Exposure Blending with Luminosity Masks for Architecture and Real Estate

Learn professional techniques to accurately brighten shadows and lower highlighted areas with higher quality results than using HDR. For more on my real estate photography series see amzn.to/3mFoznx

[@antonoat]

Some teachers are good, a few are truly excellent, then there's Nathan, Superb video and a big thank you.

[@ruivam]

I keep coming back to this very helpful video everytime I need to blend real estate photos manually. Please never remove it from KZbin! And again, thanks a lot for sharing the technique.

[@borgitube]

you are the one on photography real estat thanks mester NATHAN

[@TylerHealy-u6r]

This video went into my favorites. And my head is spinning.

[@cygilbert4962]

MY head is spinning. Must study masking.

[@danuprimanto]

great tutorial Mr. Nathan, I cracked my problem with many shadows & many highlights with this. Thank you :)

[@mattshootsforgood7965]

Nathan, I legit need to buy you a beer my man. So helpful. I can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge with us!

[@pixperfect241]

Thank you so much Nathan. Really good video. With your way of blending, i get the output that i wanted.

[@moethajib2]

Great technique. Thank you for sharing this knowledge Nathan.

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Glad it was helpful!

[@stephaneMichaux]

thanks a lot Nathan! I can't understand american english very nice so that's why i needs me to watch the video 2 or 3 times to be sure to understand every thing! If I could I would really enjoy sharing pictures with you which give me some problems... Thx from Paris France!

[@visionhometours4487]

Nathan, I edit all of my own RE photography and since you shared this two weeks ago I have used it over and over and LOVE it! Makes exterior blending so seamless. You're brilliant. Thank you!

[@jeffersondizzle]

I always learn something new with your vids Nathan, thanks for bringing the goods every time!

[@jonathanhornby]

You're a wizard at this. Thanks for showing how to do it!

[@MoatazBillehMednini]

HDR merge was just ditched. Thanks for the tutorial. It was gold.

[@adamtaylor4627]

Nathan!!!!!! This is the next step I’ve been looking for!!! Note to put it into practice!! Thank you!

[@ruivam]

Hadn't heard of the ctrl + shift + alt + click trick. I'm fascinated. This video is very useful. Thanks a lot.

[@kaell822]

Great stuff and good teaching. My favorite channel

[@jordanashley9534]

This was an amazing lesson! Super helpful for my new RE and architectural photography business!

[@mediamannaman]

Mind blown. It's gonna take a lot of reps for this to sink in, but sooooo powerful!

[@FranHoganPanama]

Thank you! thank you!

[@jgord17]

Spending Valentines night with Nathan Cool

[@ASMRher]

me too

[@jarids.johnson4615]

Really great. I have been using Lightroom luminosity masks and brushes for this method, though will try this in Photoshop.

[@yogawilaga]

big thanks its helpfull

[@Garbid]

Amazing, simple, clear and shortly. Actually was looking for something like this! Thanks!

[@desertmav8632]

Another great video Nathan👍🏼

[@ottersphotography304]

Great video Nathan, I really appreciate your teaching style. Although I consider myself primarily a landscape photographer, my actual business is as a real estate photographer. I use Lumenzia for luminosity masking in landscape photography. One time, struggling with an exterior shot, I had the bright idea to run it through Lumenzia and couldn't believe I had never thought of it before. It is nice to see your video on luminosity masking.

[@blacklightaura6777]

Instant subscribe

[@Elizabeth-mo3fv]

That was really terrific! What computer do you use ? Mine is so slow, I need something that can handle both programs and photos. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ your videos.

[@cygilbert4962]

Thank you for this, Nathan!

[@3mille]

Thanks a lot Nathan, very helpful x

[@andryannugraha8178]

i just found your channel.. really helpful for my editing skills and knowledge, you are a really good mentor. thanks a lot sir! gbu

[@allanvukadin1663]

Wow. Amazing result! I've been having alot of issues with the harsh winter sun and shadows lately. I think I'll give this a go on Monday.

