Can PSE 2.0 overlay two photos of same image?

[Peter Sale]

If I expose an interior photo of a room with a brightly lit window, either
the interior will be under-exposed and the window (exterior) will be
properly exposed, or window will be over-exposed and the wall will be
properly exposed. This is especially true when shooting with a digital
camera.

Is there some way in Photoshop Elements to "overlay" the properly exposed
window on
top of the photo with the over exposed window (and properly exposed
interior), producing a single image where both the window AND the interior
are both properly exposed?
Regards,
Peter

[Chuck Snyder]

This whole process as described by Ray assumes your original images are
taken from exactly the same vantage point (a tripod-mounted camera, no
change in zoom setting) and can be brought into tight 'registration' with
each other. If you're talking about merging two images shot handheld,
you're going to have some considerable work to do to get them to align
properly.

Another alternative is to take one exposure, set to expose for the
highlights, i.e., the window, and use a Levels Adjustment layer with a
gradient mask to hold the highlights while bringing up the details in the
shadows - assuming there's still some detail there. If the exposure value
difference between the highlights and shadows is too great, that won't work
and you'll want to try Ray's approach.

[Susan S.]

The method Chuck describes is the one that I use - I'm rather too lazy about using a tripod to do the combining different exposures. The Luminous landscape website has a tutorial on blending
<http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml>

Note that what Ray is doing is the Elements-out-of the box version of their first solution. If you have an add-on to Elements giving the ability to create a layer mask then you should be able do the second solution as is - and I don't think it would be very difficult to work out how to do create a similar mask using the grouped layer technique that Ray has suggested. (I don't have time to work out the steps right now, but it shouldn't be hard).

Luminous landscape is a fantastic resource with some truly fabulous pictures if you've never come across it before
Susan S.

Edit: thinking about it, I feel that there ought to be a way to get one image to lighten the darker parts of another by using blending modes - I don't have suitable images to play with right now to see if it works.

[Susan S.]

I've had a go at doing this now - and I think that Ray's method works best - but it can be quite hard to get a correctly exposed photograph of the darker areas that doesn't have lens flare or blooming of highlights that from the overexposed portion, making the blending quite difficult - this was especialy noticeable for the situation the original poster was considering with a bright view through a window from a dark interior - Why don't these digicams ever come with a lenshood?! It worked much better for landscape shots where the range of contrast was less. But then Chuck's method works much better then too!

I coudn't get anything that worked with blending modes! Wishful thinking again.

susan S