ETTR High Contrast Scene Processing.

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Andrew Astbury

ETTR High Contrast Scene Processing.

When faced with a high contrast scene like this most photographers would automatically resort to bracketing shots.

Sometimes you will be in a situation where shooting a bracketed sequence is difficult or impossible.

But a single image exposed to the right of the histogram – ETTR – where highlights are recorded at their maximum level of exposure can allow the camera sensor to capture far more detail in the darker areas than Lightroom will allow you to see at first glance.

Exposing to the right (of the in-camera histogram) correctly means that you expose the brightest scene highlights AS HIGHLIGHTS.

But it’s a balancing act between exposing them fully, and ‘blowing’ them.

Getting the ETTR exposure correct invariably means that the sensor receives MORE exposure across all tonal ranges, so you end up with more usefully recoverable shadow detail too.

In this video I show you a full Lightroom and Photoshop workflow to produce a noise-free image from a raw file exposed in just such a way.

Members of my Patreon site can download the all the workflow steps together with the raw file so that they can follow my processing, and perhaps come up with their own versions too!

Lumenzia Plugin for Photoshop: https://getdpd.com/cart/hoplink/21529?referrer=c0vpzfhvq7ks8cw8c

Lumenzia + Comprehensive Training: https://getdpd.com/cart/hoplink/21529?referrer=c0vpzfhvq7ks8cw8c&p=165704

Just to keep you up to speed on my video channel, here’s my previous video from last week which illustrates how I do my dust-spot and blemish removal in Photoshop:

Lumenzia – New Training

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Andrew Astbury

Lumenzia – New Training Course Available

Regular subscribers to my blog and YouTube channel should know by know that I highly recommend Greg Benz’s Lumenzia plugin for Photoshop.

I know many readers of my blog have downloaded the Lumenzia plugin from my links dotted around the site, and previous posts such as HERE and HERE

Lumenzia is just about the best tool you can buy to help you master exposure blending using luminosity masks, but its uses do not stop there – I use it on quite a lot of my images for making ‘controlled tweaks’ in Photoshop.

But it is most readily associated with landscape photography exposure blending.

An awful lot of people have asked me if I’d do a set of comprehensive training videos on how to use Lumenzia, but that would be a little difficult to do without on-going additions as the plugin is frequently updated with new facilities.

But I’m pleased to say the Greg Benz (the plugin author) has just launched a comprehensive training course for Lumenzia, and I have bought the course myself!

Yes, that’s right – I’ve bought someone else’s training!

Lumenzia

After watching the videos that Greg has put together I can honestly say that the course is excellent – as you would expect.

The course is hosted on Teachable – so you don’t have to download any huge chunky videos either.

For those of you who already have the Lumenzia Photoshop plugin you can get the full course by clicking on the following link:

Exposure Blending Master Course

And for those of you you have NOT already got the plugin itself, you can buy it bundled with the training course on the link below:

Lumenzia + Exposure Blending Master Course

If you only want the plugin, you can still get that on its own by clicking below:

Lumenzia Plugin on its own click here.

Greg covers everything you need to know in order to leverage the power of Lumenzia. And anything that gets people to use Photoshop gets an extra ‘thumbs up’ from me!

Greg is the one trainer I know of who does what I do with my training videos – supply RAW files to support each of the lessons.

You will get raw files from various cameras including some D850 files, so you will have the added bonus of seeing how these cameras perform in the hands of an expert photographer.

So, I strongly urge you to use the links above and purchase this great training course from Greg Benz, and get to grips with Lumenzia.

You might be wondering why the heck I’m promoting training from someone else.

Well, the reasons are two-fold; I’ve already said that logistically it would be a nightmare because of the fundamental updates.

But more importantly, I’d never be able to teach you how Lumenzia works any better than Greg himself – he IS the plugin author, so it stands to reason!

Become a patron from as little as $1 per month, and help me produce more free content.

Patrons gain access to a variety of FREE rewards, discounts and bonuses.

Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Colours

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Sunset Sky and Lighting

Sunset lighting and sky as captured by the camera – image is in need of some enhancement.

Now THAT’S more like it!
Simple enhancement in Photoshop using Lumenzia.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the image looks fantastic after the processing, but if you watch the video below you’ll see that it’s such an easy, quick and simple procedure.

If you are reading this post via email then click HERE to see the video:

Get the LUMENZIA plug-in for Photoshop HERE

The first key to this simple adjustment is the mask from behind which the colour enhancement is made:

The L2 Lumenzia mask, modified slightly with a white brush in the Overlay blend mode.

There are a number of ways that this mask can be created, but all of them are more time-consuming to create then by using the simple Lumenzia interface.

The second key move is to switch the blend mode of the colour overlay layer (then one this mask applies to) to the Hard Light blending mode within the layers panel.

The overall adjustment process is, other than the minimal amount of manual brush ‘tweaking’ of the mask, simply a matter of a few clicks here and there – it couldn’t be simpler really now could it.

If you have not bought the Lumenzia plug-in for Photoshop then get it here

UPDATE: Greg Benz (the plugin author) has launched a comprehensive Lumenzia training course – see my post here for more information.

Become a patron from as little as $1 per month, and help me produce more free content.

Patrons gain access to a variety of FREE rewards, discounts and bonuses.