How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks

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How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks

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Dodge and Burn is a very used technique in photoshop, it allows you to emphasize some of the main elements a image focusing on some points of it. Dodge and burn is mainly use to guide the viewer’s eye to the leading lines. Some time ago I wrote an article about this technique called Dodge and Burn 2 non destructive techniques compared where I talked about how to create the effect without any risk to make any damage to your image

Among the methods illustrated to create dodge and burn there  is the use of a 50% gray  layer and to use separate layers, both are efficient methods but they apply globally to the image. The risk is to apply the effect where is not needed, for this reason the application of luminosity masks into the dodge and burn layer is the key

In the video below I explain how to dodge and burn using luminosity masks. If you do not know how to create luminosity masks I invite you to download my free panel where you can create luminosity masks and launch some very useful effects including dodge and burn

I hope you find all this useful. I always love to ear this from you!

 

Tokyo Nights

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I take this from Tokyo Skytree,  from here you can admire (and photograph) the highest view of the city of Tokyo. The Skytree is a telecommunications and panoramic tower located in Sumida, Tokyo’s special district

With a height of 634 meters it is the tallest tower in the world and the second highest artificial structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the Tokyo Skytree is a strong tourist attraction and one of the main symbols of the city

The view from here is excessively high and everywhere you turn you can find some ideas to photograph from the top of the Japanese capital. Here I managed to make some shots including this where I preferred to emphasize a detail with one of Tokyo‘s main traffic arteries… everywhere I turned around it turned out to be all small 🙂

Also here as in Tokyo Tower to take shots through the windows of the tower I had to pay the maximum attention to the backlights that could reflect the lights on the window and definitively ruining the photo, at this regard also here I came to the rescue my sweatshirt with which I covered most of the reflections that entered the frame

I captured 3 exposures in bracketing mode for this frame, to have the ability to fix the lights and shadows with digital blending, the longer shot was of 25 seconds at ISO 100

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started this picture with digital blending using  TTS PRO, I blended the images using fast blend lights funcion and auto blend darks funcion. With the resulting frame ready I worked on luminosity masks going to fix the darks and lights as I like, to lighten some shadows and decrease some lights too strongs

I added details and using dodge and burn I lighten some darks area of the city and I used some color lookup filters to add to this picture, in particular: crisp winter at 20% filmstock 10% and futuristick bleak 30%

The latest touch was to increase the shadows and adding some extra sharpen to the frame

I always hope you will find this usefull, I love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2,8 (Shot at 48mm)

Three Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

 

Stars Zoom

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Hello guys! Here I am again with a night picture from the beautiful Rocca Calascio. What you see is the castle, with the path that leads to the slopes of the fortress. The way was glimpsed in the darkness and the atmosphere created by this photo was something that catch me imediately I like very much that mood and I also like the light pollution behind the castle that seems a daylight lighting

Speaking of the sky and the stars this time I tried to do something different, I enjoyed playing with the zooming and  Photoshop levels to create something original and slightly different from the usual, one created is a startrail zoom made by copying the same level multiple times and changing the blending mode into lighten, the sky full of point-like stars seemed to me too reductive for this beautiful castle 🙂

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

After created the images stack I changed the blending mode into lighten to create a zooming effect, than i merged the result into a final frame. Using TTS PRO I launched luminosity masks with I increased the lights of the darks and decreased the highlights curves. I created contrast zones to fix the light and the contrast over the main part of the picture

The next step was to fix colors using auto correct, that give me a very good color tone, than I slighlty changed it by reducing blues and increasing yellow using a warming filter.

I used dodge and burn to lighten the path that lead to the castle, I also launched orton effect decreasing the opacity to 8% to create a soft and dark dreamy atmosphere in the image. The last step was to darken the image e and to launch a noise reduction with very low opacity just to give the last touch

All the effects I mentioned above are inside my brand new panel TTS PRO, that I recommend to download to  fasten your workflow and to have all the effect in one click application!

I  hope you will find this usefull. I love to hear that from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Single Exposure

ISO: 3200 at f/2,8

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Milky Way Door

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I took this photo at the dawn of the moon, the light source that starts from the left is just the light of the moon that began to peek out of the mountains. I made this frame by two shots, I moved to photograph the rock first at the top to take all the milky way and then gradually down to include more foreground

Initially I did some tests shooting here with a subject in the picture and then other tests with a light source inside that little door that is in the ruins, I discarded all these shots because the image as a whole with all these elements was not look good, especially even if the light coming from the door would have made the most striking photo at the same time made it so much artifacts, so I avoided

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I followed the same editing line of the previous picture, I started opening the images on camera raw to make the first edits and save the images before apply the Photoshop photomerge in one, once obtained one single frame by this two exposures I applied the free trasform tool to adjust the empty areas and adapt to the frame

