Properly Exposing With Layer Masks in Photoshop

Layer masking... layer masking is an incredibly handy thing to know, for every photographer. Layer masking can be used well for many things but what I will cover is using it to properly expose an scene with unbalanced lighting. this requires you take at least two photos of the same scene with your camera in the very same place, so this requires a tripod.

I will be using this shot of my backyard for the example. which has incredibly harsh shadows while the sky and clouds are nicly lit and colored by the sunset.. so this would require a graduated ND filter...... or... layer masking in photoshop.. much cheaper

AS you can see The top image is properly exposed for the sky and the bottom image is properly exposed for the back yard (all the greenery) its a bit over exposed but not too bad.

So this technique of layer masking requires photoshop I am using CS5 but it is the same process for the older versions.

1. load your images into PS

2. Drag the images into the same document so that they are both 2 separate layers

3. So first make sure that you take note of which image is on top of which. Then apply a layer mask to the top layer. to do that you will click the tiny button in the bottom right hand corner which has a white circle inside a grey square, located to the right of the button which says "FX"

 

Its kinda hard to find so here's a screenshot of it..

4. once you have clicked that a layermask will be applied you will be able to see it appear in the layers window to the very right of the layer you applied it to.. does that make sense i have a screenshot showing what it looks like a little later on.

5. So heres the key part, which takes some patience and careful movement of the paint brush tool. so select the paint brush tool and make sure the top layer with he mask is selected. set the color of the brush to black, and paint over the part of the image which is not correctly exposed. the black paintbrush will act as an eraser and erase what you paint revealing the image below. so only paint what is not correctly exposed on the top image, but is on the bottom layer.. this is probably super confusing the way im explaining it, but heres a screenshot. you can see in the layer mask all that black against the white background is the part which i have painted over.

So this is a screenshot of the image after i had applied the layer mask and used the black paint brush to reveal all the properly exposed foreground which is much under exposed in the original top image.


6. once you have painted all that you need to, to touch up I recommend setting the brush opacity at 30 - 40 and a fairly small brush size and painting around the edges of the part which you just painted.. this allows for a smoother and cleaner transition of colors and light in the image.

FINAL IMAGE.. i didn't not the best job of painting on the layer mask, but you get the point...

If you have ever seen images which are black and white with a single colored part to it... this is the answer to how that's done. all you need to do is duplicate your layer by right clicking the layer in the layers window and clicking duplicate layer.. then change the top layer to greyscale, then paint in black over which ever part you would like to be in color.. boom done. pretty simple. Once you get this down it can have so many uses, and its not cheating by any means its just compensating for natures way of providing unbalanced light in such scenes...

Creating an HDR...

HDR.. or High Dynamic Range. High dynamic range means that the photo has a very broad dynamic range of luminances, from lights to darks in a given photo. This allows for the entire image to be properly exposed (thats just a simple definition) photos can be quite spectacular when done correctly and not overcooked (in my opinion). although creating an HDR can turn a series of rather unappealing photos into a very colorful - sometimes unrealistic looking - and properly exposed picture, Its does take some conscious planning when you go out and shoot if your planning on creating an HDR out of your shots. By conscious planning, I mean: finding an interesting and colorful subject and scene, planning your exposures and of course keeping your camera completely still during the multiple Exposures. Now I have to say you are able to take a single properly exposed image and adjust the exposure in Lightroom or Photoshop afterward to make one over and one under exposed, However when doing landscapes I have found it to be much more effective to Shoot all the different exposures there rather.

Now The most common purposes of HDR are..
1. To create a properly exposed image of a scene with very unbalanced light. i.e. Looking directly into the sunset over an ocean.. the sunset can not be properly exposed if the Water is too (unless your using a 10 stop ND Graduated ND filter) or a daylight image with intense dark shadows..
2. Boosting colors, and luminance and creating a very unique and almost unrealistic scene. this is probably the case with most HDR's that you will see. The photo can be realistic looking or very unrealistic looking (which im sure you have seen examples)that is all a matter of preferance and controlled during the tone mapping process which i will explain later

Now... For the How to.

1. When your going out to take photos use a tripod is probably the most important. while HDR programs can compensate for slight moving objects and ripples like clouds and trees blowing in wind Your entire image will be messed up if the camera gets moved too much between exposures. 

2. Probably the most helpful thing I have learned is to take more than 3 exposures, while an HDR requires 3 different exposures (1 under exposed, 1 properly exposed and 1 under exposed) It is always a good idea to start out at least 5+ stops under exposed and take a photo every stop you move up until about 5+ over exposed.. So say properly exposed is 1/320th start at 1/40th and take a shot every time you move up one or 2 stops until your at maybe 1/1000th. While choosing your exposures check the objects in your image to make sure that all the parts get properly exposed throughout the series of images (if that makes sense) ill explain more about that later.. Also it is very important you don't adjust your Aperture between exposures, only your shutter speed. Changing your aperture will change the Depth of field and make your photo look very focally un-balanced.

