combining photos

[zoran]

Suppose i have a glass bottle that i want to photoshoot in order to editi it with pshop, display it photorealistically and generally make it look better with its glares etc.
Is there some way i can combine different photo shoots of the same product, in order to make it look better and faster. Something like the HDR technology perhaps?

 

[dwig]

Combine multiple pix of same object? = yes
Make it look better? = Maybe, but not automatically
Faster? = faster than what??

You could:

1. shoot a set of images with various lighting positions with the camera mounted on a tripod so that the image are framed exactly the same.
2. open all of the images in Ps so that each is on its own layer.
3. turn off all of the layers except the bottom layer.
4. identity the flaws in the bottom layer (unwanted reflections, ...)
5. turn on the next layer up to see if it doesn't have one of more of the flaws. If it has a better area then add a mask, fill the mask with black, and then paint white on the mask to reveal the "better" area(s).
6. repeat the previous step with the next layer and so forth.

To accomplish #2 you can simply open one image and then, one by one, open each additional image into Ps and drag its entry in the Layers panel onto the first image. If your version of Ps has it, you could use File>Scripts>Load Files Into Stack... and Ps will do the stacking as layers for you.

This is not particularily fast, but depending on your Ps skills it may be faster than manual retouching. How well the sections of the different images fit together will depend on how the lighting changes look and how uniform the exposures are. I've done this successfully with architectural photos to eliminate moving people and traffic.

 

[needfx]

Combine multiple pix of same object? = yes
Make it look better? = Maybe, but not automatically
Faster? = faster than what??

You could:

1. shoot a set of images with various lighting positions with the camera mounted on a tripod so that the image are framed exactly the same.
2. open all of the images in Ps so that each is on its own layer.
3. turn off all of the layers except the bottom layer.
4. identity the flaws in the bottom layer (unwanted reflections, ...)
5. turn on the next layer up to see if it doesn't have one of more of the flaws. If it has a better area then add a mask, fill the mask with black, and then paint white on the mask to reveal the "better" area(s).
6. repeat the previous step with the next layer and so forth.

To accomplish #2 you can simply open one image and then, one by one, open each additional image into Ps and drag its entry in the Layers panel onto the first image. If your version of Ps has it, you could use File>Scripts>Load Files Into Stack... and Ps will do the stacking as layers for you.

This is not particularily fast, but depending on your Ps skills it may be faster than manual retouching. How well the sections of the different images fit together will depend on how the lighting changes look and how uniform the exposures are. I've done this successfully with architectural photos to eliminate moving people and traffic.

excellent pointers suggested!!
would like to add that if OP is nifty, he can also start painting over with brushes in variable opacities to further accentuate details of the glass, but glass is tricky and this has lots of trial and error further adding to overall completion time.