Around the end of last year I switched the main way I combine my photos from HDR to manual blending. And from that time I got a log of questions on how I do it. So here you will find a tutorial on how I do it. I will cover here only how I combine the photos, as all other issues, from shooting to getting your desired look can be find in the HDR tutorial.

This tutorial is split into three parts:

  1. Photoshop masks – I explain and show how the masks work in Photoshop. This is mostly for beginners and if you already know how masks work, you can skip this.
  2. Luminance masks – I show what are and how you get a specific Luminance mask. The knowledge of Photoshop masks is required here.
  3. How to blend images using the Luminance masks – I show how you can use what you learn in the two other parts to blend your images

For now the first part is up, and I’m working on the other two.

And here are few blended images, so this page is a little more interesting :)
Blue hour at the Eiffel Tower
Blue lit stairs
The bonsai tree