How To Create HDR Ambient Files Without Plug-ins For Flash/ Ambient Real Estate Photography

In this video I teach you step by step how to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images using only Photoshop. This should help out any beginner that is looking to start in REP without the use of any 3rd-party plug-ins.
Remember that this is only one way out of many to do the same thing, which is to blend ambient exposures into one HDR image. You could certainly do this in Lightroom, Enfuse, Photomatix, or Lumenzia at a faster pace which is why I prefer Plug-ins over the manual route.
Let me know in the comments what you think or if you have any questions.
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[@BrandonWattsREP]

I think the music was a little loud on this one so I apologize.
I'm trying to figure out what is a good middle ground between being too loud and being barely audible.
Let me know in the comments what you think so that I can fix it in future videos.
Thank you!

[@janjirekreality]

Hi, thank you for your effort and made a video according to a comment from previous video. The approach is great but pretty long to make HDR. So I will stick with a LR or enfuse image. What I am not sure about is the Darken/Color Repair group. The first layer that you created was a color layer 50% blend with black mask, the second was 100% darken, the same for Ambient blend, also the color layer with 50%. What should be the purpose of these "hidden" color layers? I understand that Luminosity mask is killing all the colors from the ambient and reveals the flash color that should be more accurate. What I see, even from my experience, that the Luminosity mask make the image look like black and white.

[@BrandonWattsREP]

I don't blame you. Using luminosity masks is really great if you want full control over how your ambient HDR file is created. Typically the heavy lifting is coming from the flash pops, which means the ambient HDR doesn't necessarily have to be perfect, it just needs to be created by any means necessary. LR, Enfuse, Photomatix, and even PS have ways to merge the files.
I just find that using Lumenzia cuts out the middleman of having to select 3 images to be merged by LR, to then be selected with the flash pops before importing into PS to be blended. By using the custom action I created with Lumenzia you're able to select all the images from LR at once, import, merge to HDR, then blend and finalize all with one action. This saves time and is the only true reason I use the plug-in.
As for the Color layers. The hidden color layer inside the Ambient Blend is meant for correcting flash pops that cause too much glare. The glare causes parts of the image to become discolored and turn blueish which can be fixed by brushing in the 50% color from the ambient HDR file. This step isn't always needed but I like to have it in the action so that I don't have to create those steps should I ever need to use it.
The color inside the Darken/ Repair is set to 100% opacity and is the layer that shows the true color of the room. You want this layer to be WB correctly so that when you apply this color layer inside the Darken group, it corrects for any color casts that come from the ambient HDR.

[@AlienImagery]

Hey Brandon! I love the tutorials you provide, you are so good at explaining everything. I had a quick question, I am new to using lumenzia, when I bring out the window detail with lumenzia the outside doesn't look right, its very muddy. I added an 8px feather to the mask, which helped a little bit but still not right, any suggestions, am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for any help!

[@BrandonWattsREP]

Hey my friend, what exposure bracketing are you shooting at. For me it's at 2 stops a part, 3 exposures total. I wonder if the difference is coming from the spacing in stops.
Shoot me an email with some of your raws at [e-mail] and I'll take a look to see what's going on.

[@AlienImagery]

@@BrandonWattsREP yes I shoot 2 stops apart, 3 exposures, sometimes 5 exposures

[@evanabounassar2454]

Hey Brandon,
I was wondering how you light long rooms where the light tapers off and sometime the white balance also changes as the light tapers off (maybe that's happening to me because of improper lighting techniques). Also how to handle lighting large skinny hallways where composites become tricky.
Thanks,
Evan

[@BrandonWattsREP]

I made a video just now though it's a quick one.
Since I didn't explain it in the video, I'll explain it here.
Process is like this:
- 3 Ambient Images (Combined into 1 HDR Ambient Blend)
- 1 Darken/ Repair Layer
- 1 side to side flash pop like normal (This fills in the area closer to the camera)
- 1 additional side to side flash pop at the further end of the room (Group those layers together and set the group to screen. This will blend in the further area into the closest area.)

[@evanabounassar2454]

Thanks!