So I started edit the image by using camera raw to raise up the milky way than back in photoshop I applied the result only to the sky. Using TTS PRO  I made the main adjustments regarding, color, lights and contrast. I applied the luminosity mask contrast to better control the contrast over the point of lights darks and midtones of the picture

I increased the lights of the foreground applying a curves tool to the darks luminosity masks and I launched dodge and burn with I adjusted with a brush the colors over the milky way and the lights over the darkest areas of the foreground

I also made some adjustment to the colors, I don’t like so much the coolest tone of the night sky coming from this picture, in particular the sky was too much blue saturated, so in this case I stepped up the yellow tones of the light pollution and I decreased the saturation of the blue colors

In TTS PRO in the third page of finishing there are many functions to save and finishing your work, here I applied a small vignette reducing the opacity to 30% and I saved the images by height to simply create a web format image without loosing quality

I hope you will find this usefull. I’m happy to hear that from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Two Exposures

ISO: 3200 at f/2,8

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Stargate

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Every time I go to Milan I always take photos in the new area of Porta Nuova it’s a brand new quarter, full of skyscrapers and modern facilities, this area is one of my favorite photographic locations in Milan

Among the various spots that I have had the opportunity to photograph there is also this that you see in the picture, an installation with many trumpets that leads the parking with the upper side, by speaking in one of this trumpets the voice and the sound propagate along the whole length and it is possible to communicate between one floor and the other

This is a shot that I have done at other times but this time I decided to photograph directly from the parking lot to resume the entire length of the installation and take advantage of all the lights

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I take exposures for this, I blended the shots using TTS PRO to decrease the parking lights. I increased details and using dodge and burn I fixed the lights too much overexposed

I added a small glow effect in the picture using a very soft orton effect and I increased blue luminosity to make better visible the sky. My latest touch was to add a small vignette to intensify the central part of the frame

You can find all this effect in my brand new panel TTS PRO, one click to lauch all this effect and to create beautiful images

 

I hope you will find this informations usefull. I Love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Two Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/7,1

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

The Fisherman’s View

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From many years I wanted to visit these places and this year finally I managed to find a few days to photograph the Cinque Terre. This one is the beautiful port of Riomaggiore, one of the most photographed spots in Cinque Terre. The area around the port has a unique charm, the colors of the houses are very bright surrounded by rocks overlooking the sea

It is one of the most famous and beautiful places in the area, although the town is very small hundreds of tourists every day roam the small streets of this village. I decided to make a long exposure and take advantage of the boats that were near the rocks to counter the movement of boats and of the clouds. I made several photos in this spot and in fact this will be just the first of a series of photos taken in Riomaggiore that I will present in the coming weeks. Stay tuned…

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

For this image I used a single long exposure shot. I edited the image using luminosity masks fixing the lights and darks. I removed some ghost people moving on the harbour than I increased contrast applying curves to midtones

With TTS Fast Panel I increased details, launched orton effect and dodge and burn with I darkened some part of the sky and lightened some other dark spots. Using a warm filter I increased the yellows in the sky using this technique I fixed color cast than I darkened a little bit the image increasing the colors on the buildings

As always I hope you will find this post usefull. I always love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 20mm)

Long Exposure for 80′

ISO: 100 at f/13

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Fast Panel

 

Little Amalfi

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Also this year I decided to return to this beautiful Italian town and admire the beauties of the Amalfi coast. In this area I love the magnificent view of the cliff, the scent of lemons, the sea and the good cuisine of the area. This is absolutely one of my favourite places ever visited among beautiful panoramas, place to visit, architecture, culture and food i never get bored here

Amalfi and the Amalfi Coast offer numerous photographic spots and also the conditions for shooting are often optimal thanks to the alternation between rain and sun that often insists in the area

Coming to the photo I moved away from the center of Amalfi to take a postcard of the city, that day it was raining but I managed to find a way to protect the camera, what I have done is a long exposure using a ND64 and a ND8 filters both mounted, where I included the mobility of boats, sky and sea with the staticity of the coast

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I edited this long exposure as a single shot, but as usual I used luminosity masks to edit lights, darks and midtones. I fixed the color cast in the image giving a more blue look, using a cold filter applied to the highlights and to the shadows. With dodge and burn I fixed some part of the frame hard to edit even with luminosity masks

With TTS Fast Panel  I launched details and orton effect , than I fixed contrast using midtones applied to darks masks. With lights masks I increased the highlights in the sky and lightened the houses, I also increased the colors of the houses using LAB Color and hue/saturation tool. The final steps was fixing the perspective of the frame and cutting the image that included an additional piece of foreground

