Is HDR still relevant in 2024 - Lightroom and Photoshop Tutorial

In this video, I explore the relevance of HDR photography in 2024. with ever-greater improvements in modern cameras and their ever-increasing dynamic range, so we really still need to bracket our images and combine them as HDR ? I also demonstrate how to complete a sky replacement when the contrast is very low between sky and foreground and the Photoshop sky replacement module is not successful. Back to the good old days of manually selecting masking :-)
If you enjoy the video please drop me a 'like' and as always I appreciate any comment, questions or tips, and I try to answer everyone :-)
You can find the RAW files used in this tutorial here for download:-drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vKNe-Zliwy8nAxZoDbqwFebewRt_lAqt?usp=sharing
You can find my website here :- jrmathlin.uk/
You can also find more of my work here:-
Instagram :- jamiemathlin
Facebook :- JRMathlin
500PX :- 500px.com/Jamie_R_Mathlin

[@alanjackson5257]

Jamie, your tutorials are the best I have seen online, from start to finish you fill them with easy to understand methods and details. Also I have been searching for a landscape style of which I feel happy with, and as soon as I found you, I slipped straight into the relighting style. Many many thanks.

[@jamiermathlin]

you are very welcome Alan 😀

[@ahkammontaj5465]

I've said it before and I have to say it every time you share a new, professional, complete tutorial. I think you are one of the best editors I have come across on KZbin, keep it up, we love your work and we love your courses, quite creative and with a lot of good quality information, thank you very much for sharing again of your knowledge with us.

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment, it is very much recieved😀. I am so happy to hear that my work is appreciated....

[@shadyninja1]

Jamie, I'm ever so grateful for your help. I got the FTX 3060 12 GB on gigabyte platform. Once calibrated noise reduction has been reduced from 7 mins to less than 116 seconds. Selecting subjects has been reduced from 8 seconds to 1.5 seconds. You are a great man and I don't regret following you. You are the boss❤❤❤❤

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you very much for your kind words, I am glad I was able to be of help 🙂and I am very happy to hear that you have now have a very useable machine 😀

[@lesstringer]

Thanks for this. I really like the fact that, even though the process is / could be seen to be quite complicated, you explain at a basic level how individual functions / adjustments work. Thanks again.

[@jamiermathlin]

You are very welcome, I am very happy to know my work is appreciated 😀

[@tiaoat2013]

Jamie...thanks so much for the manual sky replacement procedure! Another masterpiece!

[@jamiermathlin]

No problem, I hope this was helpful 😀

[@MyStocko]

Great video Jamie. I've always struggled to make sky replacements realistic, never finding shift edge etc very accurate. Now ,watching your tutorial and selecting and inverting it will make life a lot easier . I learn more from your videos than all the rest on YT put together. looking forward to the next gem.

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you David for your kind words, I am very happy to hear that my videos are of service, and that they are helping to improve your work 😀

[@icogicog8287]

Very cool work. Love your attention to details. Also I very much like you communicating your thought process as you go to your editing. It helps us increase our thinking as we go through our own editing. I also love the tidbit about the Union Jack. Even as a non-Brit I perhaps should have known it….and now I do. Best wishes!!!

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you for your kind words and feedback, it helps to motivate me to continue 🙂

[@hogartp]

Hi Jamie, I just really love this tutorial. Please keep up the great work. Pat Hogarty from El Dorado Hills, California.

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you Pat, your comment helps me to stay motivated to keep doing these videos, it is very much appreciated 😀

[@marlinsobbota9846]

This photo is simply outstanding and stunning. They always are. You've shared so much of your knowledge with us and helped us to expand our photography. Thank you for sharing your expertise with us. You've enriched my life.

[@jamiermathlin]

I am always very happy to receive a message from you Marlin 😀

[@robertleem5643]

Your video tutorials are superb, have only used Photoshop and Lightroom for just over a year and have learnt so much from your tutorials, many thanks for sharing. Your image looks amazing

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you Robert for your kind words, I am very happy to know that my videos have helped you develop your LR & PS skills 😀

[@leeprim]

Great sky replacement technique. Made a significant improvement in the overall picture. Beautiful work.

