Creative question involving Layers

[Rex25937318m3u4]

I have 5 successive photos of a bee taking off from a flower. (see attached for examples)

I want to merge them into one photo, showing the bee at different stages of its flight.

I just can’t get the layers to work properly.

Thought of stacking the photos and erasing thru to each layer but can't make this work either.

Any advice on how to get the layers or erasing (or other) to work?

Thanks very much,

Using PSE 18.

[Greg_S.]

There are a number of difficulties with the 2 photos you have provided.  First and foremost is that the bees are not very sharp.  Secondly, each photo is shot at a different angle so it would be difficult to merge the full photos as layers.  Third, the background sky/cloud color is different for each shot of the bee.  This presents difficulty because the wings are semi-transparent so they don't merge in nicely to the background you may lay them on.

Having said all of that, my approach would be to choose your best background layer and then select and cut each of  the bees from the other photos and drag and drop them into the base layer. 

• Make a rough selection around each bee
• Press Ctrl+J to place the bee on a separate layer
• Hide or delete the background layer
• Open the main photo and drag and drop each separate bee from the Photo Bin to that photo
• Drag the layers to your desired location
• Clean up the area around the bee with the Eraser tool.

There are many variations on this theme that you could use, but hopefully this will give you an idea.

[Rex25937318m3u4]

Thanks for responding.  The 'photos' were taken on an iPhone in Live view so it's frustrating that the background sky/cloud color is so different (because they should be exactly the same). 

But, I will try this. 

Thanks again, 

[Greg_S.]

It was the bee's movement that caused the difference in background.  In one of your two photos, the bee is against the blue sky.  In the other, it is against the white cloud.