In this tutorial we’ll see how to add a beaufitul warm light and enhance the lights in the sky in a few easy steps. This technique is called Light Bleeding and consists in painting this light inside the image
Simply adjusting the opacity in the various areas of the sky and in the points that light strikes, the light bleeding technique helps to greatly increase the visual impact of light and our images
Enjoy the video
Finally I have again the opportunity to freely go out to photograph and on the first day I decided to go to the most famous spot of my city. It was great to take advantage of the total absence of tourists and people in the area but despite everything to avoid any possible presence of people, I went there for the sunrise
The splendid sunrays of sun that at this time of year are behind the Coliseum were unfortunately covered by clouds but anyway with all the sunrise colours on the sky
Talking about composition I preferred a vertical shot with composition, they are among my favorites, to emphasize the coliseum in the background and a leading compositional line towards the monument
I made the image with the focus stacking technique by shooting the bracketed image for each series of captured images. If you want to know more about this technique that I always use when taking photos like this, I recommend reading this guide
With the resulting expoures I digital blended the images using TTS Pro. With the help of luminosity masks I fixed highlights, shadows and contrasts. After adding details selectively I increased the color vibrance exalting magentas and blue colours
I added orton effect and with the use of dodge and burn I lightened the blacks around the Coliseum. With the glow tool I lightened some highlights in the sky and created soft light bleeding near the sun position. As final step I added a vignette to darken the foreground and to give more prominence to the central scene
As always I hope you will find this usefull! I like to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 100 at f/9
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
Few weeks ago I published an article called how to use color range to select highlights, in this article we’ll talk about how the color range tool is very helpful for making a quick and precise selection of all highlights making easy digital blending between exposures
This type of adjustment can also be used to select a precise mask based on color value, this technique is very useful when you want to make an adjustment to a specific color range. I often use this technique to easily create color value masks for precise selections when working on an image’s color balance, particularly for sunrises or sunsets
For example I need to select only some colors in the sky without affecting any of the other colors in the image. To do this Navigate to Select>Color range and a new window will appear
Compared to the color range tutorial this time I select sampled colors, with the eyedropper tool simply click on the color that you want to select.
After select the color we need to adjust the fuzziness, about this further right you pull it, the wider the selection becomes. If you want intead a more restricted selection, simply pull it back towards the left
By clicking ok, the Color Range window closes and the new selection with marching ants appear. With this selection active, it is possible to create the adjustment layer needed
Right side to the eyedropper tool selection there are other two eyedroppers:
The First: with a + symbol next the first eyedropper tool to add a new color to the selection without losing the old area selected. If we need to add a sampled color to the selection just press the eyedropper tool. In my example image I can select other colors to make my selection more complete. You can repeat the process as many times you need to add more colors to the selection
The Second: with a – symbol, to subtract a color by using the third and last Eyedropper Tool
Although I usually use Luminosity Masks to select areas in my workflow, I prefer using this Color Range technique when make adjustments to the sky for making specific selections based on colors or working on color balance
Selections such as this can be used for a large variety of purposes, for example with Photo Filters, Adjustment Layers, Curves, Color Balance, Levels, Hue/Saturation or either to add a mask using digital blending
So this was how to easily create color value masks for precise selection, if you want to let me know what you think about it or if you have further questions please let me know, I’m always happy to answer to you!
This week I take a break from the tutorials to return to publish some new photos and today I propose an old photo taken in Japan in 2018. I had discarded this photo at the time because I did not like that framing of leaves so blurred for which I didn’t have to chance to capture the shot using focus stacking for logistical problems…
In fact, to capture this temple with this view I had to climb through a very high bush for which not even the easel could reach, I took it freehand and on tiptoe. All this set of non-technical details, made me think that something wrong in this shot but that I reevaluated it today, also looking at the many images that run on web with very prominent framing like this
The blurring of the leaves on the left gives an idea of the context in which this splendid temple is located in Kyoto, a beautiful garden that I could safely admire and turn at the opening of the temple gates to avoid finding tourists in the area
I take this shot as single exposure so no digital blend was done for this, I started fixing highlights, shadows and contrast using luminosity masks.
