Luminar 4: Simple Bracket Merging/Exposure Blending

[@tremaincheerful4189]

Wow. I was stuck. Thank you so much Jim!!

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching and glad it helped!

[@TedSchade88]

Jim, great idea! Seems obvious after the fact, but it’s a winner. Most of us have lots of shots where we nailed the foreground or the sky but couldn’t get a good composite without a lot of work. This makes it easy. I will be spending the day revisiting the losers I’ve taken. I’m sure there are a number of nice photos I can make using this technique. I really enjoy your videos and am working my way through all of them. Thanks so much.

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Ted and I hope you have fun editing!

[@dereck_MT360]

Awesome demo my friend! Liked and subscribed!

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@localnavy433]

Thank you so much I have been looking for a new way to exposure blend my images without having to brush in the sky. This is so much easier

[@JimNix]

Thanks Chris and glad it helps!

[@stephenwoodburn2970]

Copenhagen is such a beautiful place, which your photo really show off. I have not worked in Aurora for a long time. I have tried blending in Luminar, but always with paining in the area I wanted to include. I will have to try out the sky replacement for this. It makes perfect sense. It would be nice if you could pull straight from the library. I hope you and your family are well.

[@JimNix]

Thanks Steve and yep it's a gorgeous town for sure. I hope I can return someday, I have thoroughly enjoyed my visits there (even though they were for work). This works great for shots taken on a tripod, since they line up already. Thanks and hope you are well too!

[@mikskinner6431]

That's so easy. Brilliant. Many thanks for these quick edits Jim.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@jean-francoisdamon4847]

a new discovery for me and easy to make ,a great thank's Jim!

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Jean-Francois!

[@tomolson2226]

Simple and cool method. Thanks Jim for again sharing great tips!

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Tom!

[@kathychantler2336]

Very clear and concise - you have explained a great deal to a 'new user'. I'll be watching your oter videos.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@aslisekhon]

Thank you so much learn alot from your video 🙏

[@JimNix]

thank you for watching and glad it helps!

[@johnanderson4069]

Very cool to see this working! Thanks for the tip.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching John!

[@FlorianCortese]

Nice Jim!! Thanks. Need to tuck this into my memory bank

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Florian!

[@colinmelhuish1254]

Excellent video. Gotta try it.

[@JimNix]

thanks much Colin!

[@myraposner486]

Going to try this real soon!

[@JimNix]

have fun with it Myra!

[@Rafaga777]

Interesting and useful tip. Thanks a lot for sharing. Much appreciated...

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@pederkristensen4691]

Great demo Jim, and it sound that you had great time Copenhagen.

[@JimNix]

thanks much Peder and yes I love that city, it is beatiful

[@ericprouzet3851]

Another great tip, Jim! I have been playing with Aurora HDR for a while, but I'm not very happy with yet (not accusing the software that does a great job in photo blending). What you've shown here is an great way to fix the sky issue. I will certainly give it a try. Thanks again for all the excellent advice and knowledge you share.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Eric and glad it helps! I have quite a few videos about Aurora HDR too, in case they help.

[@ericprouzet3851]

@@JimNix I didn't know... I will check it asap.

[@GillesQuennevilleGQ]

Hi Jim Can we focus stack with Aurora ? Regards

[@JimNix]

Hi Gilles and you could focus stack with Aurora HDR, because it has layers. However it does not have an intelligent brush so depending on how challenging the blending is, it could be difficult to get right.

[@jenshagelstein7695]

great video again, Jim. Do you have a good idea for a workflow for making panorama using Luminar. Jens

[@JimNix]

thanks much Jens and sorry no workflow videos for panos, bc I never make them - and Luminar does not have a function for stitching them together

[@volkerwehres5917]

Interesting way, never thought about rhat, great video.

[@JimNix]

thank you Volker!

[@ShafiqKhan]

Brill video Jim. Does the sky replacement tool support raw files or only jpegs?

[@JimNix]

thanks Shafiq, I appreciate that, and now raw files for sky replacement just jpg and TIFF at this time

[@BarryNeedle911]

Great idea!

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Barry!

[@fenraven]

You're a genius!

[@JimNix]

LOL - not - but thanks Theo, hope it helps!

[@artsmodelstation9396]

Q: so take a photo of sky exposed correctly. then take a photo of foreground exposed correctly. then drop sky onto foreground.

[@JimNix]

Yep that's it.

[@artsmodelstation9396]

@@JimNix quick question. does Luminar AI ever crash on u ? If not, what kinda processor you have and total ram ?

[@JimNix]

@@artsmodelstation9396 rarely. I run an Intel Core i9 with 64GB RAM. There are times when it slows down a little but it rarely crashes.

[@artsmodelstation9396]

Just test drive this technique. Didn’t work for me. Sky came as an underexposed dark blob. I try it later at sunset. Thinking this technique will work when sky not to bright.....hold the press, clicked on “vertical offset” -100 and sky appears correct. Guess just play with sliders.

[@JimNix]

@@artsmodelstation9396 hmm ok hope it works better on the next one

[@JorgeMoredo]

Jim, Nice technique. By the way do you have a new blogging camera? your face is now sharp! Keep the good work!

