Easy Exposure Blending Technique in GIMP

#1

Hi,
It’s been a while since I posted here
There is an exposure blending technique for commercial software being presented in the tutorial http://www.photocascadia.com/blog/quick-and-easy-exposure-blend-technique/#.WtDxA9a-lTY

Link to the video of a guy showing it

which looks fantastically easy to use!
I’m very bad at using GIMP and I, honestly, don’t quite understand how his plugin works. Would you help me recreate this technique in GIMP? :grinning:

#2

Like this. :slight_smile:

Or this: https://pixls.us/articles/basic-landscape-exposure-blending-with-gimp-and-g-mic/

Or this: https://patdavid.net/2013/11/getting-around-in-gimp-luminosity-masks.html

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#3
  1. Open dark image in GIMP.
  2. Open light image as layer above it.
  3. Right-click the light layer, Add Layer mask
  4. Use the Grayscale copy of layer and check the Invert mask option:
    image
  5. Paint on the mask as appropriate to taste.

image
image.jpg1078×718 892 KB

Also, to add to @paperdigits list:

3 Likes
#4

Good, but that’s about half of the job. How do you select exact luminosity level? Is there a way to control a luminosity level, for example as easy as in Darktable?
You see, the gentleman in the video is showing something of a plug in control that allows him to select a given area for luminosity mask. I think there must be a technique for Gimp to have a similar control over the luminosity mask.

#5

I generally use this script: https://github.com/pixlsus/GIMP-Scripts/blob/master/sg-luminosity-masks.scm

Which gives 6 or so different masks you can load.

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#6

I have not downloaded the script yet, as I’m away from the computer. Is there a way to control the luminosity level for pairs of masks?

#7

With this script you choose a layer to generate luminosity masks from, I usually use EV0. The script generates six or eight, I cant remember off the top of my head, luminosity masks and stores them as channels. Then you go to your EV+3 layer and load the luminosity masks you want, and the mask is applied to that layer.

#8

I have used this kind of masking gmic:

gmic
gmic.jpg1920×1053 467 KB

1 Like
#9

Ohhh, gotta try this!

#10

Yes, it works very well and fill a missing piece of software to reproduce masking technique showing in the video!
Thank you everyone for your kind input!

#11

How do you do this step?
“2. Open light image as layer above it.”

#12

How do you do this? Thanks!

#13

File > Open as Layer

Add a layer mask, right click the layer and choose add layer mask.

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#14

I see @paperdigits already answered this, but did you manage to get it ok? I can make a quick video to demonstrate later if needed.

#15

Thanks guys! I’m currently travelling. I’ll sit down and do it a few weeks from now.

1 Like