Hi Greg! This is why I choose to use Lumenzia in my work, still learning but it's so helpful and I'm much faster when I need to blend images then before!
Very inspiring video!!! I’ve been researching ways to edit landscape photos in a way I like it best and found HDR wasn’t what I was looking for, even though every photo magazine seemed to mention HDR as the most amazing thing ever. I’m starting to learn that what I want is luminosity masks. Thanks a bunch!! I’ll be watching your other videos as well. Fabulous photos!!!
Greg, your videos are always a great inspiration! Thank you so much. Isn't there any separate video of how you did process the image of the Tokyo tower? I love the mood of this image.
@@gregbenzphotography i'm a big fan of Lumenzia, Greg. It offers so much. I need to become proficiant and watching your vidios on how you work through different goals and situations helps tremendously. I also would be very interested i seeing your workflow for the Toykyo tower. Thanks so much Greg for all that you provide.
hi Greg. the content, as always, is amazing. but FYI audio seems low and i don't know if you allowed youtube to compensate for shaking or something but if you did, it is adjusting the image to your facial expressions and hands and it's annoying. the scene is moving slightly based on you moving and i doubt you didn't have the camera on a tripod so it could move like that.
Thanks, Jared! Sorry about the audio, you may have to turn this one up a bit. I tried to clean up the audio best I could, generally sounds pretty good on my end. What do you mean adjusting the image? The video feed is pretty simple on my end (minimal adjustments other than cutting in the photos), and RUclips shouldn’t be tweaking it.
No worries. The automatic gain on my DSLR did a poor job and I did my best to boost in post without hiss. Not ideal, but I didn’t think it was problem enough to merit redoing the whole thing.
Hmm, yes having the power of advanced masking available, esp. computational mask that are quick to make, is a very powerful tool. And I think in terms of use-cases that your imagination is the limit here. But I do think the title is a bit confusing. You may just called it "Advantages of Lumi..." or just "what is you can do with lumi masks". Something like that. On the other hand I would be interested in your opinion concerning straight up blending (for dynamic range purposes). Especially comparing Lumi to 32-bit (hdr) files. I know about the problems regular 16 or even 8 bit blends have. (Not even mentioning the over the top danger here) But I think creating a 32-bit file from multiple exposures and then working on it (preferably by keeping the 32-bit raw data as long as possible) is an alternative. If you have that much info available you can still use lumi mask afterwards to make changes (like you presented). Lumi Mask for blending has one small downside to me. You loos the raw data. At least I haven't found a way that gives me a Lumi blended images as raw. Granted not all that many reasons for why you would still need it after blending. But I for example like to use camera calibration for saturation or make the final White balance adjustment after I have a basic version ready. Anyways should stop now... not meant to become an essay.... Thanks for your great work!
Hi Jens- Good questions. You have access to all the same data when you use luminosity masks (LM), but much more control. You can use it to get MUCH more detail out if a single RAW file, or use it to blend multiple exposures. To blend multiple exposures with full flexibility and access to the RAW, send your RAW images to Photoshop as Camera RAW Smart Objects in a 16-bit TIF or PSB. You can then use the RSW data all you like (make changes, duplicate to create other versions and blend, etc). You finished image will be output in 8 or 16-bit space. If you have all the exposures in a 16-bit document, you aren’t losing anything at all compared to a 32-bit HDR. In fact, the opposite, because the creative control lets you do much more with the exact same high-quality data (not to mention the long list of tools that are not available in the 32-bit space).
Hmm, interesting why didnt I think of that. If I understand you correctly Lumenzia can blend e.g. 3 Smart Objects?! Anyways, traveling at the moment. But will certainly try this out. Thanks.
Just tried. But IMHO their are two problems with that approch. 1.) You cant Auto-Align Smart-Objects and 2.) You cannot use ACR after blending. At least not on the RAW data. (Merg = Pixel Layer; Convert to smatObject = Nested Object). To bad. That would have been really great!
