Blueshound
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leetmode wrote:
I have a few stupid questions for you guys that are a lot more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am.
For those of you who do bracketing, whether it's single or continuous, what exactly do you guys do when processing those images? Are you guys using the HDR action in Light Room, Photoshop or some other HDR software? Or are you guys doing exposure blending?
If it's exposure blending, are you using LR or PS? Can this be done in Capture One? Do you guys have any recommended tutorials or threads on how exactly exposure blending should be done? I remember reading about this method a while ago and really wanted to give it a try but at the time I think PS was really the only way for it to be done and since my PS skills are practically non existent I never really gave it a shot.
Lastly, for those of us that like to do long exposure shots and normally rely on bulb mode to do so, I understand that putting the camera in Shutter Speed Priority or Manual mode then stacking however many 30 second (or less) shots you need is the best option. So for my last dumb question, should you also bracket those shots as well to get the best results for shadow recovery? In my mind it sort of sounds like a good idea but I'm thinking this could results in all sorts of problems when you stack the images due to the different exposures the PP program will have to deal with. Would it be better to stack each set of exposures from the bracket, then blend the results from each stack and go from there? Or would that be a lot of work for nothing? Would it be better just to ETTR then do shadow recovery after all images have been stacked?
Sorry for all the questions but I'm just trying to understand how I can get the most out of this camera so I'd greatly appreciate any help you guys could give me or at least pointing me in the right direction....Show more →
I'm an HDR guy since 2010 (Hi, I'm Brian and I have a problem . . . ). I use and like Photomatix, primarily the Fusion Natural mode, and recently I've used LR's HDR Merge on a few images. I generally like LR's HDR merge, but find it's more prone to blown highlights than Photomatix, and you have more fine-grained control in Photomatix.
There is another option that I've started to explore, and that's to do the basic HDR merge in Photomatix, have Photomatix produce the 32bit radiance (HDR) file, save that, and then open that unprocessed file in Photoshop Camera RAW. ACR is now capable of directly opening and editing the 32bit HDR file.
This workflow is best suited to those who are comfortable with Photoshop, of course. I'd guess you can do the same thing in Lighroom, but I haven't tried. Still getting familiar with this approach, too early to comment. You can also get great and very natural results by doing file merges in PS using luminosity masks, although I'm not as adept at it as I'd like to be.
The image below was merged in LR, and subsequently enhanced in PS. The original brackets were shot on an A7r in single-shot bracketing mode. This image has, by intent, a wee bit more "grunge" than some might like, but I felt it suited the subject, in the sense that it's an old, abandoned mine utility shack. The stylized "look" was a function of subsequent editing steps in PS, not the HDR merge process. The green in the water in front is created by string algae.
Brian
 Old Mine Shack by Brian Gammon, on Flickr
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The drop to 12bit for Bulb and LENR can cause issues though....