[@MK-hz2bn]

Great video! Thanks!

[@vallentsofficial3827]

Amazing! Thank you! Very good vídeo.

[@davidalanmedia]

Awesome Nathan!

[@MichaelCook1981]

Great tutorial! I just started RE photography and not very good at the editing portion, so I out source it. I'll have to try out the tricks you shared in the video.

[@rossjohnson3299]

This was an amazing video, I have got a lot more watching to do on here!

[@jbphoto7493]

brilliant

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks!

[@KellerColeman]

Great stuff man. keep up the great work.

[@houssamghabra7222]

beautiful and work

[@nathanmantor6390]

thats amazing! thanks for this!

[@patrickspahr825]

Another great 👍🏽 video. Thanks! Was looking at your amazing portrait work and it’s wild and wonderful - a style all your own. Will you ever produce videos on your approach to portraiture?

[@helloitsmeterrykelly1944]

Very good, thank you!

[@darylbulloch3742]

Thanks Nathan. Awesome video! Looking forward to trying some of these tips!

[@reynaldosaputro4790]

Thank you

[@markwillride]

Love it! Thank you for the time you put into your videos and for sharing what it probably took years to learn. I've been watching some of your video related content too. So now I'm subscribed.

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Glad it was helpful!

[@baliphototour9280]

this is so nice tutorial, how you balance the green ? so that will be more nearly natural, I had a lot problem with green :(

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thank you! This would be an overall color issue...we see more greens than reds...which is sometimes overcompensated by your camera's sensor design or often the demosaicing process with the editing software you are using, which might need tweaking. This might help with those issues and others you might be seeing with color: amzn.to/3Xzu0Un

[@tonmoyazadphotographymotio3919]

Thank you for the video

[@electrolabile]

I liked that a lot man. I had no ida you can easily change the amount of luminosity selection with Ctrl-alt-click on the channel. Will make my workflow faster

[@kirtg1]

Thanks again for the video. what is the final difference in image quality of using luminosity masks to bring out shadows vs using acr and shadow adjustments?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks! Using luminosity masks you can use other layers of other exposures, which completely eliminates any noise from upping shadows.

[@daveson3D]

Thank you for your teaching Nathan, loving your channel, quick question, are your camera raw presets available for download?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks Dave, I show the presets in my related REP books, here's a link to the series: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078NLRKNM?ref_=series_rw_dp_labf

[@csjoe]

Hi and thanks for this another amazing content! Just bought all your books and I'm not sure yet if it's covered in any of them. So I did a photoshoot and took some window pull shots but somehow I messed up the WB so I can't really blend the images together. Is there a way to match the WB on all images somehow? Thanks very much!

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks! Yep, it's covered in the interiors book using the flash-ambient blend method.

[@kirtg1]

Thanks Nathan. Why do you convert your raw images into tiff before working on them?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks! Only for exteriors, here's why: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGfUfJyoqd5rf8U

[@manduja75]

awesome content. I am barely starting doing photography for a friend that she is a n agent and wanted to ask. What lens do you use for this pictures?? is it a 14-24mm?

[@dmitrynee7584]

Thanks for sharing! I have one question: how often do you use your tokina above 16mm?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

This wasn't shot with the Tokina. I talk about exterior gear and such in my exteriors book, and discuss various focal lengths for interiors in the interiors book, here's a link to my series for more info on all of that: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078NLRKNM?ref_=series_rw_dp_labf

[@sasfihopeross]

Thank you Nathan, feeling rather blue though as i cant get past 4 mins, my layer1 wont reveal background layer below. Do you do 1-1s at all🙂

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

I do provide remote photography coaching. You can email me for pricing and availability at [e-mail]

[@sasfihopeross]

@@NathanCoolPhoto thanks you are brill, will be in touch

[@SteadyFocusMedia]

Nathan, Out of curiosity, do you process/edit all of your photos? It seems like a lot of photographers contract out their editing.

