In this video we will see some fast and easy digital blending techniques using to using TTS PRO panel
It is possible to digital blend two or more exposures through the use of luminosity masks or through the digital blending functions included in the third page of the panel called Blend
1. Fast Blend
One of the most easy and fast techniques is the use of Fast Blend, if you have the darker image on top use fast blend darks, in the case you have the brighter image on top use fast blend lights. With this TTS Pro function with just one click the image on top is digital blended with the bottom image
2. Auto Blend
Auto Blend offers the possibility to choose the degree of digital blending among the images, using a series of luminosity masks to apply to the selection. In this way you can visually choose by scrolling with the selector, which mask applies best to your image
3. Blend using Luminosity Masks
TTS Pro allows you to freely use the luminosity masks not only for edits on adjustment layers but also for digital blending directly two or more exposures. An interesting and simple technique is to use the channels section in the first page of the panel and after selecting a mask, create a black mask adjustment layer to apply the selection directly. Below the steps:
Go to Luminosity Masks page of TTS Pro
Select Channel drop down menù
Select a mask
Select black mask from the adjustment layers buttons
Furthermore there’s always possibility of freely applying the masks to a previous layer mask created and then paint over the image in order to manually do it. Below the steps:
Go to Luminosity Masks page of TTS Pro
Apply a layer mask to the exposure you want to blend
Select Channel drop down menù
Select a mask
PressCtrl+H (Win) or Cmd+H (Mac) to apply the selection to the mask
With a black brush paint the areas you want to manually blend
you can find all the steps described in the video below
In this tutorial we will see how to create a beautiful glow effects on highlights using Photoshop, this help to create a different eye catching look and great atmosphere mood at out landscapes
1. To begin with start going to Select>Color Range
2. In the Color Range window select Highlights and adjust Fuzziness and Range to refine the selection, than press ok
3. Now that you have the highlights selected you will see the marching ants. Press Ctrl+J (PC) or Cmd+J (Mac) to duplicate the highlights in a separate layer.
4. Now right click on the new layer and select Convert to Smart Object
5. Navigate to Adjustments>Curves and create a curve to brighten the highlights
6. Now it’s time to add blur, so go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and adjust the radius to make glow
7. Now it’s possible to reduce the opacity of the layer that contains the higlights selection in order to softner the effect, or add a layer mask to remove selectively from the selection all the areas where we don’t want to apply the effect
8. As final touch is possible to give more details to the highlights going to Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and set the sharp you would like, than press ok
Some time ago I wrote an article on how to shoot during the golden hour, this is usually the best time of the day to shoot sunsets with the best and most powerfull conditions for photography. However golden hour does not always provide stunning results, it may happen that the weather is not good, or with a flat sky. In all these cases blue hour is a very good alternative
But blue hour is more than that, it depends on what are you looking for but in most cases can be to prefer to golden hour. So we see in this article the power of blue hour photography and when exploit it
1. Enhance Mood
The aspect that I prefer about blue hour is the mood of the images, the blue hour manages to give a unique atmospheres that no other time of day can give. In all these cases especially with the help of dramatic clouds it is a unique way to deepening the mood of images
2. Long Exposure
With coming dusk the exposure time lengthen, taking advantage of this conditions is the key point of blue hour, long exposure can completely transform the scene. For example in landscapes to benefit from the movements of clouds or water, in cityscapes with light trails
3. Combine Blue Hour with Golden Hour
Another aspect I love about blue hour is the chance to mix it with golden hour. In every sunset there is always a moment where the golden hour gives way to blue hour. The mood contains the power of blue hour and the warm as golden colours on the horizon
4. Light Trails
Light trails are one of the strongest composition of long exposure photography, especially the cityscape are particularly suitable for this kind of photos. Usually light trails are made during the blue hour, for this reasons it gives the chance of mixing the colors of blue hour and the yellows of city lights, two complementary and attractive colors for the viewer
5. Reflections
Blue hour is a great chance to capture reflections on the water, no matter if in the city or shooting landscape, the result is sure. During blue hour, reflections are amazing and taking advantage of this time of the day is the right time to deal with it
6. Look for Unique Light
Sometimes when the light is falling down a beautiful light can emerge, it’s a totally random and unexpected look that often occurs on very cloudy days but can completely transform your shots. This is the case of my photo taken in Amalfi when a coming storm contrasted with the last colors of the sunset creates a stunning and a unique light