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you Lee, I hope showing the manual process was useful 😀

[@SchwelmaxX]

it is always a pleasure to watch and listen to your videos, Jamie. Thanks for doing this tutorials

[@jamiermathlin]

you are very welcome 😀

[@andreask.6872]

Dear Jamie, another brilliant video from you. It's always fascinating to watch the Photoshop magician at work and learn a lot in the process. Thank you very, very much for this!

[@jamiermathlin]

you are very welcome, and thank you for your kind word 😀

[@colinyoung9432]

Another great one Jamie, thank you very much Colin Devon...

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank Colin, your support is very much appreciated 😀

[@malcolmdillaway8274]

Thanks for another excellent process and tips.Always enjoy your workflow.

[@jamiermathlin]

thank you Malcolm for your kind words, and for taking the time to leave a comment 😀

[@jyotsnawanjari-t2g]

Its amazing to see the editing Process Jamie. I am glad I came across your video.🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you for taking the time to leave me this comment, your kind words are very much appreciated 😀

[@yoursanta361]

This was an amazing instruction keep em coming my friend...great work and excellent result

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you Santa 😀

[@svbrilliantcut7562]

Excellent and very helpful video, Jamie. I've been struggling with sky replacements as you illustrated and your technique and solution was exactly what I needed to improve my efforts. Thank you for explaining it in such a way that PS amateur such as myself can understand. Additionally, as a USCG licensed delivery captain, I really appreciated the short but informative piece covering the use of the terms "Union" and "Union Jack" as it pertains to the flag. A very interesting and helpful way to spend an hour of my time.

[@jamiermathlin]

It is comments like yours that make everything I do here on KZbin totally worthwhile, thank you for your kind words they are very much appreciated 😀😀

[@adeade4095]

Your editing skills are from another planet.

[@jamiermathlin]

😀😀😀

[@jesperweng4193]

It`s a wonderfull toutorial. Nice, quiert and very informative. I love it. Yours cinserly Jesper in Roskilde.

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you for your kind words Jasper, they are very much appreciated 😀

[@jonponder3283]

Hi Jamie . Another good video. Every time i am learning something new.

[@jamiermathlin]

thank you Jon, I am very happy to hear my videos are helpful 😀

[@marcystarnes5511]

another great presentation - love your process

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you 😀

[@birdie399]

Very helpful video. Enjoyed all your explanations. Thanks for the entertainment.

[@jamiermathlin]

You are very welcome 😀

[@jaimee.campuzanot.2702]

Thank you very much Jamie, best regards!

[@jamiermathlin]

You are welcome!

[@petrasandersvdruit8429]

I think.. that i am your biggest fan🤣🤣 Thank you for your tutorial

[@jamiermathlin]

Thank you Petra, never had fans before 😀

[@philipabercrombie6694]

Hi Jamie. Thank you for this one. I have a Canon 5D mark ii and when ever I have done night photography, the noise in the images has always frustrated me. I thoroughly enjoyed this particular tutorial as it has made me re-evaluate my work flow decisions. I have also been spending time with the photos from my trip last year and playing around with the camera calibration panel and wondered if you have any feedback on it's use in your images. Also, congratulations on your website. I hope your workshops are a huge success. (Damn, I wish I'd delayed my trip to this year now) 😒

[@jamiermathlin]

Hi Philip, I tend to leave the camera calibration adjustments on default, as shooting RAW allows full customization in post-processing anyway, working from a completely neutral canvas. With regard to workshops, there is always next year 😀

[@ASMPHOTO]

Thank You! Having trouble understanding when to use Auto Mask and when not to use Auto Mask, when working in Lightroom mask. Would you be so kind to explain in your next video. Thank You so much - slowly understanding.