I removed some chromatic aberrations around the corner of the leaves and I fixed colors first removing any color cast than increasing the purple tones and increasing vibrance
I added some more details selectively, than I added a soft orton effect. As final step I added a small vignette increasing the light in the center to make the image more pop
I hope you will find this usefull! I like to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Sigma 24-70 f/2,8 (used at 70mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 200 at f/7,1
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
The power of landscapes is something magical that captures, that attract, that relaxes us. Being transported by the images of natural landscapes is something that fascinates, that allows us to imagine and transport
As a landscape photographer in shooting natural sceneries I always try to guide the viewer’s eye in the frame and post production helps to amplify this aspect towards our imagination and nature
In this article, we will see 5 Post Processing tips for Better Landscape Photography, thanks to which with some we could restore the original beauty of the scene you see or enhance that scene further and push it more toward’s imagination
Color Cast can happen in several photos situations, it constitutes a somewhat unavoidable element of photography in many situations, for the white balance not always perfectly set or using an ND filter that leaves us a cast in the photo
On how to remove the color cast from a photo I published a specific article some time ago called 4 Methods to Correct Color Cast in Photoshop, the video below will show you how I removed the cast from the shot with 4 easy ways
This technique is very useful for enhancing the sunset colors with excellent results, through light bleeding we will literally go to painting directly within our image with the color we want to enhance
Let’s see how to do it:
Create new layer: To create a new layer, go to the button left of the trash can in the layers panel and click on it;
Select Color Picker tool: and find the color you want to enhance, when the color picker tool window will open, move the cursor to the color tonality you want to enhance;
Paint across the frame: into the new layer created on all areas you need to affect of the paint;
Change the blending mode to soft light: decrease the opacity to softener the effect;
Mask out the ares you don’t want to affect: in case you acidentally wrong with brush, just create a layer mask and paint with black the unwanted paints
I like very much the magical feel created by orton effect, it’s a great way to add glow and give more impact to your image. Many times the dreamy feel of orton effect fits very good to landscape photography, increasing the dark mood and glow
I created a guide to create different types of Orton Effect, you cand find them in the dedicated article 3 different ways to Create Beautiful Orton Effect.
Below the main steps to create Orton Effect
Duplicate Background Layer: Right-click on it and choose duplicate layer or press Ctrl+J (Mac Cmd+J);
Apply Image: Navigate to Image>Apply Image. On the dialog box make sure to change the layer to background, channel RGB and select multiply;
Apply Gaussian Blur: Now on the same layer apply gaussian blur, I usually set radius between 22 and 45 it depends on the image;
Change The Blend Mode: Now change the blending mode to screen and reduce the opacity as your taste
A very effective method to give greater impact to your photos is to add details and create beautiful textures that complete or guide the viewer’s attention through the scenery
When you apply the details enhancer remember that is a enhance that performs better when used through a selective application, for that I recommend you to read my article on this thread how to increase details selectively which you can find the related video below:
Pro Tip
A further step to the selective details enhancements is to add them through the use of the luminosity masks and apply the selection, to better understand it I created a course dedicated course to the use of the luminosity masks including the selective application of the details called Mastering Luminosity Masks
Another powerful editing tool that I often use in my workflow is dodge and burn. It is a tool that allows us to emphatize some elements of the photo in a very specific way
Through the use of dodge and burn it is possible to darken or lighten some areas and following the direction of the light, thanks to this it is possible to create situations of great scenic impact. But how to create a dodge and burn filter?
Below the necessary steps:
1. Create a new layer;
2. In the new Layer dialog box select overlay and Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray);
3. Select the dodge tool or white brush and paint all the areas that need to be lightened;
4. Select the burn tool or black brush with the same opacity and paint all the areas that need to be darkened;
If you get a look at the grey thumbnail for the “dodge and burn” layer in the Layers palette, you can see all the areas painted with black or white like the image below;
Here a before after image with dodge and burn filter applied, you can see some areas are lightened or darkened simply using paintbrush
Pro Tip
The next step to dodge and burn is to apply it to luminosity masks and avoid every change to wrong the paint over the picture, there is a specific tutorial I created about this you can find in my dedicated article How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks, below the related video:
Conclusions:
These were 5 Post Processing tips for better Landscape Photography for feel free to write me to let me know the ones you use. As always if you have any question write feel free to contact me, I am always happy to answer you!
Among my favorite subjects there are certainly the cityscapes, during my travels in Asia I had the opportunity to explore urban landscapes like these many times, which offer beautiful shots from an architectural point of view, especially at dusk in these spots you can work with colors of city lights in contrast with the night twilight
In this article I want to talk about a very simple digital blending technique that I often use whenever I find myself managing an image like this. It’s very usefull to speed up and optimize the workflow, I recommend that small tip that in a few steps allows you to exposure blend two or more images in order to easily obtain an exposure with optimal highlights
So let’s start the digital blending using color range technique:
I captured a series of shots of this place and I selected this two exposures
The darker expousure is nicely exposed along the lights on the buildings and a brighter exposure better for reflections and everything else. In this case we need to recover the highlights in the brighter exposure from the darker one
The first thing to do is to stack both layers as you normally do when you digital blend and make the darker exposure unvisible
After this create a mask on the darker exposure
Than navigate to to Select>Color Range and here select Highlights
In this selection the highlights are the brights parts and the shadows are the darker ones, we need to separate the brighter tones with the darker tones
