A few days ago I received the new panel from Jimmy who asked me to try out the various features.

The panel includes buttons and actions to make luminosity masks, other digital blending and various other processing much more of a breeze rather than a laborious task.

My last few photos published on Facebook were end-processed using the panel and it was and is still important to mention that the final product was never meant to be my best photo, but the images used to compile it were meant to only test the panel and if it could blend multiple images as claimed i.e. not good images to achieve a grand end product but very good to test the Raya Pro Panel.

An example of this is that I shot on F4 and that was not ideal for this scene shown below (the photos used were taken about two years ago). Also, the shimmering seen on the rim of the tunnel exit was acquired on location and not during post-processing.

I guarantee you that the use of this panel and its power will increase as one use it more and becomes accustomed to its many features (remember this was only my first real experience of using luminosity masks).

The images below were chosen to test the panel:

Dark exposure

Middle exposure

Light exposure

The results were very different and, as Jimmy explained, one form of blending will suit a certain set of images better than another form of blending. This is exactly what I found.

The rapid blending feature did not work well at all.

For the three images used I believe that apply image worked best as shown below.

The standard luminosity mask feature was second best.

Lastly, the subtract mask feature was third best.

Like all good software the learning curve is steep and effort plus patience is needed.

The introductory selling price is reduced by 10 USD for the next four days. The sale price is a steal and I highly recommend this plugin, which has many many other features.

Click here to view the Raya Panel and here to see Jimmy’s work.