PROJECT 1
Learn how to use HDR and Luminosity Masking, and decide which is better for your workflow
FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
You can download your free start files from http://downloads. photoplusmag.com/ pp211.zip We’ve provided five images brackets01.jpg to brackets05.jpg if you want to try the steps on the right with our images. There’s also a free Action set you’ll need for Step 3 – this is in the downloads folder called ‘Luminosity Mask 10 Free Actions.atn’
01 TRY AN HDR
Highlight the images in Adobe Bridge, right-click and Open In Camera Raw. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+A to select them, right-click and choose Merge To HDR. Adjust settings to suit. Hit OK. A new HDR DNG image is created, which you can edit with Camera Raw’s tonal tools.
02 TRY LUMINOSITY MASKING
Highlight the bracketed frames in Adobe Bridge, then go to Tools>Photoshop>Load Files Into Photoshop Layers. Highlight all the layers and go toEdit>Auto-Align Layers. Choose the most balanced exposure, drag this layer to the bottom and hide the others.
03 RUN THE ACTION
Download the supplied Action set (see above left). Go to Window>Actions in Photoshop. Click the flyout menu and choose Load Actions. Once done, click the Luminosity Mask 5 Levels action and hit the play button. This creates channels for different levels of luminosity.
DOUBLE PROCESSING
If you forget to shoot a bracketed set, you could try double processing. This involves running the same image through Adobe Camera Raw twice, processing it once for the shadows, and once for the highlights. Open an image in Camera Raw and adjust tones for the shadows, then hold Shift and click the Open Object button to open it in Photoshop as