3. Choose your images assuming you shot multiple exposures do not Do any editing to them at this point.

4. Now for the HDR creating part.. I use Photomatix pro because it is by far the most powerful and easiest to use of all that I have tried. Photoshop Cs4 and Cs5 both have HDR software as well, but i don't have much experience with them.

Some free HDR Software is in the links below. I have only had experience with qtpfsugi, and was very satisfied with it!

Essential HDR
Qtpfsugi A.k.a Luminance HDR

 Over Exposed. 1/40th

Under Exposed 1/500th

Properly exposed 1/160th

5. Generating the HDR and then tone mapping it is the final step. Here is a quick set of screen shots showing you the combination process and how it looks after tone mapping. To access the "tone mapping" option on Photomatix you click the HDR tab, the same one you click to add your pictures and "generate your HDR"

Make sure to select "reduce ghosting artifacts" in the initial "generate HDR" screen. After all the tone mapping is done you will end up with a beautiful HDR...

 

All Those exposures were combined and then tonemapped in Photomatix pro to create this final product, as you can see with this HDR I was able to properly expose the Sunset and the entire foreground grass and trees. This would have been nearly impossible in a single exposure with out an expensive graduated ND filter. Now you are able to use layer masks in Photoshop and properly expose this image with 2 exposures, but making an HDR is much more simple and plus creates such an effect which is unachievable by layer masking.. I hope to create a layer masking tutorial soon here too, since that is a Very valuable thing to know.

Hope this was helpful!!
if you have any further questions dont hesitate to shoot me an email..

Thanks for checking this out.

Skate Or Die!

So... It has been about 5 month since I have gone out skating with my normal crew, and nearly a year since I shot any serious Skate photography. Reason 1 being I don't own a Fisheye (or super-wide angle lens) and will not until after I purchase my D300s. Reason 2 being I got much much more serious about photography after Summer was over and that's when I interact with and am around my skating crew the most, We actually just busted our butts to film for this Skate video called Buzz kill - 100% edited and put together by my buddy Brendan Bill- which dropped this last October 31st, so no opportunities really arise for me to go skate and photograph here in SF and im not really the kinda person who will go hunt down skaters and ask to photograph them at spots.. maybe I should be :/

Anyways 70%of the time I go out to shoot skateboarding I will use a fisheye, since fisheye lenses are most commonly associated with: Extreme sports photography, Star scapes and occasional landscapes.

Today I went out with one of my great friends Breandin Bill A.k.a Big Bill, and our other good friend and up-in-coming skater Daniel Dubois. Here is the shot I took today of Daniel busting a Hardflip, which he caught and landed and rolled away... but then slipped out. so probably a 2d trip to that spot will be calling.
I also am going to toss in a couple other much older skate photos I have taken

^ Daniel Dubois Hard flip over the 7 rail, which was caught and landed just not rolled away into the street :(
How this was shot: I used my D40 with a Sigma 10-20 f/4 (which is my fathers) and since i forgot my light stand I used my remote flash trigger system to wirelessly  trigger My Sb600 held in my hand  just a bit above my head and aimed so it would hit his body and board directly.

Again Mr. Dubios here with a front 360 down Morga's 3 block. This was taken about a year and a half ago with my kit 18-55 f/3.5 lens with added HDR pp, as you can probably tell.

Armand Wesley with an enormous ollie into this bench, and YES he did land it. This was at Albany High's massive 7 block in Albany, Ca. I used my kit 18-55mm on this and little PP was done, just added contrast and whatnot. so pretty simple all in all, but not the trick.

Speed Does Matter

What is speed? not what Ecstasy is cut with, No... Speed which refers to Cameras, or lenses to be specific. The speed of a lens refers to the highest aperture or lowest f-stop number which your lens can achieve, the lower the f-stop #, the faster the lens. So fixed 50mm f/1.2 (one of the fastest affordable lenses on the market today) would be faster than a Fixed 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8..

Why is this referred to as speed...? Well lets start off by defining Aperture. without getting too technical and talking about the collumnation of light rays...

Aperture also refereed to as "f-stop" is referring to the diaphragm inside your lens which controls the amount of light that your lens will let in. The lower the Aperture, the less light that will be admitted through your lens and onto your CCD OR CMOS sensor where magical, and very technical things happen and your digital image is created. a Higher aperture, say f/1.4 will allow much more light through your lens, by opening up the diaphragm mechanism inside your lens.  here are some pictures i took to show this diaphragm on a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor film lens (since aperture can only be adjusted through the camera on digital lenses).