[@JimNix]

thanks much Jorge, and no, just better lighting ;-)

[@gastonmessier2192]

Do you know if Luminar Ai will handle focus stacking ?

[@JimNix]

It does not have that as a feature. You could theoretically do it manually but it would be a real challenge I think.

[@The_Rockstar05]

Hi Jim:-)...Thank you for this video...Can you also merge or bracket more than 2 pictures???..I mean like focus bracketing to make make your pictures all sharp and balanced?thank you in advance:-)

[@JimNix]

Hi there and while Luminar 4 does not auto-align or merge images automatically, you could theoretically stack multiple images across multiple layers and blend them with masks. However the brush is not edge-aware so it's not really designed to be used for focus stacking. So I guess it depends on the images, and how carefully you can mask them. You would be better off doing this in a product that is designed for this sort of thing.

[@The_Rockstar05]

@@JimNix thank you for your time Jim for answering back...👍❤..I apreciate it a lot ...I enjoyed using Luminar since I bought them last year...it is my first editing software and its really a great photo editor...very easy to learn it specialy when you have this burning desire to learn how to get good pictutes using Luminar...but not untill my new camera came(Sony A7r3), then I started to get problems...🙈😓... The Luminar AI can not handle the 42mp resolution of the Sony A7r3...it hangs up all the time which makes me turn off forcely my laptop and turn it on again...🤕..(each and every time I use luminar)... It soooo frustrating to be honest😞... I asked help from the Skylum team and they tried to helped me..they checked the capasity of my laptop and they said my laptop is good and had enough power(RAM and etc.) normally...they sugested that I have to use Luminar Neo which is good because Im one of the buyer of Luminar Neos pre-sale...And while I was waiting for the Software to come, I was always watching your tutorials in Luminar Neo even it was still not out in the market..😊😊😊...and I enjoyed watching a lot...and it makes me more excited to use it... I have to wait almost 5 months before it came out and received my Luminar Neo!😁😆 But the Luminar Neo sadly didnt help😭...I was still the same problem...😔😔😔 And since last week, I was forced to decide to say goodbye to Luminar and change to Lr and Ps😫... I have to go back to zero again but atleast, Lumnar teached me many things in photo editing which I think it will not be that hard anymore to learn Lr and Ps...😊

[@JimNix]

@@The_Rockstar05 I am sorry to hear that neither of them work for you. I actually shoot with the Sony A7R3 as well and have edited my photos in both Luminar AI and Neo, and it works fine in both cases. AI is slower, Neo is faster...but both work. Sorry that it does not work for you but I understand.

[@seanstours3913]

Do you always shoot in raw when doing this?

[@JimNix]

Yes, I always shoot in raw for all photos.

[@Kit2Canada]

Superb!!

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Kit!

[@dougmckillop9352]

Thanks Jim. I use Aurora and Luminar. I do not think you can save a Raw edit from Aurora and finish editing in Luminar? I have saved a Tiff from Aurora and then audited that in Luminar. Not really sure I know what I am doing however! There may be general interest in how effectively Tiff images can be edited in Luminar as compared to Raw? Find your tutorials on Luminar most helpful thanks 😊

[@JimNix]

Hi Doug and thanks, and yes you are correct. When you merge in Aurora, you can choose to output a TIFF which will work just fine in Luminar. You cannot output a raw file from Aurora because your HDR image is a blended image, hence not raw. I find that working with a TIFF is just fine compared to a raw image, I rarely see any difference at all. Thanks!

[@dougmckillop9352]

Jim Nix Thanks Jim , really helpful. Like most editing once you know how to do something it is not that difficult but until you have the knowledge it appears a mystery!

[@JimNix]

@@dougmckillop9352 haha that's true

[@slny5065]

Never realized this worked like this.

[@JimNix]

And it's quite easy! :-)

[@chiuyuenkwan833]

Can you use aurora 2019 to do an HDR with three bracketed images and compare with that using Luminar 4 with two bracketed images please?

[@JimNix]

Yes I was thinking about that myself. I will look into it. Thanks!

[@dennishegdahl8616]

Cool...

[@JimNix]

thank you!

[@MrPhotoBlitz]

As an aside, sometimes if Luminar doesn't recognize a sky, I can use Topaz Mask AI.

[@JimNix]

Absolutely, Mask AI is a great product.

[@bobwillcutt6233]

If Luminar does not recognize a sky because it is too blown out, is there a way to trick it to find it besides Topaz Mask AI?

[@GaleRainwater]

Not being negative but you forgot to match the reflection...

[@JimNix]

I'm not sure I follow your comment. They appear to go together to me. The foreground is a little darker perhaps.

[@rudikemperman]

@@JimNix He means the shape of the clouds in the sky do not match the shapes in the reflection of the water. I noticed it too. But it is still a nice result. Thanks for this effective workaround !

[@JimNix]

@@rudikemperman ok I see. Well that is weird bc it's the same sky, shot at the same time. Just used a different exposure for the top and bottom.