Turning down the Tone

Like many photographers I jumped on the ‘HDR band wagon’ a couple of years ago. Since those early tone mapping days, which tended to end up in rather ‘over processed’ images, the algorithms have matured and, today, one can use most tone-mapping software with confidence.

In addition, fusion-based blending is now readily available and offers a ‘softer’ approach to bringing together bracketed captures.

The ‘third-way’ to handle bracketed images is by ‘hand blending’ via, for example, luminosity masks in, say, Photoshop.

As I have mentioned before, TK-Actions are, in my humbly opinion, some of the best luminosity tools. However, TK-Actions are not the only tool. Another set of actions I use is called Raya-Pro by Jimmy McIntyre: http://www.shutterevolve.com/raya-pro-the-ultimate-digital-blending-workflow-panel-for-photoshop/

The British summer showed itself at its best today: great skies and summer scenery. Because of the sun shinning through the clouds, the scene was beyond a single capture, even with my 5DIII.

This image was captured with Magic Lantern auto-bracketing. I focused in Liveview, using the ML diffraction corrected DoF display, and used the RAW spotmeter to establish the base image. In post I used Raya-Pro to blend the brackets, ie no tone mapping this time.

If you have not tried Raya-Pro, I can recommend this very affordable Photoshop Plug-in.