Absolutely, and I’ve done so many times. Think of luminosity masks as a way to combine or adjust things with more precision, and HDR as a possible filter. I rarely use HDR these days, but it can still serve a role.
I bought Greg's Lumenzia panel a few months ago. Hands down, one of the top investments for my photography- and it's not at all expensive. I highly recommend it. Holy unsubcribed Batman, I just realized I wasn't subscribed to Greg's channel! Duh. Now I am.
Greg, I've tried to end of the earth to get great quality hdr for interior real estate. Your extensive masks may be over the top but not sure. I was simply clicking rgb channel with cmd to highlight then I add a mask and it combines the flash and ambient shot. Would love to have a conversation to you.
Certainly a matter of personal preferences. My goal is to capture the way a place felt, and the camera does not completely and accurately tell that story much of the time. I’m certainly not following journalists’ rules.
Im on the fence with a lot of this stuff, but at the end of the day it does show what luminosity masks are capable of which is the intention of the video. I probably wouldn't use a different sky personally but the perspective one was very interesting, and with creativity could really push the boundaries of art.
I always learn a lot from your video tutorials! Thank you so much Greg! God bless and good luck!
This channel should be called learn graphic arts. Cool looking photos.... composites.
Hi Greg! This is why I choose to use Lumenzia in my work, still learning but it's so helpful and I'm much faster when I need to blend images then before!
Wow - spectacular results! I never knew thought of using luminosity masking do all this before!
Very inspiring video!!! I’ve been researching ways to edit landscape photos in a way I like it best and found HDR wasn’t what I was looking for, even though every photo magazine seemed to mention HDR as the most amazing thing ever. I’m starting to learn that what I want is luminosity masks. Thanks a bunch!! I’ll be watching your other videos as well. Fabulous photos!!!
Great! Luminosity masks open up an entirely new world, much more than exposure blending too. Endless potential.
Nicely explained
. Those images are showing power of luminosity mask.
Greg! Thank you for this inspirational video! Liked, subscribed :)
Thanks!
Greg, your videos are always a great inspiration! Thank you so much. Isn't there any separate video of how you did process the image of the Tokyo tower? I love the mood of this image.
No, haven’t done that. Have a couple other BW videos on RUclips though (mountain image, flower image).
@@gregbenzphotography i'm a big fan of Lumenzia, Greg. It offers so much. I need to become proficiant and watching your vidios on how you work through different goals and situations helps tremendously. I also would be very interested i seeing your workflow for the Toykyo tower. Thanks so much Greg for all that you provide.
That’s a pretty complex edit, will give that some thought. Thanks!
hi Greg. the content, as always, is amazing. but FYI audio seems low and i don't know if you allowed youtube to compensate for shaking or something but if you did, it is adjusting the image to your facial expressions and hands and it's annoying. the scene is moving slightly based on you moving and i doubt you didn't have the camera on a tripod so it could move like that.
Thanks, Jared!
Sorry about the audio, you may have to turn this one up a bit. I tried to clean up the audio best I could, generally sounds pretty good on my end.
What do you mean adjusting the image? The video feed is pretty simple on my end (minimal adjustments other than cutting in the photos), and RUclips shouldn’t be tweaking it.
oh just saw comment about audio.
No worries. The automatic gain on my DSLR did a poor job and I did my best to boost in post without hiss. Not ideal, but I didn’t think it was problem enough to merit redoing the whole thing.
OK. That one got me ~ I'm in.
Hmm, yes having the power of advanced masking available, esp. computational mask that are quick to make, is a very powerful tool. And I think in terms of use-cases that your imagination is the limit here.
But I do think the title is a bit confusing. You may just called it "Advantages of Lumi..." or just "what is you can do with lumi masks". Something like that.
