To some of you who dabble in post processing of your images the term “luminosity masking” may sound quite foreign and even intimidating. I know to did to me  just a few months back. I scoured the internet for tutorials was intrigued by the new possibilities of making my landscape images more reflect what my eyes had taken in when snapping the shutter. I decided to invest in a series of instruction videos by Tony Kuyper and Sean Bagshaw that thoroughly explained this detailed method of feathering in local adjustments to an image without looking unnatural. http://www.outdoorexposurephoto.com/video-tutorials/  Exactly what I was looking for as I am not a big fan of HDR-looking images (we’ve all seen very bad example of these). I had several images that I had previously taken that were good candidates for my first foray into luminosity masking as they contained a lot of dynamic range and I felt that they could look even better than what I had first post processed them. Just a note; I have been using layering masking techniques for many years previously and hd been generally happy with the results, however this new technique offers a better option.

I will show you an example of my new work. One of my favorite all-time images is of the Lake of the Clouds in Porcupine State Park in the UP of Michigan. Taken on the last morning of one of my autumn workshops, it was simply a dynamic image of an amazing sunrise after days of non-stop rain.

It is always a good idea to save a copy of your RAW files. Here, I pulled the RAW file from a dvd saved from a year and half ago and was able to generate a new copy of this image.

You can see the image at the top in which I applied luminosity blending has more range and sense of depth to it. This look great as a fine art print.