Amazing Exposure Blending Technique For Architecture Photography

I am half way through and I truly appreciate the work done to create a balance between all three images in Lightroom. Most of the photographers skip this and mostly rely on PS whereas LR itself is really powerful. Very useful and fresh perspective.

Anthony, thank you so much for your tutorials. Long time photographer but new to real estate as my son is an agent and I am trying to help him. I have Lumenzia and Lightroom and trying to streamline workflow. If you could show how you handle organizing all of the files from a shoot. When I watch tutorials most instructors are demonstrating on a single set of 3-5 files. I had 180 in last shoot! Thank you.

Anthony, I'm a new subscriber, long time photographer, but new to architectural. I'm really enjoying your tutorials. Your pursuit of excellence and perfection for your work speaks right to me. Thank you so much for sharing! This is so helpful and as a previously retired professional, who used to do portraiture, I am excited to use these techniques for all photos of any genre. I will be going back to old photos and reworking them for fun. Really awesome. Your speed and efficiently, while a bit fast for this Texan lady, is very much appreciated. I just have to rewind a lot. :) Thank you! Regards from Texas!

Best exposure blending video that’s out there. Hands down. I’ve seen them all lol. Great work 💪🏻

whitout color efex can i done this with the curve? the questione and the doubt was, if with the reintroduction of the contrast i lost all my work (or a piece of my work)because i close the shadow for example.

So you shoot with the lights off, so you can reduce color cast?? Does this technique work with lights on during the shoot??

Really nice

Anthony, i find myself constantly losing a lot of contrast. I want all the details from the window. Is it possible?

Did you do fake tilt shift on purpose to get better outside view and more furniture in the shot?

let me get this straight, you have a light worth 1500$ from Godox and this is the technique you end up using instead of flashing the windows?

I'm slowly transitioning from real estate to architecture and thanks to your videos im having fun while learning at the same time, thks a lot !

Such a great video! You are very generous sharing your knowledge and you present it all in a pleasant way on a realistic example. I will certainly remember this video when the situation occurs.
Myself I prefer editing in DxO Photolab so blending is a bit of a problem for me. I did try the Adobe stuff a couple of times but eveytime after some editing attempts I decide that again it's not for me. If necessary I ask my cousin who does have the Adobe software to help me out. And I help him out with the DxO raw conversion of difficult and high-ISO captures.
I also own the Skylum software but don't use it that much, DxO is so easy for me having been using it for years now -just bought the version 6 upgrade, and gives beautiful results, especially if the capture is right in the first place. I do see its limitations but that's mostly on blending and stacking. Your use of Lumenzia and Nik was a pleasant surprise as I bought the first for my cousin and we use it for architecture and I do own the and use the latter myself. It's nice to see a professional use them in an everyday situation.
Jan

Hi Anthony, thanks for your videos I did pick up many things watching your videos .
I used Luminar Ai , it did make the image pop quite a lot but at the same time introduced a lot of noise and softened the image , have you come across this problem and what’s the solution if any
Cheers

Would using a grey card in your scene for white balance be more beneficial or not worth the extra frame and effort when doing HDR? I have found it useful for flambient when I have dark or orange / blond toned wood floors and white walls to help narrow down color cast a bit easier - but never really thought about it for HDR layers.....love your tutorials. I primarily shoot residential RE with flambient, but you make me want to try HDR!

Do you still use flash on your shoots or do you skip the flash altogether now? I typically shoot residential with smaller spaces and I use flash to fix color and tame highlights (a pseudo-flambient leaning more towards ambient. I prefer the ambient look). The issue is I’m starting to get shoots with bigger spaces, and I’m realizing the limitations of my current method. I’m curious because I have been thinking about going full ambient, but don’t have the confidence to do it. Seeing this, now I just might.

I gave Lumeniza a try but I can’t seem to get the dark layer right. The outside always comes out overly muted or looks like deghosting in HDR. I watched your tutorial to the tee but can’t seem to get the outside layer to look like the original.

Anthony, I curious about the reflections on the TV and some faint ones on the windows. Do you try to remove those or are they just a natural part of the scene?

I subscribe to dozens of photography channels on YT and, without a doubt, I learn more from you than anyone else. We recently finished a major renovation on our house in Florida and I’ve been using it to refine my architectural photo skill.