F/1.4 

F/5.6

F/11

As you can see at f/11 only a tiny hole is open allowing much less light in, that at f/1.4


So... the Advantages of A faster lens - or lower f-stop - would be.... Since more light is let in at higher apertures, faster shutter speeds can be used. This is especially important in low light situations where you are trying to capture motion or have greater Depth of field - which I will cover in another post.  Say your indoors at night with only lamps and other lighting fixtures to light the rooms, and your shooting with a 18-200 f/3.5. Chances are that you will be shooting with a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/30th or 1/60th max, this will not be enough to capture motion other than a slight turning of a head or so. then say you all of a sudden get a 17-70mm f/2.8 lens. Under those same lighting conditions you would most likely be able to shoot at 1/120th to 1/200th of a second which will indeed freeze motion.
 Here's a simple example to kinda show this.. could be better but gets the job done...

 50mm focal length 1/80th sec and f/5.6

 Now.. 1/800th sec at f/1.4  what a huge difference in shutter speeds and although not perfectly focused (my bad) there is no motion blur

Allowing More light in and being able to use faster shutter speeds in lower lighting is only one of the benefits of fast lenses Depth of field is another which I will Write about in one of my next posts.

thanks to all who read hope this taught you a thing or two...

Cowboy Studios NPT 04 Review

The Cowboy Studio NPT-04. 4 channel wireless Hot shoe Flash trigger
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Cowboy Studios NPT-04 on Amazon


Let me start off by saying that this is a great piece of equipment for the price, and it works.

Pros: It works!, inexpensive, excellent range (which i will discuss later in this post) 1/200 synch speed.. very comparable to expensive pocketwizards

Cons: feels easily breakable, the turn wheel to secure it is sometimes hard to move, flash feels wobbly when attached (even though it is secure)

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now a more comprehensive review....

Durability: 3.5/5
   Now I have held and used other wireless radio triggers (costing 4-5 X the price), and they felt durable as if they could survive a drop or 2 or even more, but with the CBS NPT-04 the first thing i noticed was that they seemed cheaply made from a hard plastic (hence the reason why they are $25) I have had no issues, nor have i read of any easily breaking, but that's just how they feel. Also when my SB-600 is connected to the receiver the SB-600 flash unit wobbles a bit. I am unable to pull it out when its locked in there (which is a good thing) but it feels wobbly, which scares me a bit. Also Note here in the picture below how there is an inch and a half or so gap between the flash and the opening hole of the diffuser that is not only due to the fact that the securing knob on the flash diffuser mount is so large, but also that the receiver part of the CBS NPT-04 is designed so that it has that large part - Which is circled in red -  with the channel switch sticking out in the front of it, when it should have been designed so that that part is in the back. (Does that make any sense???) it would bring the flash much closer to the opening hole of the diffuser allowing less of the flash to escape.

Range: 5/5

Holy Crap! for 25 bucks these things go a long ways, and i mean that literally and metaphorically. I tested the range out in my front yard, by placing one in front of my driveway and i went down the street until it was out of range. I had to walk a full 2 blocks until they stopped working, and i measured it out to be 180 feet. and I don't know when in the world you would ever need to be that far from the flash, and if i ever were I would be using much more than just a speedlight for my lighting. Also I tested to see if a wall would block the flash from firing.. No. I stood at one end of my house and set the flash all the way in the furthest room, where it was obstructed by 3 different walls and it still received the signal and fired the flash with no delay. I also covered the transmitter (part that attaches to the camera) with my hand and the flash still fired through the 3 walls. Now how can I give this thing less than 5 stars for range.. I would give it 10 if i could.


Price: 5/5

Good luck finding a better wireless reciever/transmitter kit for 25 that works this well.

Battery life: ?

I have no experience with the battery life of these, However from numerous reviews people claim that after hundreds of shots they are still working. It takes 2 AAA's and that is it. So if going on a shoot and plan on using These i would recommend always carrying at least 2 back up AAA's on you, after all they are the most inexpensive battery on the market.

Overall:
Great product, offers four channels, so different cameras are able to trigger the flash without overlapping signals. the range is incredible on these things, and best of all it makes a very small dent in your wallet, costing only $25. I would recommend these to anyone starting, or already into strobist photography, since lights will be a larger expense it is good to save money where you can, without sacrificing quality and these will do just that.. provide great quality for little cost!


UPDATE:  3 MONTHS OF USING THE CBS NPT-04 AND STILL 1005 SATISFIED WITH PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE. I have done 2 hour long shoots, taking 600+ pictures most of them using the wireless triggers on my Sb600 and never had to switch out batteries.

Note:  I AM IN NO WAY AFFILIATED, OR TRYING TO ADVERTISE FOR COWBOY STUDIOS. I AM SIMPLY A SATISFIED CUSTOMER.