Tutorials

So I've been working on a tutorial on exposure blending for quite a while now.
Its finally out of the planning stages, and getting written. Slowly.
I use the technique a lot in my work, as even the most accurate exposure isn't enough sometimes, especially when faced with such extreme contrasts you get in seascapes.
So I thought I'd pass on some of my wisdom.

So far, the tutorials going to be structured like this -

---

Introduction to Exposure Blending

 

What you’ll need –

• Gear – DSLR with AE Bracketing, tripod, cable release.
• Software – Photoshop CS, elements, or equiv.

How to capture multiple exposures –

• Using bracketing to expose details
  • What is bracketing?
  • Setting it up.
  • Metering for the base exposure.
  • Metering and exposing for the details.

• Using bracketing to capture a bright sky for blending.
  • Calculating the difference between sky and land.

• Metering + using manual mode or exposure compensation.
  • Metering modes; spot, evaluative, centre.
  • Using spot metering.

Using Adobe Camera RAW to create split exposures –

• Creating separate sky and land exposures in ACR.
• Creating multiple exposures i.e. land, sky, foreground details in ACR.

Blending multiple exposures in Photoshop/Elements –

• Blending sky and land exposures using the gradient tool + fine tuning the horizon
• Exposing and blending in details with layer masks using the brush tool & lasso tool.

Blending multiple exposures with Photomatix’s “Exposure Fusion” tool

• Outline of what the settings do
• How the settings interact with each other
• Blending sky and ground exposures
• Blending multiple exposures together

---

If theres anything you'd like to see included in the tutorial, any specifics and such, please feel free to let me know, and I'll try to fullfill it.

I'll be posting it as parts, with a downloadable PDF of the whole thing available aswell.

Stay tuned for it.

TTFN,

Matt.

< Prev