Exposure blending using luminosity mask manually

[unni]

I'm new to AP and bought it two weeks back. Spent some hours on seeing the tutorials. Went through Luminosity masks (forum topic:  /topic/27214-luminosity-masks ,

by Smadell ) and tried various methods for painting-in the selections onto masks, aligning multiple exposures, etc. Today I attempted exposure

blending of two photos.  The workflow is as follows. Individually processed the two photos for exposure, white balance and slight color

enhancements. Saved as tif. Then opened both photos from FILE>NEW STACK. selected "scale, rorate and translate" in the pop-up.

Then ungrouped the stack. Now the two pictures are aligned and available as two pixel layers. Used "luminosity visualization" macro on one

layer to select a proper mask. Decided on L4. Then from macro "Luminosity selections" , loaded L4 into a mask for the top layer.

Did some brushing with white/black color and various flow/hardness levels to make the mask for smooth transition between the layers.

I am posting the final result and the two unprocessed raw files(in jpg). Lancos non-separable was used for jpg export. Color space used

in AP for all editing is Pro-photo RGB.

Picture taken with Nikon D3100, kit lens 18-55, tripod, ND64 filter, f11. Bright shot taken at 30 sec, dark at 6 sec. ISO 100.

First image is the final blended image and the last two are the un-processed input images used as layers.

[ianrb]

interesting read. Do you know about Affinity "blend ranges" ? Very similar to PS luminosity masks . Google blend ranges and a number of good videos will pop up. 
I have to admit I haven't got my head around blend ranges as yet , but as like you I'm very new to Affinity so lots of small difference to take in 

[unni]

@ianrb

I have quickly tried blend ranges which is a powerful feature. It is different from LM though in many situations, it can serve similar purpose. LM aids in slowly building up masks and one can target specific areas precisely. The mask can be made visible. By proper brushing with low flow values and using overlay modes, jagged edges can be smoothened. Different selections can be 'painted-in' into existing masks. The final picture will look natural as a single entity without detectable problems in transition areas. In AP, masks have to be converted to pixel layer for brush overlay to work. With a slightly different workflow when compared to PS, we can work using luminosity masks in AP which is a very notable plus point.

 

 

[firstdefence]

Nice finished image, just straighten the horizon or you'll have a puddle on the right side of the image  

[unni]

@firstdefence

Thanks for the appreciation. I had it in mind when the edit was started but forgot to straighten it. There are some other flaws too due to impatience with fine tuning the mask. Sometime soon I will put out a similar blending method video so that anyone interested in using LM can get some inputs. I have never made videos so far. I mean the capturing of the desktop screen process in realtime and making a video. So have to learn that first. I feel mastering masks is an important aspect in getting a good final image.

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, unni said:

@firstdefence

Thanks for the appreciation. I had it in mind when the edit was started but forgot to straighten it. There are some other flaws too due to impatience with fine tuning the mask. Sometime soon I will put out a similar blending method video so that anyone interested in using LM can get some inputs. I have never made videos so far. I mean the capturing of the desktop screen process in realtime and making a video. So have to learn that first. I feel mastering masks is an important aspect in getting a good final image.

Good luck with the video endeavours, I use Camtasia and Screenflow as the mood takes me. Screenflow is Mac only but Camastia is Windows and Mac. I used Camastia when I ran a windows system so I'm used to to but I think Screenflow is just as good. A good free app is OBS a bit clunky to use but its Free and Open Source. I like the Ability in ScreenFlow and Camtasia to show Key Presses and the option to speed up receptive or tedious tasks in a tutorial.