I like to approach my digital photography with a certain sense of the fantastical and the surreal. Many of my architectural and cityscape images feature the use of bracketed multiple exposures, which allow me to retain highlight detail in things like window lights and neon signs when shooting at night, or shadow detail in underexposed areas of the frame I want to call attention to.
The majority of my editing is though Photoshop, with the process starting in Adobe CameraRAW. I’ll take each of my bracketed exposures and make my initial adjustments there to things like color temperature, saturation, highlight/shadow detail and perspective correction.
Starting with whichever is the most overall balanced exposure, I’ll then place my other bracketed frames over my base shot using layer masks. Sometimes doing this manually works easier for me where I can “paint” in elements from the other frames into my base exposure, and sometimes it works better to use luminosity masks in order to achieve a cleaner look.
This can be very time consuming, but I quite enjoy the process and the level of manual control over using an automated piece of software to blend frames. Additionally, the final result will be free of some of the common artifacts that can occur with using HDR software such as halos or ghosting.
Once I have an overall balanced exposure with the desired amount of shadow and highlight detail re-inserted into the picture, I then look into my color grading and fine detail options. I tend to use Nik Color Efex pro for achieving the overall “final” result. This now free plug in for Lightroom and Photoshop has a heap of great tools which allow me to make tweaks to individual colors, increase or soften specific details, and can be used as dramatically or minimally as you desire.
I recognise that my particular style of shooting and processing forms a split opinion amongst photographers. HDR processing is easy to abuse, and I too am guilty of over-doing it on many occasions. These Before & After samples are simply meant to highlight what can be done with the power of Photoshop, and as such, I have deliberately provided the most dramatic examples.
4x Exposure Blend Exposures manually blended in Photoshop. De-Fished using Adobe Lens Profiler for Samyang 12mm
4x Exposure Blend
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements.
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements.
3x exposure edit
2x exposures manually blended in Photoshop. Perspective fixed in CameraRAW. Color adjustments made using Nik Color Efex Pro and VSCO. Replacement sky composited into final image.
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color and exposure enhancements
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. VSCO film presets used for color enhancement
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
3x exposure edit
HDR bracketing composited using Photoshop’s ‘Merge to HDR’. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements. Mt Fuji composited in using an earlier ‘clearer’ exposure
3x HDR exposure edit + Sky replacement layer
3x exposures manually composited in Photoshop CC. Replacement sky layer manually overlaid and ‘painted’ in.
single exposure composite cropped and color corrected in Photoshop. Sky background composited into image and color corrected.
Multiple Exposure Blended file
single exposure edit
single exposure edit
contrast and color temp corrected. Color enhancements made using VSCO and Nik Color Efex Pro
single exposure edit
color temperature adjustment using Adobe cameraraw
single exposure edit
Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
single exposure edit
Various sky adjustments performed in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements. Various dodge and burning in Photoshop
single exposure edit
overexposed image with detail brought back using camera raw. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color and contrast enhancements.
single exposure edit
Gradual orange sky gradient and color adjustments performed in Adobe CameraRaw. Sunrays created in Photoshop, with added glow.
Minor color and exposure enhancements from Color Efex Pro
Single Exposure Edit
Perspective re-correction and power line removal in Photoshop.
Color enhancements using Color Efex Pro, with some dodge & burning back in Photoshop
Single Exposure Edit
Single raw image copied twice then flipped and cut diagonally, then masked to create a seamless join. Image then brightened to reveal detail. Selective Color used to bring out the reds in the walls and blues for the windows. Composite sky added. Final color grade added and color noise reduction performed.
Single Exposure Edit
Single RAW image processed in Adobe Camera RAW. Tonal adjustments made using Nik Color Efex Pro. Composite sky blended into frame manually. Final color grade using VSCO plugin.
Single Exposure Edit
Single RAW image processed in Adobe Camera RAW. Adjustments to contrast and color to reduce haze and ‘warm up’ the image. Composite sky blended into frame, with sun glow added in. Final color grade using VSCO
About the author
Peter Stewart is an Australian travel and fine art photographer, currently based out of Hong Kong. You can see more of Peter’s work on his website, and you can reach out to him through Facebook and Twitter. Images used with permission.
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