Do you want to learn how I combine the exposure for my photo? Do you want to see how I use luminance masks to do so? Thank this tutorial series is for you.

Introducing my first ever tutorial video series “Master exposure blending“. In this video series I focus on how to combine different exposures using blending and HDR tonemaping. I explain how I prepare my photos in Lightroom, how to use layers and layer masks, how to created and use luminance masks and also how to blend with them. I also cover how I use Oloneo Photoengine and Photomatix to make the work quicker and how to blend panoramic images.

Contents

The series includes over 2 hours of video, covering these toppics

1. Welcome
2. Preparing brackets in Lightroom
3. Working with layers and layer masks
4. Luminance masks explained
5. Creating luminance masks
6. Blending two exposures
7. Blending multiple exposures
8. Using Oloneo Photoengine
9. Using Photomatix Pro
10. Blending panoramatic photos
11. Adding glow

To follow my work with luminance masks you will need a copy of any version of Photoshop. For the specific videos, I also suggest Ligtroom, as I think its the best program for photo organisation (but of course you can follow the blending videos without it). In the videos on Oloneo Photoengine and Photomatix Pro I use the respective software. In the video on Panorama blending I also use PTgui.

Additionally you will receive all the RAW files I’m using (28 in total), so you can try all the edits also for yourself.

The total download size is 1.3gb for the video files (all in 720p) and 650mb for the RAW images.

Introduction

Here you can see the welcome video, that also describes all that I will show you in this tutorial series

Sample

Here you can see the video on Adding glow. Please note, that I’m not a native English speaker.

Order

The whole tutorial can be ordered for 49 USD and can be immediately downloaded.

Sample photos

Here you can see the photos I work on in this video series. You have all the needed raw files in the download.

Affiliates

For all those of you who have your own page, and would like to promote my tutorial and also have a profit on every copy you sell, you can join my Affiliate program. The affiliate cut is 20% on every sale.

If you have any problems with the purchase or with the download, please contact me under miroslav.petrasko@hdrshooter.com

Master Exposure Blending – Free HDR tutorial

In this video series, I focus on how to combine different exposures using blending and HDR tone mapping. I explain how I prepare my photos in Lightroom, how to use layers and layer masks, how to create and use luminance masks, and also how to blend with them. I also cover how I use Oloneo Photoengine and Photomatix to make the work quicker and how to blend panoramic images.

Please note. As this series was first released a few years ago, some of the used software is already out of date. But the techniques shown are still valid, and most of them I use to this day.

The tutorial is completely free, but please don’t reupload the files to video-sharing sites. Please link to this blog post.

You can also find the whole playlist on Youtube here.

Photos used

Here you can see the photos I work on in this video series. You have all the needed raw files in the download.

To continue with my process series, as every Tuesday, here is another process post. This time its a manual blend of a photo from Maribor, Slovenia. So lets look at it.

To get to this finished result

I started as always in Lightroom. As you can see from the photo, I had to correct mostly the white balance and the horizon line.

After that I created a Oloneo HDR version of this photo and imported it into Photoshop together with the original exposures. Then I continued as follows (layers numbered from bottom up)
1. -1EV exposure to start with
2. 0Ev to brighten the bridge and the water
3. +1EV to brighten the bridge even more
4. Oloneo HDR result used to brighten the overall image
5. Color Efex pro contrast to add more local detail to the photo
6. High pass filter to add more detail
7+8. Added glow to the photo
9. Recovered parts of the city, as they lost too much contrast in previous edits
10. Brightened the extreme dark parts of the photo
11. Brightened few parts of the bridge from +2EV exposure
12. Added a little of Color Efex glamour glow

And that was all.

Continuing with the Tuesday tradition, today I have for you another process post, showing how I edited a photos. Today I chosen a recent blue hour from Bratislava. The edits here make only small changes, as I quite liked the photo to begin with :). So lets start.

To get to this result:

I started with this photo (this is a -2EV exposure, the 0EV was just too overexposed to be used as start)

I corrected the horizon and exported the -2EV and -1EV to Photoshop, as I knew that I didn’t need the other ones. I also created a -3EV exposure by underexposing the -2EV one and also loaded that into Photoshop. I then (layers numbered from bottom up):

1. -2EV exposures
2. The created -3EV exposure to darken the castle
3. -1EV exposure to brighten the water and foreground
4. Color Efex pro contrast to add more local contrast to the photo
5. A cleanup layers, as I had to remove few dust spots
6. Curves to darken the castle even more
7. Linear contrast for the whole image
8. Added more contrast to the Basic Midtones
9. Brightened the darkest areas of the photo
10. Color efex Detail extractor on the buildings to give them more detail
11. Color balance to remove the purple color cast on the photo
12. A little more contrast
13. Color balance to make the photo more warm

And that’s all :)

This will be a little rant, as I’m quite fed up with some people and few things need to be said. I think most of the photographers can relate to this.

As every photographer I get quite a lot of requests for photo usage from companies. As you know, all my photos are shared under the Creative commons licence, so that all who don’t profit from them can use them for free. But if a company uses them commercially, then they should buy it, as they use it to try to get more clients for themselves.

