Digital Blending vs HDR

[sam_justice]

I've been reading up digital blending, mainly due to the fact I'm saving up for some LEE Grad ND filters but have still come across some fantastic compositions that I want to get out and take.

I hate HDR tonemapped images, but I understand why HDR is fantastic for images such as sunsets etc where the entire scene has such a huge varying dynamic range. Which is where I've come into Digital Blending, DB seems a lot harder to do in terms of playing with post in PS (layer masks etc) and not only that, if you've framed your scene you have to work out the exposure for say the sky as well the foreground which might mean you have to move your camera up and down to see the TTL light meter at different points which could inadvertently give you different exposures of slightly different images which you will have to stitch together correctly.

Whereas HDR you can use simple exposure bracketing to capture the images vast contrast differences and use a simple program to stitch them together. But then you get the horrible HDR tonemapped look. I was wondering if there is a way to get results like Digital Blending with a HDR method of taking the images?

 

[Buckster]

Just don't overcook the HDR when tonemapping it. It's really that simple. The sliders let you take it all the way down to very near the "original" look or all the way up to "post traumatic light and color disorder suitable for blinding a person and erasing their memory". All you have to do is pick something in between that works for you.

There's no need to "hate" it. Learn to control this process to your own tastes instead, just like any other post processing methods.

 

[sam_justice]

"post traumatic light and color disorder suitable for blinding a person and erasing their memory".

Ha! Love it.
I've got a composition in mind that uses both, I want to give it a shot sometime this week. It'll be a close up of a beach at sunset, ND filter for the sea to give it the smooth look, 3 exposures for the sky (HDR) and an exposure (or two) focused directly on the rocks (and hopefully some nice light bouncing off of them). For the added sharpness, using digital blending to bring it all together.