How to average two photos?

[sofias787809]

Hi,

I am brand new to Photoshop. Never used it in my life. I am trying to average two photos. I've included a screenshot of my Photoshop screen for reference.

After watching three videos, I wanted to do the following to achieve an average of my two images:

1) convert my two images into one smart object, 2) Go to Layers>Smart Objects>Stack Mode>Mean.

However, Photoshop won't let me select BOTH images to convert them into one smart object. Even when I select one photo, and hold the Shift key to select the other one, it won't let me. I also tried Control-A. It wouldn't let me either. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong or not doing?

Please be gentle and kind. I'm not conversant in intricate Photoshop language.

Thank you very much for your time.

[Guest]

Hi

Are you selecting the layers

[sofias787809]

All I've been able to do is: File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack

[sofias787809]

That's it, I can't select the layers. It won't let me.

[Myra Ferguson]

Try Alt + Ctrl + A (or Select > All Layers from the menu). Control + A selects everything on whichever layer(s) is selected.

[sofias787809]

Hi, When I did ALT CTR A keystroke, it blended the images into something super dark.

[Myra Ferguson]

Alt + Ctrl + A just selects all layers. If you're getting a blend that's dark, it's likely you've changed the blend mode to multiply or darken or done another operation like added a layer style (which usually includes a blend mode, too). Here's some info on both of those:  Blending modes in Adobe Photoshop and Layer effects and styles in Adobe Photoshop

[melissapiccone]

You select the layers by clicking on one layer and holding shift key while clicking on the other one - that is not working? What happens when you do that?

[sofias787809]

So I tried that, and nothing happens. It doesn't select the other picture. Is it because I did File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack?

[Myra Ferguson]

No, loading files into a stack takes different files and consolidates them into one file on separate layers. Image stacks in Adobe Photoshop

[sofias787809]

I see, thank you.

[Stephen Marsh]

A simple method is to layer the two images, then make the top layer 50% opacity normal blend mode.

[sofias787809]

I like this. How do I do that?

[Stephen Marsh]

Layer the two images, then set the upper layer to 50% opacity in the layer panel:

Which pretty much results in a visually identical result to using a dedicated average blending method (the method described below is better with more than two layers, as one does not have to mess with each layers opacity):

https://www.davidebarranca.com/2012/03/how-to-stack-layers-in-photoshop-as-mean/