones.

Nice shot BTW!

[P Plates]

Thanks Tim - will try again when I have the time - trying to get some Xmas cooking done. I took quite a few shots as the traffic was sketchy at times.