Before & After – A post processing comparison with Peter Stewart
Apr 5, 2016
Peter Stewart
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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.
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements.
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements.
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.
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color and exposure enhancements
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. VSCO film presets used for color enhancement
HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
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 exposures manually composited in Photoshop CC. Replacement sky layer manually overlaid and ‘painted’ in.
contrast and color temp corrected. Color enhancements made using VSCO and Nik Color Efex Pro
color temperature adjustment using Adobe cameraraw
Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements
Various sky adjustments performed in Photoshop. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color enhancements. Various dodge and burning in Photoshop
overexposed image with detail brought back using camera raw. Nik Color Efex Pro used for post-production color and contrast enhancements.
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
Perspective re-correction and power line removal in Photoshop.
Color enhancements using Color Efex Pro, with some dodge & burning back in Photoshop
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 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 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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We love it when our readers get in touch with us to share their stories. This article was contributed to DIYP by a member of our community. If you would like to contribute an article, please contact us here.
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One response to “Before & After – A post processing comparison with Peter Stewart”
Great work.