7. Digital Blend
I’ve spoken about the chance to combine golden hour with blue hour while shooting, but we can do this also using Photoshop. In the image you see I have digital blended two different images with different lights, the warm colors of the golden hour and the cold one that characterizes blue hour, in a time that runs between about 30 minutes
8. Emphatize Blue Colours
It can be useful to increase the blue tones of the blue hour in our images, this to make images that are not in enough blue mood in order to increase the dark/blue atmosphere of our photo
We can proceed with the increase of the blue through the use of camera raw blue tones slider or through the use of Photoshop filters. Using TTS Pro Panel there are functions to increase the blue hour such as the golden hour through the application of selective filters that take advantage of luminosity masks
Focus is certainly the main aspect of photography, if the images are out of focus they are ruined definitively. There may be several reasons that lead to an out of focus image, some of which may be the difficulty of automatically focusing on a subject but anyway the best way to get out images perfectly focused is by using manual focus. So here are 7 reasons to prefer manual focus over auto focus
1. Sharpen Images
The main reason for preferring manual focus to auto focus is certainly to get sharper images, the best way to deal with manual focus is to achieve it by using live view, following these simple steps:
Set your lens to Manual Focus
Set Live view on your Camera
Use zoom button to zoom into the are you want to focus
Turn the focus ring until what you see is in focus
In this way you should be able to focus manually with ease. There’s also another step to do just to be sure your images are 100% in focus and extra sharp: compare the images captured with manual focus system and live view with an image captured from live view using auto focus. If you’ve done things right the image taken with manual focus should be with better focus and sharper
2. Photograph with every Light
Focusing with auto focus in low light conditions this one may not work properly or be inaccurate. Imagine shooting during the night, especially for night photography, images like milky way or light painting or startrails, manual focus becomes crucial to focus into a total darker scene
3. Capture low Contrasts
The auto focus to work properly needs some points that are “recognized” to the camera. If you’re shooting something that has similar colors, tones, and textures, or a smooth wall your lens can struggle in autofocus mode. In all these cases manual focus is of great help to be able to focus on subjects with low contrasts
4. Capture out of Focus images
One of the strongest photography composition guidelines is framing. Composing a framing with an out of focus element can be a successful compositional element of a photo and can lead the viewer’s eye through the main subject. Manual focus helps in this sense to be able to take our images with such compositional techniques and play between in focus and out of focus elements
5. Photograph with Fog
Fog is that element that helps make the image more striking and create a beautiful atmosphere in the image. But fog will reduce contrasts and scatter light in the scene, and focusing with fog can be difficult with auto focus if there’s not strong contrasted element in the scene. In all the cases of fog and misty landscapes using manual focus will avoid the problem of having out-of-focus images in fog
6. Focus Stacking
Focus stacking is one of the most used technique to ensure all of images elements are in focus. With focus stacking you take many images of the same scene with different focus in order to achieve a completely focused images with all the elements of the scene perfectly in focus. I created a detailed guide on how focus stack your images using bracketed shots. For a precise use of focus stacking it is very imporant to use manual focus, because it allows you to have great control of the elements of the frame in at different focal angles
7. Moving Objects
This point can be connected with the previous one but also because mobile elements are present in landscape photography. Imagine having to focus stack on flowers in the foreground that are moving on a windy day, or simply wanting to give movement to an element of the photo while keeping the focus fixed in one point. All of this with auto focus would be slower and even more difficult to achieve
Conclusions
Even if manual is better for all the reasons we talked about automatic focus can be very usefull in other situations, the auto focus should be used for:
Photographing animals, sport or other scenes where the subject is moving
Photographing events and concerts where the subject doesn’t stand still
Photographing handheld
Even if auto focus are certainly valid in different cases, for professional results rely to manual focus is the best solution. In any case relying on own’s eyes and judgment is always the best choice