When you’re happy with the selection press ok, than put the layer thumbnail visible of the darker exposure and you will see the digital blending using color range have recovered the highlights just with a click in the brighter exposure
If you don’t want to affect some part of the exposure like this colored reflections on the foreground you can always select a black brush and paint those parts out as I do for the colored spot at the bottom 🙂
A shot on a mountain view in Passo Falzarego captured during a strongly overcasted day. The light that hit the top of the mountain seemed to turn on that mountainous stretch of lighter nature, giving great difference of colors and tones to the rest of the mountain, the cloudy sky of those days characterizes the surrounding environment of a truly very involving atmosphere
I captured this shot with my 70-200 by freehand, (thanks VR :)) I made 3 bracketing shots that I easily realigned in Photoshop when making my corrections
I digital blend the shots using TTS Pro starting from the darker exposure I used the auto blend function with the brighter exposure. I corrected contrast, lights and colors than I applied details to the whole frame
I give a touch of orton effect as I usually do in my every mountainscape, because I really like this effect on the mountain scenery, with dodge and burn I fixed up the yellow light over the mountain and I lightened the dark part of the sky
Again with the use of luminosity masks I made some adjustments to the highlights and shadows, after adding a cooling filter I applied selective warm color to the mountain lightened by the sun
As final step I added a vignette and slightly reduced the exposure of the picture to increase the sense of dark atmosphere
I really hope you will find this usefull! I like to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Nikon 70-200 f/2,8 (used at 98 mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 100 at f/9
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
This image comes from a freehand single shot during my last excursion along the dolomites. It is beautiful to see how the light filters through the mountains, leaving behind you a glimpse of a blue sky veiled with rays of yellow lights
Although from a first glance the forest and the mountains may seem on the same level they are actually at two completely different depths and during my editing with Photoshop I tried to increase these visual differences by increasing the contrasts and adjusting the exposures in this sense
I tried to let the viewer focus his attention on the scenery at the bottom but without decreasing the importance of what constitutes the forest at the foot of the mountain
As said at the beginning of this post this is a single shot, so for this photo I did not do digital blending but I only used the luminosity masks to correct lights, contrast and colors
I increased the light effect coming through the sky with dodge and burn and I launched orton effect as I usually do in every my lanscape. After a small push up of yellows tones, I decreased the blacks and the shadows in order to give more prominence to the mountain
With the use of clone stamp tool, I removed some bushes on the bottom of the picture that moves attention away and I manually create a vignette using the glow tool you can find insid my TTS Pro panel
I increased the colors increasing vibrance and a small decrease of expoure as last touch
I hope you will find this usefull! I’m happy to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Nikon 70-200 f/2,8 (used at 180 mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 320 at f/9
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
During this shot the sun was lowering in the sky and the colors of the sunset began, I captured the vertical scene to give the viewer a greater sense of movement between the waterfall and the mountain
This photo spot come next to the lake photographed in my last post, in fact I found this small artificial waterfall very close to the lake, probably the waterfall is used as energy source, the small costruction maybe is a energy cabin
I used a bridge that passed over it to benefit from a facilitated composition to portray both the flow of the waterfall and all the beautiful scenery that was behind it
I used a 3 stop ND filter since the light was not very strong I only tried to apply a filter that could give me more exposure without lengthening the exposure times too much
I blended the shots using TTS Pro using auto blend darks function, than painting the darker areas with luminosity masks in order to recover the exposure in the darker areas using the brighter exposure
I made some adjustmesnts using clone stamp tool and I fixed perspective on the house, increased the sunset colors appliyng a warm filter to luminosity masks and increasing the highlights into the sun direction
After adding orton effect I applied dodge and burn with a warm brush over the water and on the rocks on the foreground. I lightened some other spot of the image using luminosity masks increasing darks and some highlights
As final touch I incresed the vibrance colors of the frame reducing the opacity to 60%
I hope you will find this usefull! I’m happy to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14 mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 100 at f/14
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
In the splendid setting of the Alps I took advantage of every single shot and moment of light that I had available, it was a beutiful excursion and a very prolific day from a photographic point of view. I made this shot using a large root of a tree that protruded from the ground around the frozen lake with the mountain in the background to complete the scenery
Here too, as in my two previous photos, I shot with the focus stacking technique, then first capturing a series of shots for the foreground and then a new series of shots for the mountain in the background. The result is a shot completely in focus, you can find more information on this technique in my article dedicated to how to use focus stacking with exposure bracketing
The processing was very similar to the latest of this series, I firstly blended the shots with respective focus, than I blended the two groups of images using focus stacking technique
With the use of TTS Pro I added details and contrast to the frame, than I increased warm lights with a warm filter applied to luminosity masks. I launched orton effect, than I fixed lights and contrasts using again luminosity masks around the main point of interests such as highlights and dark shadows
With the use of dodge and burn I lighten the root in order to give more appearance to the eye of the viewer, I also lightened the trees below the mountain and given more prominence to the sunlight reflections on the ice
I increased the colour vibrance and the autumn colour look using the specific effect you can find in my free panel
As final touch I darkened the the lawn area around the roots to give greater prominence to the central figure of the photo
I hope you will find this usefull! I’m happy to ear this from you!
Camera: Nikon D-800
Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14 mm)
Single Shot
ISO: 100 at f/14
Software: Photoshop CC2020
Plugin: TTS Pro
Hi, my name is Giuseppe Sapori, a professional photographer and author of this website, created by yours truly to show my work and share with you the techniques I use. My expertise is in the field of Landscape Photography... (Read More)