I hope you will find this usefull. I’m always happy to ear it from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 18mm)

Single Shot for 91′ sec

ISO: 100 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2018

 

Tuscany Dream

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Hello everyone, waiting for the next trip at the end of this month I propose for my week photo another of  my past photos, in this case one of my favorite destinations. In particular we are talking about the Val d’Orcia, a splendid place, a UNESCO world heritage that I always visit with great pleasure

Every time I go to Tuscany and Val d’Orcia a passage in the notorious chapel of Vitaleta is a must. Among the times that I went, this take was surely the one with the better conditions and colorfull sky . I remember that I had gone for a walk around the neighborhood of San Quirico d’Orcia looking for the Vitaleta chapel until I could see with the corner of my eye this little church in the middle of the valley. I found it I told to myself!

So I started to look to follow the road until I was in a barred country path where it was impossible to proceed with the car. Leaving the car there I continued on foot for about 15 minutes of walking. I always love to come here, it’s nice to admire the Tuscany hills in this place and find a place so characteristic to take pictures

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I blended the images using luminosity masks, I fixed color cast using auto adjust and decreasing the opacity to create a mix between the warm original color and the blue of the fix. I Increased vibrance in the sky to create more colors. I added contrast applied to luminosity masks to better use it on the foreground and the sky

With TTS Fast Panel I increased details reducing the effect on the sky. With dodge and burn I darkened the foreground and lightened the front part of the trees. I also used orton effect to create a soft look on the sky. As final touch I brighten the view of the chapel and the stones on the foreground adding a soft vignette to the frame

I hope you will find this information usefull. I love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Three Shots (-1; 0; +1)

ISO: 100 at f/7,1

Software: Photoshop CC2018

 

Bled

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Hi guys here we are as usual with the appointment of the weekly photo. As you could easily imagine I finished photos to edits 🙂 and thanks to the bad weather and many seasonal illness I have not succeded to shot anything new. This is why today I also propose a photo from my archive of photos taken from the past 🙂

In this case we are talking about Lake Bled, a magical and beautiful place that I recommend everyone to visit at least once. Lake Bled is located in Slovenia, not far from Lubjiana, it can be reached by car in about an hour and a half from the highway and the whole area offers many other important places to visit and for excursions. I take this photo  in 2013 with my old Camera when I went on the island of the lake by rowing boat (it is one of the attractions of the place)

I hope to find time one day to come back here in Bled again, and take pictures with my new equipment soon! In the meantime I look forward to leaving for my new trip at the end of March,  for the location at the moment I  want to keep it secret … 🙂

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

This is a single exposure shot, I fixed lights and darks using luminosity masks, with TTS Fast Panel I launched details and dodge and burn to increase details and brighten some part of the frame, specially around the bushes of the island

With a brush with soft light effect I incrased slighly yellows in the sky to give a soft look of drama in the sky. Always using luminosity masks, I increased contrast applying midtones excluing darks to curves layer. If you use my panel you can easily do this selecting  midtones 3 and subtracting by this, a dark layer pressing ALT keyboard and pushing on darks 2. After this if you lauch curves layer you could move only the specific selection of this and add contrast better

Last two passages was to decrease the lights in the sky and add a small vignette to create a dark mood to the image

As hope you will find this information usefull. I love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-90

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Single exposure

ISO: 100 at f/13

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Extensions: TTS Fast Panel

 

 

 

Hide and Seek

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Hi everyone, this is an old find inside a folder of photos taken years ago in the Regional Park of Gran Sasso. What we see is the Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennine range

I love this place, it is natural wild, sometimes inhospitable and above all very quiet, at the sight of the mountain overlooking the whole valley below and is completely different from the rest of the landscape. I recommend everyone to take a trip around here if you do not know Abruzzo is a milestone for photography enthusiasts and is just over an hour’s drive from Rome

I captured this photo with my old nikon 18-105 and I got the image from 3 bracketing shots at sunset while I waited for the sun to start taking some photos to the stars

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I discarted the overexposed picture and I merged the two shots using luminosity masks, I used lights applied to curves to fix lighting, always using the masks I reduced darks and adjusted contrast in the frame. With the use of TTS Fast Panel I increased details and applied a soft orton effect



I corrected colors using auto adjust, then I decreased the effect reducing the opacity. With a soft dodge and burn I recover the exposure in the darker part of the mountain and increased the colors around the Corno Grande. I reduced a bit the noise I increased the lights behind the mountain, after I decreased the light in the whole frame to make a more dark look and create more atmoshphere

As always I hope you will find this info usefull. I’m always happy to ear it from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 18-105mm f/3,5 (Shot at 34mm)

Three Exposures (-1; 0; +1)

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2017

Extensions: TTS Fast Panel

 

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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)

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