A snow covered landscape is always an attraction for every landscape photographer, for this reason every year I take almost two trip on the snow to take photos with beautiful icy and snowy sceneries. I love the colors of the sunset that reflects on the white that characterizes the landscapes this period of year. Photographing in the snow can give beautiful lights to your images, but to do the best you need to be prepared, which is why I have prepared this guide about 10 pro tips for snow photography
1. Save your Batteries
Cold is one of the downsite of snow photography, this reduces the battery longevity of your camera and all your electronic devices, including phone. One solution is to always have a spare battery and to put the camera on the bag when you don’t use it in order to keep your equipment warm
2. Be Careful of Condensation
This point is partly connected to the first one, before going from a cold to a warm environment remember to put your camera in your backpack. Switching from a cold environment to a heated indoor environment instantly creates condensation that can damage your camera and lenses
3. Set the Right White Balance
White balance is very important, especially when photographing in the snow. In snowy locations a trick is to set maually the white balance using Kelvin mode, this allows you to handle the white balance in various situations and set it on the light you have. If 5000K is the mid-day light a good starting point for white balance for snow is around 8000K
4 Use the Histogram
Using the histogram is very usefull in every photography situations not ony during snow photography, but in these cases the histogram takes on even more importance because it gives us a correct and graphic measurement of the exposure, avoiding relying only on a visual image in a prominent white scene
5. Find Colors and Contrasts
This is a compositional tip: in a mainly white scene playing with colors or strong contrasts helps the image to be pop or of greater impact for the viewer
6 Protect your Gear
When shooting in the snow some recommended precautions are:
Keep the lens cap when you don’t use your camera to prevent moisture on the lens,
If your lens becomes fogged avoid to blow warm air on it,
Hold your breath when bringing your camera up to your face to take a picture could prevent fogging on your LCD screen and viewfinder
7 Use Polarizing Filters
Using a polarizing filter while shooting a snowy scene will help you cut through over-powering glare. The use of filters also reduces the light that passes through the lens and can make a great difference in the final result
8 Use Zoom Lenses
Images appear flat when there is nothing standing out in the foreground and most of the image is white. Snowy scenes are dominated by prominent colors over white. Getting closer on the main subject and its details is an interesting compositional solution to add depth to the image and make the image more captivating
9 Adjust the Exposure
In the white of the snow it may be necessary to have to adjust your exposure compensation to get the right light on the snow, in addition to this it is always useful to shoot in raw to be able to fix the exposure even in post with ease
10 Protect your Hands
While shooting landscapes we all use a lot the hands to interact with the camera, for this reason always having warm and dry hands is essential. Having a pair of warm gloves that allow you to interact easily with the camera will prove to be the most important choice for the success of your winter photos
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
Achieve sharpen images is one of the goals of every lanscape photographer. Creating razor sharps images can take photography to the next level and bring your landscape works looking better
To achieve sharpen images, just consider some passages when you’re shooting, there are few simple tricks. Some beginners photographers don’t always pay attention to this tips, same for me in the past but once I find out how to do it, I will they can no longer do without it. I am very careful to consider all these tips to get clear images now. Let’s see what they are
1) Clean your Lenses
Before go out for shooting take time to clean your lenses. Having clean lenses allows you to have sharpen images and free from spots and dust
To clean lenses the best solution is to use specific products for lens cleaning but if you don’t have something to clean it, cleenex are a good alternative
When you clean your lenses avoid to breathe on them before cleaning it, breathe is not suitable for cleaning and promotes the attachments
2) Use Tripod
Tripod is a fundamental tool for landscape photographers and one of the most powerfull tool for the sharpness of a shot
In almost all of my images I use the tripod, this mainly because I shoot during times where the sun is low, golden hour/blue hour situations and the tripod allows you to set camera values with low shutter speed that would otherwise be very difficult and cause blurry images without using it. You simply aren’t able to hold the camera perfectly still when using slow shutter speeds
Having a tripod available is still one of my best tips for capturing sharper images. However, any tripod is not enough to create sharper images, you need to have a sturdy tripod that is able to efficiently support the weight of our camera and lenses
3) Use a Remote Shutter
Relate to tripod for a landscape photographer a remote shutter is another very usefull equipment to use. Using a remote shutter can remove vibrations caused by pressing the shutter button on your camera and eliminate the shakes for sharpen images.
