Exposure blending

Osbornezo · Jun 16, 2014

Hi all,

So say im shooting at sunrise, and i need a different exposure for the foreground and sky, what is the best method? Do i combine 2 photos in photoshop or do i use a grad ND filter? I also sort of want to stay away from the full HDR look.

Cheers

SCraig · Jun 16, 2014

The best methods are either a graduated ND filter or HDR. There is NOTHING wrong with HDR when used properly. It doesn't have to produce garish results, and "HDR" stands for High Dynamic Range which is exactly what you are trying to reproduce. It brings out details in shadow without losing detail in highlights which is what you want. If it were me that's exactly the tool I'd use.

480sparky · Jun 16, 2014

Either the ND filter route or combining two exposures in post are both equally valid methods.

D-B-J · Jun 16, 2014

I used HDR and exposure blending for a while, but got sick of it fast. It's timely, and there's always a loss in quality. I invested (a heavy investment..) in graduated ND's and solid ND's and a reverse ND, and will never look back. They make shooting scenes with that style of a high disparity between necessary exposures effortless. Take a gander on my website in the "explorations" folder, or on Flickr in the last 2 months, and all of those were taken with ND's of some combination.

I can post examples when I get home later.

Jake

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IzzieK · Jun 16, 2014

How about shooting several shots without changing anything of your settings and just using EV each time?

D-B-J · Jun 16, 2014

IzzieK said:
How about shooting several shots without changing anything of your settings and just using EV each time?

It'd be much easier to take an individual shot for each area, changing your shutter speed to alter exposure.

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480sparky · Jun 16, 2014

IzzieK said:
How about shooting several shots without changing anything of your settings and just using EV each time?

Changing the EC (not EV) may change the aperture, which changes DOF. This may confuse some software and mess up the final image.

Vince.1551 · Jun 17, 2014

I'll avoid filters as much as possible as it degrades IQ. I suggest two shots but make sure the foreground exposure is kept down. Perform a selective layer cut then to merge two layers. Last step use the gradient tool to blend fore and background.

photoguy99 · Jun 17, 2014

Hand blending exposures isn't any harder than burning and dodging. In fact, it is burning and dodging. Use layers and masking and paint in detail from the layer that has it, by painting transparency in on the mask.

There is no loss of quality unless you're doing it wrong.

This is by definition HDR. It's not tone mapping. Well, it is that too, but not in the sense we usually mean that.

jsecordphoto · Jun 17, 2014

I shoot 2 different exposures and blend in post. Sometimes it is a pain, like if there's a tree above the horizon, but it's usually pretty easy. I am looking into getting some grad ND's just so that I'll have less work to do in post, but for now shooting 2 exposures isn't so bad

D-B-J · Jun 17, 2014

Vince.1551 said:
I'll avoid filters as much as possible as it degrades IQ. I suggest two shots but make sure the foreground exposure is kept down. Perform a selective layer cut then to merge two layers. Last step use the gradient tool to blend fore and background.

High quality glass and resin filters will degrade quality MUCH less than HDR processing.

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Vince.1551 · Jun 17, 2014

D-B-J said:
High quality glass and resin filters will degrade quality MUCH less than HDR processing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I didn't say using High Dynamic Range ... read my post again!

D-B-J · Jun 17, 2014

Vince.1551 said:
D-B-J said:

High quality glass and resin filters will degrade quality MUCH less than HDR processing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I didn't say using High Dynamic Range ... read my post again!