Video Tutorial on Blending Exposures for Added Dynamic Range

[gmitchel]

I added a new video tutorial to my site today that demonstrates how to blend two images together quickly and easily in Photoshop. I'm a photographer, not a painter or a sketch artist, so this technique does not use the brush tool.

http://tinyurl.com/6omxy

Please be patient with the download. It is a 12 minute Quicktime video with high quality MPEG4 800x600 video and high quality audio.

You will want a DSL, Cable Modem, or T1 connection. This is a streaming file and bandwidth is limited, so you may need to try later, if you run into a problem. My site generates a lot of downloads, so please be patient and you will be able to view the video.

The same technique is explained in a recent PDF tutorial. Feel free to download it, also.

http://tinyurl.com/3v5c6

Credit for the technique goes to Michael Reichmann of "The Luminious Landscape" and George DeWolfe of "Camera Arts" Magazine. I've merely popularized and provided a little more detail.

Feel free to look around my Digital Darkroom and download anything else that interests you.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Flora]

Hi Mitch,

Great video tutorial .... thanks again for sharing your great methods!

One thing .... The video from your link and the .pdf Tutorial from the other are, apparently, about two completely different topics .... meaning ... the video is about the Overlay technique for 'dodging and burning' while the .pdf Tutorial is about combining two images together .....

Since, clearly, both are aimed to 'lift shadows and toning down highlights' to balance dark and light areas in an image .... I guess you meant it this way ....

[saby]

This method is really great.

"Dinamic-range problem" will solve when PS10'll able to handle the HDRi and this is y the digital imaging'll rise soon

HDRI

[gmitchel]

Originally Posted by Flora

Hi Mitch,

Great video tutorial .... thanks again for sharing your great methods!

One thing .... The video from your link and the .pdf Tutorial from the other are, apparently, about two completely different topics .... meaning ... the video is about the Overlay technique for 'dodging and burning' while the .pdf Tutorial is about combining two images together .....

Since, clearly, both are aimed to 'lift shadows and toning down highlights' to balance dark and light areas in an image .... I guess you meant it this way ....

Hi Flora:

There's actually two videos on the linked page, Flora.

The top one is on blending exposures to increase dynamic range. The lower one is about the dodge & burn technique.

I sent them to the page rather than straight to the video because it is 20MB. They can read the description and then decide if they want to download.

You must have dropped straight down to the bottom of the video tutorials page and missed the link to the video on blending exposures.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Swampy]

Thanks for another great tutorail, Mitch!

[Flora]

Originally Posted by gmitchel

Hi Flora:

There's actually two videos on the linked page, Flora.

Ooooooooopppppsssss ...

Got the right one now.... and again ... Great video and great Tutorial!!!!

Thank you Mitch!!!

P.S. the video/audio quality is excellent!!!

[gmitchel]

Originally Posted by Flora

Ooooooooopppppsssss ...

Got the right one now.... and again ... Great video and great Tutorial!!!!

Thank you Mitch!!!

P.S. the video/audio quality is excellent!!!

Great. Glad you were able to get the video.

I've got a process now. It sure took a lot of experimentation to get video and audio I was pleased with.

I'm very picky when it comes to digital photography. OK, borderline obsessive compulsive. Same with digital video. I hate audio that sounds scratchy or tinny. I hate little video windows that are jerky, soft, or full of compression artifacts.

The video comes from capturing it at the same size as I distribute it. 800x600. Same thing happens with video when you resample as happens with still images. It gets soft. No resampling and the video is as sharp as looking at a monitor. You just have to get used to working in a smaller Photoshop app window, though.

The audio comes largely from good hardware. Never use a mic connected through a plug on an audio card or a laptop. The result is noisy audio.

I use a Samson Q7 microphone, which is a dynamic microphone for speech and singing. I connect the mic to a tube preamp and that connects to a Tascom USB mixer. So I start off with good, clean audio. (Even when I'm in a hotel room.) I adjust the audio in Adobe Audition to add a little sparkle.

I lost count of the mics I tried, the iterations of equipment and settings I tried, etc.

Now that I have a process, I can repeat it easily. But I probably have 100 hours into different permutations of hardware, software, and settings. Experimenting was fun, though.

Anyway, more video tutorials are coming . . . It takes about 1 hour for 1 minute of finished video: scripting, capturing, editing, combining, compressing. So there are constraints on how often I release new videos.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Flora]

Wow!!!

No wonder you get such excellent results!!!!

I've never tried anything with videos ... yet ... but it surely sounds very, very interesting and, in spite of all the work and time required, a lot of fun too!!!

You write excellent Tutorials, their presentation is impeccable, your voice sounds very good .... What can I say ... looking forward to hearing from you again!!!!!

[muning]

The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

[gmitchel]

You can find it here!

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tutorials-video.htm

The site was redesigned back in Aug. Sorry.

Cheers,

Mitch

[BriC]

The tiny.url won't load in my browser... Can I have the full address to see if that works? I would love to watch the video!
-BriC

[fpellerin]

Hey BriC,

take a peek at the reply just above yours (#10)...Mitch has included a URL there which works just fine!