There’s many different models of remote shutters from the most affordables to the more advanced that allows many funtions for every needs related to long exposure photography. In any case every shutter release will help you to remove shakes for sharpen images
4) Use Manual Focus
Auto focus is a more pratical way to focus your images, but rather than auto focus the manual one is definitively the best to improve it and sharpen your images nothing is better than manually focusing your shots and to rely the focus to your eyes.
To focus manually without mistake I can suggest a little trick. Set the live view and enlarge the picture on the part you want to focus on, set the focus ring until the image is perfecty in focus and return back to classic vie, in this way it will be easy to focus manually
5) Use Sharpen Photoshop Filters
Sometimes it happens that despite all these previous steps the image is not as sharp as we expect, or that we simply want a greater sharpen effect on that picture. It depends on the type of shot and what are you expecting from that picture but a sharpen effect sometimes can give you something more to your image
To create a sharpen effect just follow this simple steps:
Duplicate layer
Navigate To Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask
Set the radius between 50 or 100 it depends of how strong you want the effect. Set radious 1
The new layer now include sharpen and you can reduce the opacity for softner effect or create a layer mask to mask out the unwanted areas of sharpen
Another great way to apply sharpen is selectively throught the use of luminosity masks that only apply the sharpen effects on the selected areas of lights, darks or midtones.
If you want to go deepen this advanced method of selection you can read the article I wrote about a professional use of luminosity masks. If you want to create easily luminosity masks and many other professional photoshop filters for perfectly clean results, included sharpen, take a look on my professional editing panel TTS PRO the complete digital blending tool for Photoshop.
So those where the 5 tips to get sharpen images, have your tried some of above tips? let me know in comments!
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!
The histogram is an incredibly powerful tool that allows us to discover important aspects of the light during shooting, it is a great tool to better understand the correct photographic exposure. Learning how to read the histogram can take photography a step ahead and improve your photography exposure
Histogram Basics
The Histogram is a phisical representation of an image through levels. The Highlights and whites points are represented on the right side of the graph while the shadows and the blacks are represented on the left. In the middle part of the level there are the midtones while in the vertical axes is represented the number of pixels in a specific tone
Many cameras on the market are equipped with an histogram function that allows to view the relative graph for each image taken, in the form of levels. What the camera does is to create the histogram by converting the image to greyscale and divides it into 256 levels of brightness: starting from 0 up to 256, where 0 represents the pure blacks while 256 the pure whites. After analyzing the pixels of the image, the camera transform it into a chart
Understanding clipping Highlights and Shadows
Every time the graph moves too much on the right or on the left we talk about clipping highlights or clipping shadows, more pixel clipping on the sides of the charts and more information are being lost. Let’s see in details what does it mean
Clipping Highlights
Overexposed image
When we talk about clipping highlights we talk about loss of information on overexposed images, in this case the pixel portions where information are lost will be represented in the graph on the clipping part on the right
Clipping right graph
On camera raw there’s the possibility to put a tick to display the clipping warnings, in this case the highlights warning warn us for those areas where the pure white is, represented by the red color
Pure white warnings
To show the pure white areas in Camera Raw just click the top white arrow, in the image the area where I circled in red. Note than the areas in the sky, although they are extremely white and overexposed they cannot be considered pure white, is a subtle difference but only in the red part could be considered pure white points
Clipping Shadows
Underexposed image
Talking about the shadows the image below is underexposed so it’s more dark that how should it be, in this case the pixel portions where informations are losts are represented in the graph on the clipping part on the left
Clipping left graph
On camera raw also here there is the possibility to check for displaying the clipping warnings, in this case the shadows warnings are represented as the blue parts that corresponds as the pure black points
Pure blacks warnings
Same as the highlights also for the shadows to show the pure black areas in the image, just check the top of the chart, note that the areas on the rocks are extremely black and underexposed but we can consider the pure black parts only the blue areas selected in camera raw that are 100% blacks
So what’s the perfect Histogram?
