Greg Benz – Exposure Blending Master Class

Everything you need to know to get the most out of your RAW filesClimb the mountain one step at a time.
Greg Benz – Exposure Blending Master Class
Whether you have significant experience using luminosity masks to blend exposures, or have no idea what they are – this course is designed to help you to master the art of extracting incredible color and dynamic range from your RAW files. The course is built in clearly organized, bite-sized pieces. This gives beginners a clear place to start learning the basics, and more experienced students can skip right to the more advanced courses.
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Course Curriculum

[1] Here (RAW Files and more)

[1.1] Welcome and How to Get the Most out of this Course (2:28)
[1.2] ***** RAW Files ***** (0:44)
[1.3] Viewing this course offline: Teachable app for iOS
[1.4] Additional content (links to related material outside this course)
[1.5] Lumenzia v7 update (7:40)
[1.6] Lumenzia v8 update
[1.7] Lumenzia v9 update

[2] Primer: the Basics of blending (advanced Photoshop users can skip this)

[2.1] Simple Blending with Layers and Layer Masks (12:31)
[2.2] Selection Tools in Photoshop (20:00)
[2.3] Creating luminosity selections with Lumenzia
[2.4] How to view layers and masks (4:35)

[3] The Best Blending Workflow (KEY SECTION)

[3.1] Preparing RAW files for export to Photoshop (19:19)
[3.2] PreBlend: Preparing Layers for Blending (2:46)
[3.3] Blending: Painting through Luminosity Selections (18:50)
[3.4] Finalizing the blend (11:25)
[3.5] Recap: Key Buttons to Know in Lumenzia for Blending
[3.6] Optional: Why Wacom Tablets are so great for luminosity masking

[4] Optional: Alternative software (skip this if you use Lumenzia and Lightroom)

[4.1] Alternative stacking workflows for people who do not use Lightroom or Lumenzia
[4.2] Alternatives workflows for people who do not use Lumenzia

[5] Multi-processing: Single RAW workflow (KEY SECTION)

[5.1] Why and when to multi-process the same RAW file (18:48)

[6] Other blending workflows

[6.1] Blending in a lighter exposure (8:30)
[6.2.] Blend If (and why you generally shouldn’t use it for blending) (8:57)
[6.3] Panos and focus stacking (workflow considerations when blending more than just exposure)
[6.4] HDR (limitations and uses)

[7] Getting great Color (KEY SECTION)

[7.1] Differences in color processing in Photoshop vs Lightroom/ACR (30:50)
[7.2] Lightroom/ACR tools for color
[7.3] Photoshop tools for color (14:32)

[8] Fieldwork: Capturing the images (KEY SECTION)

[8.1] How many exposures do you need? (11:24)

[9] Common issues and how to fix them

[9.1] Bad tree edges (6:50)
[9.2] Halos and other bad edges
[9.3] Ghosting
[9.4] The blend looks “flat” (Low contrast)
[9.5] There is a red overlay on the image
[9.6] Other issues

[10] Sky replacement

[10.1] Horseshoe Bend Sky Replacement (48:29)

[11] Landscapes

[11.1] Unique Challenges for Landscapes (2:04)
[11.2] Demo: Juniper Tree (single vs mult-processed RAW comparison) (42:59)

[12] Cityscapes

[12.1] Unique Challenges for Cityscapes (1:56)
[12.2] Demo: London [Skill Level: Advanced] (33:22)

[13] Interiors / Real Estate

[13.1] Unique challenges for Interiors (10:57)
[13.2] Demo 1: Office – Mixed color and a novel approach to blending [Skill Level: Advanced] (38:42)
[13.3] Demo 2: Bedroom with mix of HDR and luminosity masking [Skill Level: Advanced] (62:37)

Bonuses

Luminosity Masking Workflow (KEY SEGMENT) (28:53)
LR/ACR presets (7:39)
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