Digital Diversity

I previously wrote an article on basic exposure blending. This was a basic guide on how to create multiple exposures using either exposure bracketing or a single RAW file and then blending them together. This tutorial is a more advanced version of this technique where you take one RAW shot that is exposed correctly for the land and then sky is recovered afterwards and saved as a second file. These 2 files can then be blended together using masks. To finish off, this tutorial will show you how to use photo filters to alter the light in your image.

For this tutorial it will help if you already now the following:
• Layers and Masks
• Photo Filters

This shot was taken from the top of the Scottish history museum. Its just a throw away shot really, not sharp and not that interesting but will be a good example to show off this technique.

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One problem you can encounter in photography is lack of dynamic range. The dynamic range is the range of light levels that can be seen from black to white. You will often find that while a photo has well exposed shadows and mid-tones, the light parts of the image are far to light or even blown out (pure white). On the other hand you may have exposed for the highlights in which case the shadows will look overly dark and underexposed. The problem this leaves is that what you see with your eye is certainly not what you get using your camera. The solution here is to take multiple exposures and blend them together to increase the dynamic range of the shot. You can use as many shots as you like but for the purposes of this tutorial it will be done using 3 shots.

There are 2 ways to get the multiple exposures. The first is exposure bracketing. This is when you set your camera up to take multiple shots of the same scene at different exposures. How you would do this depends on your camera. Many DSLRs and also advanced point and shoots have an option for this to be done automatically. You just hold the button down and the camera will take 3 shots, each time adjusting the exposure. You can normally set how much to do this by. If you set it to +/- 1 then it will take 3 shots, one at the original exposure, one a 1 stop above this and one at 1 stop below.

If your camera does not have this option then you will need to use a manual or semi manual mode to do this. For example you can use aperture priority, take the shot then use the exposure compensation to create the other 2 shots needed.
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A common question I get seen asked is about how to adjust skin tones in a photo. This can be anything from someone coming out looking a bit overly red to hiding a rash that isn’t normally there.

There are many ways to fix these things but the method I will show you is simple and fast. A few adjustment layers with some masking can fix all sorts of issues like these in no time at all.

The most common people to ask this question are people photographing newborns. The Reason for this is that newborns often have bruising or skin discolouration when they first arrive in the world. While some people happily include such things in there photographs, others prefer to hide them. Because of this, this tutorial will use a new born picture to demonstrate this technique. The picture is owned by ‘New Beginnings Photography’ and you can find her on Flickr here.

For this tutorial you will already need to understand:
• Layers and masks
• Adjustment layers

In this picture the baby has had some bruising to the face during delivery. This has caused it to go very red and also dark in comparison to the rest of its skin tones. The idea here is to use adjustment layers and masks to make the face match the rest of the body.

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