On the other hand I would be interested in your opinion concerning straight up blending (for dynamic range purposes). Especially comparing Lumi to 32-bit (hdr) files. I know about the problems regular 16 or even 8 bit blends have. (Not even mentioning the over the top danger here) But I think creating a 32-bit file from multiple exposures and then working on it (preferably by keeping the 32-bit raw data as long as possible) is an alternative.
If you have that much info available you can still use lumi mask afterwards to make changes (like you presented).
Lumi Mask for blending has one small downside to me. You loos the raw data. At least I haven't found a way that gives me a Lumi blended images as raw. Granted not all that many reasons for why you would still need it after blending. But I for example like to use camera calibration for saturation or make the final White balance adjustment after I have a basic version ready.
Anyways should stop now... not meant to become an essay....
Thanks for your great work!
Hi Jens- Good questions. You have access to all the same data when you use luminosity masks (LM), but much more control. You can use it to get MUCH more detail out if a single RAW file, or use it to blend multiple exposures.
To blend multiple exposures with full flexibility and access to the RAW, send your RAW images to Photoshop as Camera RAW Smart Objects in a 16-bit TIF or PSB. You can then use the RSW data all you like (make changes, duplicate to create other versions and blend, etc).
You finished image will be output in 8 or 16-bit space. If you have all the exposures in a 16-bit document, you aren’t losing anything at all compared to a 32-bit HDR. In fact, the opposite, because the creative control lets you do much more with the exact same high-quality data (not to mention the long list of tools that are not available in the 32-bit space).
Hmm, interesting why didnt I think of that. If I understand you correctly Lumenzia can blend e.g. 3 Smart Objects?!
Anyways, traveling at the moment. But will certainly try this out. Thanks.
Yep. Blending is just masks on layers, so you can blend with any layer: Smart Objects, normal pixel layers, or even adjustment layers.
I use Lumenzia to blend Smart Objects when I expect to need to refine the RAW settings, but otherwise just use it to blend 16-bit layers.
Just tried. But IMHO their are two problems with that approch. 1.) You cant Auto-Align Smart-Objects and 2.) You cannot use ACR after blending. At least not on the RAW data. (Merg = Pixel Layer; Convert to smatObject = Nested Object).
To bad. That would have been really great!
Can you combine both?
Absolutely, and I’ve done so many times. Think of luminosity masks as a way to combine or adjust things with more precision, and HDR as a possible filter. I rarely use HDR these days, but it can still serve a role.
Great topic!!!
I bought Greg's Lumenzia panel a few months ago. Hands down, one of the top investments for my photography- and it's not at all expensive. I highly recommend it.
Holy unsubcribed Batman, I just realized I wasn't subscribed to Greg's channel! Duh. Now I am.
Thank you, glad you’re enjoying it so much!
Greg, I've tried to end of the earth to get great quality hdr for interior real estate. Your extensive masks may be over the top but not sure. I was simply clicking rgb channel with cmd to highlight then I add a mask and it combines the flash and ambient shot.
Would love to have a conversation to you.
Easiest way would be to email me
If i use HDR merge and goto camera raw do i get the dynamic range of total combined photo or?
Yes, you’d have the full range, and be editing with normal camera RAW controls.
Audio very low
Sorry about that. Had some mic issues that I didn’t discover until after recording.
Greg how does this work with Affinity Photo?
Affinity does not offer what is needed to do this kind of work.
Benz = Photoshop Houdini - Able to conjure PS magic and explain it too
LOL, might be a little over the top, but thanks!!
well I don't know if I'd call that photography lol, you're literally putting an other sky on your images
Certainly a matter of personal preferences. My goal is to capture the way a place felt, and the camera does not completely and accurately tell that story much of the time. I’m certainly not following journalists’ rules.
Im on the fence with a lot of this stuff, but at the end of the day it does show what luminosity masks are capable of which is the intention of the video. I probably wouldn't use a different sky personally but the perspective one was very interesting, and with creativity could really push the boundaries of art.