Of course the reality is different. A lot of companies contact me, and other photographers to ask if they can use the photos for free. Of course when you reply that for commercial use they have to buy the rights, usually they don’t respond to that at all, say that they will find someone else who would work for free, throw the non-profit organization in your face or promise you exposure. But let’s take a look at this.

1. Why don’t you work for free? – Let’s translate this into what it is. Work for free equals “I think your work is worthless, and so you should give it away. I don’t care how much time and money you spent to learn your skill, to buy your equipment, to get to the location. I don’t care how many nights you didn’t sleep to get up early to get your photo. I don’t care how many times you spent hours in the freezing cold to get a nice shot. I just don’t care. I’m paid for browsing the internet and writing insulting e-mails, so why should I care?”

2. We don’t even ask how much a photo cost – They just expect it to be free. What if my prices are reasonable, and they can afford it without problems? They don’t care, it’s free or nothing.

3. We can find someone who will give it for free – This is a sad truth. With the internet, they can search and search and sooner or later they will find someone who will give them the photo for free. Usually photographers who just started recently, don’t value their work so much, so they give it for free. But other photographers should teach them, and they should learn never to do that.

4. We are a non-profit organisation – Yes, they love this excuse. But do they know what that means, or should a photographer explain that to them? For those of you who don’t know, a non-profit organisation is a normal organisation, it just doesn’t generate any profit. They just spend the money. They have budgets, the people working there get paid and so on. In many countries their budget even has to be public, so you can check it out on their webpage. So what they say with saying that they are non-profit is “Everyone working here gets paid, but you are a stupid photographer and you should work for free. We really really think your work is worthless”.

5. You get free exposure – Another excuse companies love. But you know what, exposure does not pay bills. You just can’t live from it. And think about it. How many people have to see your photo for you to make a sale? 100? 1000? 10 000? It’s sometimes even more. You know there is a saying (I think it’s more fitting in Slovak, but the translation is also ok) “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and it fits perfectly here. And you know what? If they pay me, I can buy all the exposure I want. You can buy promos on Facebook, Google and many more. But I decide if I want that, not them.

6. It cost’s you nothing, you just have to press the shutter – This one is as insulting as it gets. By this logic, a driver should work for free, as he just turns a wheel, an accountant should work for free, as he just fills out forms, a hairdresser should work for free as he just has to cut with scissors and so on and on. By this logic, everyone should work for free, no? But lets take a look at my costs. First of all, it costs my time. It’s not just the second I take the photo, but I have to prepare for the shot, get to the location, take the shot, get home, upload the photos and edit the photo. It can take up to hours for a single photo. I also had to buy the camera, lens, tripod, memory card, computer to edit on and countless software tools.  And still I haven’t put a price on my skills that took me years to learn and I spent a lot of money to learn. And that’s of course the cheapest scenario. If I take photos in other than my city, I have to pay for the travel there, pay for the hotel, and so on and on and on. Compared to these expenses, a price for one photo is usually nothing.

7. There is no budget for the photos – Interesting. So you have a budget for everything else, just not for what you need? Again a popular excuse that means nothing, or in the most, the company does not know how to create budget’s. Just think about it. They made a budget for their website (magazine, booklet, flyer… whatever) and they forgot to include a budget for the PHOTOS? I also made a budget and I forgot to include my new car, please send me a free one :)

Let’s take an example here. Let’s say a company wants to make a booklet to promote their work. So they ask you for photos, and they ask you to give them for free just for the exposure. So what does that really mean?

• the person contacting the photographer gets paid, as she/he is doing her/his work
• the person creating the text for the booklet gets paid, as she/he usually works for the company
• the person creating the booklet in Photoshop gets paid
• the company that prints the booklet gets paid
• the company that distributes the booklet gets paid

Just the photographer, whose photos are the main part of the booklet, should work for free? They don’t expect any of the other people to work for free. They should try making the booklet without the photos, let’s see if it’s usable then. It really feels like an insult to me, and my work.

So that brings me to the original question. Is my work worthless? People like those think it is, but I have to disagree. You know, I gave away few photos, when I was a stupid beginner and I didn’t know better. But I learned, and so should every photographer. If you think about it, by giving photos for free, you not only show these people that your work is worthless. You also make it harder and take away work from professional photographers, who are depended on the income from their work.

There is one kind of organisation I don’t mind giving my photos for free. And that is a charity. But again, if everyone working for the charity gets paid for their work, it’s not a charity, its a normal commercial organisation, and either everyone should get paid, or no one.

It’s nice to see that there are still companies who understand how much work a photo is and it’s a pleasure to work with those. Too bad that the trend is going towards the bad ones.

If I can suggest anything to every photographer, don’t give your photos for free. Even if you think you are just an amateur. If they make money from your photos, so should you. You are not a charity, and the companies don’t need a handout. If you want to help people who really need your help, there are many other ways to do it.

Feel free to share this further and let me know your thoughts.