Archive 2015 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

1adam-12
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

Hello... I have been learning and perfecting the HDR / panoramic landscape technique for about a year now... Ive gotten some very decent to excellent results so far... with the exception of when i do a sunset or sunrise. My workflow so far is to spot meter the darkest and lightest areas of the scene... then establish a "middle" exposure.. and the bracket either 3 or 5 frames from 1-3 stops difference between brackets...what i am running into is a is inconsistency in the exposures AFTER merging to HDR.... specifically the areas closest to the sun get too blown out that the merged images are not blended with the other images well... Ive tried merging to HDR in Photoshop and photomatix respectively and also "processing" in photomatix and just using the "tonemapped" images then taking them into lightroom 5 for the post processing.... Ive tried to adjust shooting the scene, merging the images... and even not merging the bracketed shots and picking one each of the different panorama positions and blending them in photomerge and processing in lightroom without the HDR portion of the workflow...

any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated....

equipment i am using...

canon 1DX
16-35mm 2.8
24-70mm 2.8
70-200mm 2.8
Gigapan epic Pro pano head
photoshop cs5
photomatix 5.0
lightroom 5i am shooting with f-stops fro f8-f16... usually staying around f-11....

thanks in advance.... Dave

Feb 18, 2015 at 05:35 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

EV 10 & EV 8 average to EV 9 (1 stop)
EV 5 & EV 13 average to EV 9 (4 stops)
EV 2 & EV 16 average to EV 9 (7 stops)

Bracketing from a middle point may not provide you with a sufficient range. I'd look to bracket from the end points inward rather than the middle point outward ... noting also that a spot meter reading is going to be "assuming" a middle gray subject. Accordingly, an EC for the high vs. EC for the low will need to be incorporated to prevent over/under exposure @ the ends.

Feb 18, 2015 at 09:53 PM

ben egbert
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

It would help to see an example. I do a lot of HDR and also a lot of into the sun shots. It sometimes takes a lot more that you think to tame the brightest part of a sunset.

Often HDR software will have a hard time at the area of greatest transition. I use NIK and SNS.

Feb 18, 2015 at 10:18 PM

pr4photos
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

I also use NIK, and yes, the highlights can be a bugger to tame, but the dynamic range of my D800, combined with LR helps a lot

Feb 19, 2015 at 05:55 AM

Savas K
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

Are those of you doing this kind of work using gradient ND filters on capture?

Feb 21, 2015 at 02:26 AM

ben egbert
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

Savas K wrote:
Are those of you doing this kind of work using gradient ND filters on capture?

I have a full set of Lee and Singh Ray filters but I quit using them because of color cast and grad lines. I find that HDR does a better job of blending uneven gradients so long as I get the exposures required.

Feb 21, 2015 at 10:03 AM

sjordan93436
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · HDR panoramic sunset help please

I can get the sun down almost to a disk. After HDR software, make a copy of the layer, apply image the blue channel, then luminosity mask. Sorry for the shorthand.

The sunset has almost no blue. You need to mask or the colors (red) go bad. Blue is notorious noisy.
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I just did a HDR pano. What a pain, there was a crop in rows in the front. The hdr would chose layers and it made layers "blotchy" - semi random plants. HDR pro did a far better job than Photomatix in the case. Photomatix was very quick, the color fine, the details on this specific image were not good enough. At least an hour later with HDR pro, it is okay. Photomerge the different exposures and trying to hand blend was a disaster.

Feb 25, 2015 at 01:40 AM


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