Anyone who has been to Venice knows this bridge it is one of the most famous bridges in the city and one of the most photographed locations in Venice
In all the times I’ve been to Venice I photographed this bridge many times far and wide but today I propose a shot from a slightly different spot from the usual
Taking advantage of the framing in this photograph helps to create a different perspective than usual, initially I tried to do the focus stacking between the two perspectives but after a few attempts I preferred to keep the foreground blurred to give more prominence to the bridge at the bottom
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I captured the shots in order to create a focus stacking image between the framing and the bridge, but as mentioned above, I come back to my steps thus preferring a blurred framing to a photo in focus at every point.
I have already used a similar technique in this post with good results. So I edited only one image using to fix the sky highlights and to recover some shadows
I used the glow tool to lighten the bridge applying to the layer a gaussian blur filter, I also used the orton effect to create a soft look on the main subject. To increase the yellow tone look I applied a warm filter to luminosity masks using highlights
I increased details and as final step I added with Color Efex Pro filter “darken lighten center” to better focus the viewer’s eye to the bridge
I always hope you will find this usefull! I love to ear that from you!
I have been to this location several times in the past, there is a post from 2017 that you can find at this link
The suggestive truglia tower is a bastion of roman origin used mostly used for military sightings. Destroyed several times over the years it has been rebuilt and today it is a pleasant panoramic point of the city of Sperlonga
Before being able to take this photo I waited a few days for an interesting sky and passed in search of a different composition from the ones I had already done in the past
I decided to compose the photo in this way in order to have in the same composition a good foreground element but at the same time of the leading lines that lead towards the main subject of the tower
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I captured 3 bracketed shot for this image that I digital blended using TTS Pro using the auto blend function. I increased details and the warm tones of the sun applying a warm filter to luminosity masks
I used the glow tool to lighten some part of the image and to create a glow effect, after increasing a bit the contrast I increased the color vibrance of the entire image decreasing the effect on the cactus
Lastly I applied the skylight filter of color efex pro limitedly to the sky to incrase the sunset color and as final step a soft vignette to better expose the central tower
As always I hope you will find this usefull! I love to ear that from you!
I shot for three consecutive days in this location in search of the best clouds and the most interesting colors, at the end I preferred for this image in focusstacking with this rock in the foreground using two different focuses between foreground and the mountain. I used a nd filter with -6 stops to make this, I love the submerged part of the rock blurred by the long exposure of the water
This area is one of my favorite locations to photograph the sea. I’m talking about Cilento area in the south of Italy. I love the rocky beaches with the mountain in the background typical of this area. The sunsets here are always very special and full of beautiful colors, every year I try to spend a few days here taking these colorful seascapes
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I captured this with 5 brackedet shots that I merged using TTS Pro with digital blending creating 2 different shots that I blended with focusstacking. With luminosity masks I fixed the highlights in the sky and I lightened the darker parts of the rocks
After increasing the color vibrances, I used dodge and burn to fix some darker areas around the rocks and darkened the general luminosity of the picture using a vignette
I increased the contrast applying luminosity masks to curves adjustment layer, after a general layer fixes a gived a soft orton effect to create a soft glow effect
I hope you will find this usefull! I love to ear that from you!
TTS Pro Panel for Photoshop + Mastering Luminosity Masks Digital Course
The Photography Bundle is a discounted package which allows you to take both TTS Pro Panel and Mastering Luminosity Masks at a discounted price. With the Photography Bundle you can get all my digital products togheder and discover in one time all my worklow, my effects, my secrets having at the same time my powerfull panel on Photoshop
If you need more informations about the single products you can see the sinigle pages dedicated to TTS Pro and to Luminosity Masks Digital Course anyway you can find both products below
Discover more about TTS Pro Panel
TTS Pro Panel is a Photoshop extension that will allows you to create beautiful images using easy digital blending features, many and great enhanments effects and fasten your workflow with many saving options and watermark functions
TTS PRO IN ACTION
Discover more about Mastering Luminosity Masks
Trasform your images in beautiful photos learning this techniques
Learn the use of Luminosity Masks and Digital Blending, along the tutorial you will learn using this technique and make your own style to start creating beautiful images. Along the video you will also learn to create your own actions using dodge and burn, orton effect, apply details selectively and color filters
Lifetime Updates – Fast and easy Download – Installation Instructions Included – All Languages Compatible
I love photographing forests, and the light that filters through them trees. Bamboo forests are even more fascinating given the size of the stems that once surround them
After visiting the famous Arashiyama bamboo forest two years ago in Japan, I no longer had the opportunity to admire this kind of forests until I found this one
In the city center of Rome there is a very well preserved botanical garden, the structure depends on the Department of Environmental Biology of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and and hosts over 3000 different plant species. Inside the botanic garden there is too a small but very beautiful and particular bamboo forest
All the shots you see therefore come from this location. I really like the perspective of shooting towards the sky since as mentioned above the bamboo tends to wrap you up, therefore the idea was to convey a feeling of openness towards the sky and towards the light
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I captured all the shots without brackets, every image is a single shot edited without the use of digital blending this time. For every image I made the same editing passages:
I increase highlights using luminosity masks, after I increased details using TTS Pro filters and with the same panel I launched orton effect and dodge and burn with I fixed all the lights over the bamboo
After increasing a color vibrance and fix the green colors similar to all the images the last touch was to increase the dark mood of the picture putting a dark vignette that gives more attention to the sky lights
I hope you will find this usefull! I love to ear that from you!
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
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
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
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!
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
Creating the Color Value Mask
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
Color Range Window
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
Add More Colors to the selection
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
Add to Sample Eyedropper
The Second: with a – symbol, to subtract a color by using the third and last Eyedropper Tool
How to use selections
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
Selected areas
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
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
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!
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 willsee 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
1) Correct Color Cast
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
2) Light Bleeding
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
3) Add Orton Effect
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
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;
Image with strong Orton Effect
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
4) Use Detail Enhancer
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
5) Dodge and Burn
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 dodgetool 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!
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)
