And another Monday is upon us and that means another process post. For today I chosen a manually blended photo taken in Edinburg, Scotland. So let’s take a look at it.

Here you have the final photo and the original 0EV RAW file.

 
So what I needed to correct was that few areas were to bright, few were too dark and the whole image was too cold. So I started as always, by loading the 5 exposures into Lightroom. There are corrected the lens distortion, chromatic abberations and a little noise. Then I exported all the files into Photoshop layers.

 
I then did the following edits (layers numbered from bottom up):
1. -1EV exposure as the base for edits. I had better overall exposure for the sky so that’s why I chosen it as the start.
2. -2EV exposure to darken the pillars and the middle area of the sky.
3. 0EV to brighten the street and the pillars
4. +1EV to brighten the shadow areas
5. +2EV to brighten a small dark part in the photo.
6. Added contrast to the basic mid-tones
7. Added more detail using a high-pass filter
8+9. Added glow to the photo
10. Brightened the dark areas even more (I explained this step in a video I posted few days ago)
11. I wanted the pillars to have a more golden color, so using a soft light layer, I sampled a color from the back pillars and painted it onto them.
12. Changed the hue of the blue color a little toward purple.
13. Color efex pro contrast to get more local contrast and detail. I removed the effect from the sky and the highlight on the pillars.

 
And that’s all I did with this image. To find out more on how I edit, check out the guides and before after categories on this blog, or check out my video tutorial series here:

Yesterday I posted a photo from a very sunny day, so how about today a shot from a very cloudy day :) This one is from Budapest and I’m actually stopping this week there, as on the 20th it’s again the St. Stephens day, and there will again be huge fireworks above the city. So of course, great opportunity to get some nice photos :) If all goes well, you should see them by the end of next week.

This is a HDR from 3 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine. The photo was taken through a Hoay ND 400 filter.

Social networks

Which one is your preferred social network? I noticed that each time I add a new one, I drop one. There is only so much time I’m prepared to spend on posting stuff. That’s why I almost completely dropped G+ recently, when I added Instagram. So right now I post regularly to Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Tumblr (but Tumblr is automated and connected to my Flickr account). I also do 500px, but not on such a regular basis. And I just feel that’s enough. What do you think?

Very blue sky

I usually don’t use the polarizing filter at all, but in Dubai, with the crazy blue sky, it was a must. And it really helped. But still there is something I don’t like about daytime shots. Maybe I just need to get used to them, as I much prefer sunrise/sunset and blue hour shots :)

This is a HDR from 3 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

I was thinking what to include in the blog post today, and in the end I thought that I will create a small video tutorial, for something I do very often in my editing. So here it is. In this video, I will show you have I use luminance selection and curves, to brighten and darken parts of the photo, without loosing the overall contrast.

You can also download the PSD of the final file that you can see in the video from Dropbox here.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and don’t forget to switch the video to 720p :)

For more videos from me, check out my Video tutorial series Master exposure blending here:

Free copy of Perfect Effects 8

For those who missed this last time, you can again get a copy of OnOne Perfect Effect 8 completely for free. Just head over to their page and get it now :)

Perfect Effect is a huge collection of filters, than you can apply to your photo, to make your work and editing easier. And since it’s free, so why not give it a try?

Above the city

If I lived in Dubai, I would probably go up to the Burj Khalifa very often. There is just something about being so high above a city, that I really like. I actually though about doing a helicopter tour while in Dubai, but let it be this time. But will definitively have to try it next time (and there will be a next time :))

This is a HDR from 3 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.