Thanks for this Anthony. Clear and easy to follow as you always are.
I moved away from Adobe, except for Bridge, but can apply this technique in Affinity Photo using luminosity masks and blending ranges. I’m fully in agreement about using Color Efex Pro for the final refinement, those two filters are great in so many applications. I always use them as a preparatory step before making B&W conversions in Silver Efex Pro, for example.

My eye is not sharp enough to tell any difference, let alone which one is better. But I loved your demo. I've been wondering how to handle lens distortion and HDR at the same time, and you've answered that question for me. Maybe Skylum will help out in the future.

Hi again Anthony. Just as I thought, Ps and Lr are far more complex and difficult to use than Luminar Neo, you even had to purchase and add a Lumenzia plug-in to help mask your variations in luminosity, whereas Skylum needs no extras. The fact you took 30 minutes to create this video, compared to less than 20 when using Luminar Neo says it all! I believe that Neo+Affinity seems to be the best combination! Cheers! Felix the Cat. 😼

Hi Anthony, this is a follow on comment from your later video; comparing Ps and Luminar Neo. Just a thought but if you combine Luminar Neo (the Lightroom alternative) with Affinity Photo (the Photoshop alternative). I'm sure you could the same results, if not better, at a far cheaper price and without subscription! Regards from Felix the Cat. 🐱

I see this as an issue also with a lot of portrait work, especially family / group photos. The back ground highlights are blown out and usually skin tones under or over exposed.

Can we replicate this inside of Luminar Neo?

in previous tutorials You (and also myself) could reach the same or even a bit higher quality image using the HDR merging method in Neo or just PS with ACR, and so much faster !
Good oldie method tho :)) Nice work !

Thanks for the tutorial Anthony...Your approach to walking through an edit is spot on!

great tutorial, thank you Anthony. I would love to see a video where you compare in which situation you will just flash and in which you dont need it

Awesome explanation as always Anthony. I've tried all your methods to date and this is by far the most controllable. Thank you for taking the time to produce these videos. They have been ever so helpful in my workflow. Keep'em coming 👍🏻

Love this technique. Your instruction is always on point! Lumenzia changed the way I edit. Loads of scenes where I wasn't happy with my HDR processing Lumenzia came to my rescue. Like you said - GAME CHANGER!

F$ck me this is amazing. Thank you for putting this together.

Able to do with Luminar Neo?

Excellent work. Thank you for sharing that.

Fantastic as usual; always look forward to your videos. Looking at the beautiful photos under the architectural section of your website, how many were edited this way as opposed to alternative methods like HDR etc? Also, are you offering other services such as video or drone? Thank you for this, brilliant.

Anthony in the past i have seen you utilizing aurora hdr and also the new plug in for neo. Is this a technique that you have recently learned ? With out rewatching the other videos my initial impression is luminosity masking is providing you more precise control. As someone else mentioned it would be interesting to see a comparison video sharing the advantages/disadvantages of each technique and the final images. I always appreciate you sharing your thought process with the videos.

Great video!! Really love LUMENZIA panel!! This so should be native to LR!! How does Lumenzia work given the constant LR updates? Have you ever had an issue where a LR update "broke" your Lumenzia panel/features?

You should compare this tecnique with luminar neo and aurora hdr!

Excellent tutorial. This is well scripted and thought through. Thank you Anthony!

I have lumenzia, and it’s a great plugin. I do find that TK Panels is more involved but once mastered, it offers a more comprehensive approach to image blending for me. There is no right or wrong choice- they are both excellent based in user needs.

A couple of things I like to always do, is open images into LR as smart objects, giving me access to RAW level data, if needed. I will eventually have to merge all layers (cmnd/shft/alt/E), to deconvolution sharpen selected areas of the image, but that is a last step after I have done all other edits. I end up with +4 GB file so need to save as a large image document- so I’m selective on this process for my absolute best files for my customers.

I also like to use the brush in highlight blend mode. I sometimes find this relieves the need to mask the mask, and is especially effective when I’ve taken the time to carefully prepare my images in LR. being able to go back into a smart object is quite helpful, as I start to uncover nuances in my image later in the edit stage that are better addressed at the RAW level.

I love Color Efex, and Luminar as plugins- they can be great for the right photo. But when I am lucky to capture amazing light, I find that less is more… I prefer to stay manual in my edits and avoid turn key plugins.

Everyone has their approach after proper fundamentals are intact, so I love to see others approaches. There is something so deeply satisfying to me when dodging/burning/painting light, contrast, and depth into an image using my Wacom/ Xencelabs tablet.