How to Do a Blue Hour Blend - Milky Way Photography

Blue hour blends are becoming increasingly popular amongst Milky Way and astrophotographers. A blue hour blend involves blending a foreground photo shot during the blue hour with a Milky Way or other night photo. The main benefit of this technique is that you will have a foreground with far more detail and less noise, since it was shot at a lower ISO.
When not done correctly, this technique looks terrible. If you don't know how to properly blend the two exposures together, your photo won't look realistic. In this video, you'll learn what you need to know to properly blend blue hour exposures.

[@jeanettflynn]

Painting on the mask with the brush set to Overlay is brilliant! Great tutorial.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thank you!!!

[@rayshirley4070]

Awesome tutorial Austin. Especially like the tip on painting with the brush tool in overlay mode.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad you liked it!!

[@Henry_Churches]

Awesome tutorial man! Thank you!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

No problem!

[@yahmoht6470]

Man!! Overlay brush mode was something else!! Extraordinaire!!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Hope it helps!!

[@boycefitzgerald]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GusMcCrae01]

Excellent info here Austin.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@jimbob4484]

great video mate. Super informative!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad you liked it!

[@apeander694]

Great tutorial! Can't wait to try out the brush on overlay technique. What park has those cool stone pillars with the gapping holes you photographed?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

It’s here in the desert southwest! Thanks for watching.

[@RyanLunaPhotography]

Lots of ways to do this. My favorite way is to put the ground and sky in sperate layer folders. Place the masks on the folders, then you can drop adjustment layers within respective folders without having to use the "box with down arrow".

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Yeah! That works too. Sometimes I do it that way as well.

[@SeryZoneX]

11:26 - Artistic 'Double Exposure' :)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

👍

[@MHarvey-tp5km]

Thank you Austin James Jackson

[@AustinJamesJackson]

No problem!

[@rrr46060]

nice tips, have you ever tried sky replacement, it seems to work really well also

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I know how to do it, but don’t use it in my photography personally!

[@801adventures]

@11:38, what is the shortcut for PC?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

It should be either alt or option depending on which one your keyboard has!

[@johncarter591]

So Many ways to refine a Mask! Another way is to use the dodge and Burn tools on the Mask OR use the Brush tool on overlay mode at 50%

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Absolutely! Great tip!

[@zMarcusHD]

isnt this compositing and not blending

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I consider those the same thing.