The goal is to achieve the perfect histogram, to do that it depends of what are you photographing but in general, the perfect histogram is that has pixel spread throughout midtones and you don’t have lost of informations on clippings shadows or highlights
Below there’s a representation of just two different types of ideal histogram this to remembrance that’s not just 1 kind of ideal histogram but many types of it, depends on the scene and also other many factors that change from picture and picture. Essentially the loss of informations from shadows or highlights is something to avoid but also loosing too much midtones can “compromize” your perfect histogram
Why reading Histogram is Important?
After shooting a photo simply relying the review on the camera screen can be a mistake, because it does not give us a precise representation of how balanced the image is. It can happen that the camera LCD tries to represent the photo in a brighter and less precise way and once you open the shot into Photoshop you can find errors of loss of informations
As mentioned at the beginning of this article many cameras are equipped with the histogram tool, which after taking the photo allow you to view the representation in charts, in this way so it’s more easy and accurate to adjust the exposure
When shooting, using this tool is a great help to create more balanced photos. Personally I check the histogram on all the images I shot in order to keep under control the possible loss of information and not to lose dynamic range
My Method
As you know I make many of my shots using bracketing mode in order to capture every image with different exposures. Every time I take a photo I set the camera values to have a shot as precise and balanced as possible, I check the histogram to get the exposure more balanced as possible, then I activate the bracketing mode to achieve all the shots I need to capture the greatest number of dynamic range
I use the overexposed and underexposed shots only to realize my digital blending techniques and to selectively chose the necessary areas of interests for blending
Some exceptions:
Despite everything there are some styles of images that do not always require a perfect histogram which in this article I consider necessary to mentions, it is the case of all those images where a unperfect histogram is part of the intrinsic style of the photo
Without necessarily delving into each of these techniques I will just list them, maybe in the future if you are interested I will be able to create a guide on this topic. Exceptions are:
Low Key mages
High Key mages
High Contrast images
ETTR Technique
On this last technique I want to spend few words for a more detailed description: ETTR a photographic technique that consists in realizing the shots aiming towards a histogram to the right of the necessary one
The reasons behind this technique is that through this system it is possible to maintain a wider dynamic range and less information loss, in fact by successively lowering the exposure in the camera raw and reporting the exposure values in a balanced way the image final returns to being correctly exposed but with a greater possibility to manage the details within the shadows
Conclusions
So those was how to read the histogram for better photography exposure, as we see the histogram is an important tool for evaluating an image and a method for creating alternative photographic techniques. If you do not usually use it, I invite you to do it already from the next shots, I await your feedback on the results
A very effective method that I often use to recover highlights and shadows selectively in Photoshop is through the help of curves adjustment layer that give the possibility to better manage the light according to the widest needs.
Curves adjustment layer are one of my fav adjustments, very versatiles and easy to apply. To make a curve adjustment layer and use them selectively it is possible to use a layer mask and with the use of a paintbrush, mask out the areas that we do not want to affect by this edit.
In this tutorial we’ll see something deeper and more specific to how to recover highlights and shadows selectively in a easy way
Let’s see how to do it:
1.Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer and adjust the curves as your needs. In the example image I need to decrease the highlights of the sky so I lowered the curve
2. Navigate to Image>Apply Image and put the settings as follows: since I need to decrease the highlights the following settings arefor the highlights, but if you need to apply them to the shadows put the flag on invert
3. The curves adjustment layer is applied selectively! Check the layer thumbnail to check the selective application
4. To softner the effect change the curves adjustment layer blending mode to soft light or simply decrease the opacity
Another very easy way to create with just one click the same kind of edit is through the use of the the effects in my TTS Pro Panel that have 2 specific effects dedicated to this
So these were the simple steps to recover highlights and shadows selectively in Photoshop, as you can see it is simple and quick to apply. If you need further informations or you want to tell me what is the technique you use for recover the highlights and shadows please let me know with a direct message or with a comment below. I’m always happy to respond to 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)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
