![]() I made two exposures, one for the sky and one for the bright foliage. In these exposures made in Taos Ski Valley, at about 10k altitude, the light is very bright, #3 and #4. You can make these exposures in the field or simply make a light and dark version of the same shot in Lightroom or Aperture and then load them atop one another and paint away. While there are plenty of good HDR programs available, one of the earliest and still effective ways of getting a wide range of values into an otherwise high contrast image was to shoot two different exposures of the same image (one for highlight and one for shadow detail) and then combine them later in Layers, and then paint away the overlapping areas to bring the most out of each exposure. If you want to try it out there’s a 30-day free trial available at and the site has plenty of fun and helpful lessons and tutorials. The best way to show you what you can do with this ingenious software is to work through a few examples. You can work with a mouse but my preference for this work is a tablet, and for this report I used the new Bamboo Capture from Wacom tablet, which I consider an essential accessory for this kind of work. ![]() ![]() Finally, there is the Masking Bug modifier, which allows you to work in shapes using this tool.Īt first this array of options might seem daunting, and admittedly it takes a few hours of practice to get a feel for what each tool and modifier does. My advice is to use a fairly low opacity and build to the look you desire. You can modify the brush or whatever tools you are using by size, feathering (blend on the edges of the brush), and opacity. The Masking panel is where the fine work is done where you can selectively paint in, paint out, or erase areas within the various layers. Finally in that panel is the Opacity slider, which can be used as a working guide as you apply the effects with the tools or simply as a way to bring one layer into play with the other or others. The best way to see their effects is to try them, as the program instantly responds with the look they produce. These are more limited than in Photoshop but I think distill down to the ones most used by photographers, including Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, etc. You then see the Layers you have loaded, followed by a panel that allows you to copy, delete, and merge the layers, as well as add a Fill layer, like the Color Fill layer in Photoshop.Īlso as in Photoshop you have various Blending modes, which can be used as presets for blending the Layers or as foundation builders for further work on the image. On the right are panels that allow you to place the image on the workspace, including various percentages of size, including 100 percent for fine detail work. As we go through some setups you’ll see how each one is used. The Masking Bug comes next, which is like a selection tool that combines with an intensity and range tool. Next is the Brush tool for painting in and out and erasing areas of an image on one or both layers. A pair of scissors indicates the Trim tool, for cropping should you need it and for making crops if you lay a vertical onto a horizontal image. Starting from the top you have a cross, which is the Transform tool that lets you crop, size, and move one or both layers. NOTE: NAPP members can take advantage of a $35.Take a look at the workspace shown in #1. I got to do a brief interview with Brian Matiash from OnOne Software, and he did a short demo as well (watch the video about to check it out). ![]() I got to see the plug-in, and provide feedback as it was being developed, and then back in April they released a free public beta version of Perfect Layers and now the final version, with lots of improvments, tweaks, and enhancements based on user feedback from that public beta, is now shipping at the special introductory price of $99.95 until June 30 th. I told them if they could somehow give Lightroom users a plug-in to give them access to Layers features, I thought a lot of people would dig it, and they agreed and went to work on a plug-in to do just that. I told them one thing that I hear again and again during my live seminars from Lightroom users is that they either don’t want to jump over to Photoshop or they don’t have Photoshop at all (you’d be surprised how many Lightroom users don’t have Photoshop. Late last year, the crew from OnOne Software came to our offices to show us some new stuff they were working on (amazing stuff by the way), and at the end of our meeting they asked if there was anything we’d be hearing out on the road during our tours that they might could help with.
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