Combining several images

[neil40]

I recently attended a firework demo (showing customers the latest products). Fireworks were set off individually over a 2 hour period which gave me the chance to experiment. One such attempt was to fire off several shots of bursts at around 1/60. This gave a series of images of the firework and what I would like to do is overlay each one on to a single frame. However I am having difficulty trying to find the best method to display all the light trails from each shot.

Anyone able to offer advice?

[Daviskw]

Hi neil

If the backgrounds are consistent and black then just change the layer blendmodes to Screen.

In the example... two shot combined..... The top layer blendmode set to screen.

If you have a lot of smoke that shows light at the edges you may need to attach a mask and use a large soft brush to hide and blend the edge.

Butch

[mistermonday]

Neil, welcome to Retouch Pro. The Lighten Blend Mode in PS was definitely intended for your type of application. Colors which are brighter than the background color will be the resulting color, otherwise the background will remain dark (or black). Example below.
Regards, Murray

[neil40]

As a long time lurker I have found this website to be really useful. Thanks for the suggestions - I'll report back as to how they ended up.