[@jamiermathlin]

I have explained the Auto-Mask function a number of times in past videos, have a look back over my past video and you will find many different ways that Auto-Mask can be used. I will try to put a reminder in for my next video as well :-)

[@jayharder2598]

Jamie, I've been following and attempting my own images but I've come across one problem that I don't know if you've addressed. When working on a building shot i the daytime the windows are black, no light behind them. I can't get light in them when using the radial mask so they don't look right. How do you handle a black window when trying to illuminate it?

[@jamiermathlin]

Hi Jay, I use generative fill in photoshop for the window pane, it works quite well. 😀

[@snoopywalker1881]

Jamie, are you available to work your magic on a few of my photos?

[@jamiermathlin]

Happy to have a look to see if they are the right material, send me a contact message from my website page, and I can then respond with my email address to use.

[@shadyninja1]

Good evening Jaime. My computer takes 7 mins to denoise single images. What am i doing wrong. I built a pc using amd ryzen 7 1700x prossesor, 2x 16gb corsair veng PX DDR4 3600C18, WD BLACK SN770 1TB SSD M.2 ARTIC FREEZER A35 ARGB . GEFORCE GTX 1650 4gb gddr5. What have i done wrong. Any extension of help would be kindly appreciated.

[@jamiermathlin]

Sadly the 1000 series AMD processors and the 10 series Nvidia Graphic Cards do not support AI Instruction Sets and the GPU is a little short of VRAM, I am sure that for anything non-AI the computer is probably quite swift. Many of the new features in Adobe Products (and other software) now contain AI-Software Instruction Sets, which means that to take advantage of this you need a processor with an AI or Neural Hardware engine. You can brut-force the AI instructions with a powerful graphics card that has a lot of VRAM, so something like a 3060 upwards with a minimum of 8Gb of VRAM, something like MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Graphics Card - 12GB GDDR6 RAM would make quite a big difference, or better still Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 EAGLE OC Graphics Card - 8GB GDDR6. All loaded with the latest drivers. Make sure that Lightroom is set to use the GPU in the settings. The Graphics cards will bring the time down more towards 60-80secs. I know Apple products are expensive, however, they are expensive because they generally contain the very latest technology and extremely fast memory architecture and CPU/GPUs, for example, the memory in your PC DDR4 3600C18 will have a transfer rate speed of 28.8GB/s, the memory in my 2020 Macbook Pro M1Max is 400GB/s and the GPU can access upto 32GB of VRAM, the latest M3 chip machines are around 40% faster. I know it all sounds like hype, and generally, you only ever see them being compared to PCs with Benchmarks, but they are never tested with real-world applications, this is where they are far superior and they do it running on battery, which lasts 12-14 hours. You see in my videos that the Denoise of 3 x 45MP Canon R5 Raws took a total of around 40 seconds. Go with a faster Graphics card and you should be fine ! Let me know how you get on 😀

[@shadyninja1]

I found Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 8GB Eagle from currys. What do you think? By the way I'm very grateful for your comprehensive response

[@shadyninja1]

The TI version is way over my budjet

[@adeade4095]

WOW!! what a wealth of knowledge.@@jamiermathlin

[@adeade4095]

can the GYGABYTE RTX GEFORCE 4060 8GB RAM (NON TI) handle AI instructions in adobe Lightroom and photoshop. i currently have the GFORCE GTX 1650 4GB RAM and its not really performing. i do a lot of picture editing.

[@jamiermathlin]

The 4060 8GB will be a huge improvement on the 1650 4GB, probably around 4-5 times faster, however, any 3rd or 4th generation GPU will work well, but it is also about how much memory the card has, so a 3070 with 12GB will be better for the same money. Look for used option as well, as for the same money as a 4060 new, you could get a 3080 16GB which would be faster still.

[@adeade4095]

thanks boss. ill be very honest I just about stretched out for this GPU at £289. All the ones you mentioned are well above my budget and I'm sceptical about buying used because most of them would have been used to mine Bitcoin@@jamiermathlin

[@adeade4095]

i bought gygabyte Geforce RTX 3060 12 GB OC V2.@@jamiermathlin