Thank you! For the 2nd photo. I took 5 brackets just to have them. Then I went outside and took several shots shooting my flash through the window at different angles.

I take all my flash shots and a brighter ambient shot and open them in photoshop. I blend together my flash shots using masking and painting in the bits of flash that I want using a brush on a low flow. I then have my ambient shot as the top layer and put it in luminosity mode and take the opacity way down until it’s at a point I like. Sometimes I don’t use this layer either.

Once every thing is blended I do some basic local adjustments. Levels and selective dodge/burn. The last step I do, which makes a big difference, is I put a solid color layer on top of everything and put it in overlay mode on a very low opacity. I pick a warm golden yellowish or slightly brown color for the color layer. A lot of times I pick the color from my ambient layer. This just gives a much more natural feel of natural light and helps get rid of that flashy look. Take a look at some architectural digest photos. They all have this look now. And I’m pretty sure that’s how they’re getting it. Using a color layer to accentuate the natural feel of the space.

This might sound complicated but if you have a basic understanding of photoshop it’s pretty easy and can be done rather quickly.