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

I talk about that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6TYiXR8iadnhbc

[@kimalbrecht6172]

A1

[@usercfb]

Hey Nathan which one of your books do you cover luminosity masking in?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

amzn.to/3vQr47L

[@jimvh7557]

Great tips and tricks, will try m out for sure!! But why do you call it luminosity masking? It was a bit confusing in a sense that you don’t use a luminosity blend mode anywhere. So I guess it’s just the way you describe the process.. or..

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thanks Jim! These are industry-standard terms: Luminosity "blending" (what you mentioned) is not Luminosity "masking", the two are completely different. "Luminosity Blending" is a technique to change the blending mode of a layer so that only its luminance is revealed. But "Luminosity Masking", used in this video, creates masks based off the luminosity of an image. Hence, "Luminosity Masking" creates masks, which can then be applied to other exposure layers, adjustment layers etc, but in no way do they affect the blending mode of a layer.

[@jimvh7557]

I’m not so familiar with the official namings but I’ll certainly try out the way to refine the selection. I’ll just need to remember the key combination 😉

[@jaypoge6543]

❤❤❤

[@coz2112]

Curious as to why you use a brightness adjustment layer as opposed to using the brighter exposure to brighten shadows? To clarify you could brush in the bright exposure using the luminosity mask. Just quicker using the adjustment layer?

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

It looks like you may have missed something: The brighter exposure already was revealed in those dark areas so it needed a further boost. Go back to that point in the video and you'll see that the Luminosity mask created for the brightness adj layer was created based off of the brightest layer...which was exposed during the first process (using the quick selection tool). Hence, there was no brighter exposure, so an adjustment layer was used.

[@coz2112]

@@NathanCoolPhoto Yes, I missed that. Thanks.

[@sonjazinke]

Hello Nathan! You have been incredibly helpful for me in my real estate career! I have your books and I always watch your videos. Can you please help me with this question. CTRL+ALT+Shift+Click does nothing on my Mac. I’ve tried different configurations of it but I just can’t make it do what it was doing for you. Please help!

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Hi Sonja, CMD+Click should be done first, and then CMD+OPTION+SHIFT+Click on a Mac. Make sure you are clicking the RGB icon in the Channels. I have another tutorial here that could help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGa0paKJd5mJhdU

[@sonjazinke]

Awesome! Thank you so much! You are a great teacher 😊

[@rickkirkham4539]

Nathan i notice your files are in tiff format did you shoot in that mode or converted them thanks mate I really enjoy your videos thank you

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Something I talk about in my exteriors book and show in other videos is that Adobe does not always do the best job at debayering (decoding RAW files appropriately). As such, to get the most accurate images, it's best to use OEM software to first convert them to TIFFs (I mentioned this briefly in this video as well). Since exteriors are more noticeable (everyone knows what the outside looks like) I always convert my exterior shots to TIFFs; however, since there are many more interior shots, I only covert them to TIFFs if shooting for designers, architects, etc., but not MLS. Here's a link to my REP series, including the exteriors book that talks about this in greater detail: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078NLRKNM?ref_=series_rw_dp_labf

[@casper401936]

Question, so for time management how long should 8 photos take to edit for general real estate photography

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

It depends on where you are, where you want to be, what kind of gig you are shooting, what your market supports, and what you are subsequently charging. Your skill level now (shooting and editing) won't be what it will be a year from now, so you have to take this and many more things into consideration. These are a few of many other things to consider that I cover in my business techniques book, here's a link: www.amazon.com/dp/B07FB47JRT

[@S_SLSLSLS]

When I add layer mask, hide all, I get the grey white pixel mask and cannot see any of the actuall images. Does anyone know the fix for this

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

That's what a mask does in "hide all" mode: it hides all. Something that might help is a primer on PS masks and layers, which I cover in my advanced editing e-book with an entire chapter on it, at www.amazon.com/dp/B0779PCVWC