This is my second attempt at a Pep Ventosa-style tree photo. I learned some things from the last. This round I made an attempt to frame the tree in the same place and with a relatively similar composition as I went. I am currently stranded out of state by last-night's snow storm, so I'm 200 miles away from my editing PC and software. This is a preview I managed to throw together using images cropped in camera and layered using Pixlr X. It's nowhere near what I want the final result to be, but I would like to share my timid first steps. In 2-3 days when I'm able to get home, I'll try again. Feel free to offer suggestions or critique. I'm looking at this as an experiment and am eager to figure this out.
That's really cool looking, I like it. I'm not sure if you mean to have the extra bits on the sides due to software constraints; but I actually like them being there.
The extra bits were because of the software constraints. I think I may try to keep a white border. The effect works very well in your photos, and I've tried it before, but never gotten a picture that it really adds to in the past.
It looks like you have the technique down Matthew. I agree that the misaligned edges could add something but find the dark/contrasty areas distracting.
Can't wait to see the final image
Thank you Alan! Were you talking about the darker areas in the tree or in the background?
The edges of the background-the tree is fine.
I made it home safely yesterday. I'm finding that this kind of processing pushes the limits of even the equipment I have, which I've never had issues with before. ON1 has crashed twice. Once as I started out, and once after I was on layer 17. I may have to take some time to figure out the best way to make this work.
I'm wondering why the computer would have issues.. my curiosity is peeked, so to speak.. Is t just running so many layers vs running out of memory? Mac? PC? if PC try boosting the Page File size?
I think it's running so many layers. I have a fairly good PC setup, but it isn't the the greatest ever. I tried to open all the layers simultaneously to start, which caused a crash. Then I had added one at a time and it crashed on the last one. What I may try is doing it in batches. Process and combine layers 1-5 and export as a single .jpeg, then the same with 6-10 and 11-17. Then do a third composite with the three .jpeg files. That might be more manageable.
I bumped into something similar with my old computer. It started crashing when dealing with several files in photoshop; say doing a 15+ image pano stitch... But it didn't always crash, so I know it could do it... Check your Windows page file size and set it to either automatic, or to x3 the size of your system memory. Then in photoshop itself set the memory/scratch settings to default; with the memory usage slider to around 70% of the total system memory size. This was my issue I had bumped that slider up a bit higher but the system itself was running out of physical memory - PS is a hog. heh.
After a crash, if you go into Administration Tools > Event Viewer - you can check the logs to see what caused the crash which will be represented in a red event at the time of the crash. It will be a code but can be googled. Generally it will prob have to do with memory. If you want to check your system memory windows 10 has a built in memory check program "windows memory diagnostics"; it will restart your computer and check the system memory.
it also wouldn't hurt to check the health of your main drive as well. In a rare case I had windows place it's page file onto a single bad sector of the drive causing "memory" styled crashed. So in this case I turned off the page file completely; scanned the drive so it could mark the bad sector, then turned paging back on. Then swapped out the drive when I could.
Sorry I'm a tech guy :)
Thank you very much for your help, Joe. I'm not actually editing using photoshop. I use ON1 Photo Raw 2020. I also think that could have a part in the issue as well. It may just not be up to the task.
Ahhh gotcha. Not sure if it would help, or worth the effort, but I believe Photoshop CS3 can just be downloaded and used freely now. Just tossing out ideas as they would say. I know how it feels to have software stumble and get in the way of ones work.
I had a similar issue occasionally when opening layers in Photoshop on my old PC. I believe processes may have been timing out due to slowness.
This led me to build a new PC, which is sooooo much faster.
Opening so many layers does tax the system, I’d try closing whatever you can to free up as much resources as possible.
I will hopefully have the issues resolved by the end of the weekend. I'm excited to have a final product put out.
Good luck Matthew - there could be so many causes that might explain this (including those mentioned by Joe). I, and I'm sure Joe, can advise further if the issue persists.