After the second post about cross-processing I thought I’d make second post about HDR to even things out. So here goes. Victim this time was the old church in Uusikaupunki, Finland.
No auto-bracketing or anything, just two straight-forward exposures. One for the church, one for the sky. Manually merged in Photoshop (CS3). I’ve never been too impressed with the auto-merge in Photoshop. Just upgraded my system to CS5 and I have yet to test those features there (I’ve heard they’ve improved a lot, so I’m curious to give that a go).
Left: D700, ISO800, 1/350 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm. Right: D700, ISO800, 1/1500 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm.
The above two images merged in Photoshop CS3. Levels, curves, contrast and saturation adjusted.
See there’s no halo around the church (sure, go ahead, click image to enlarge)? That’s one of those typical things you see when HDR exposures are merged together automatically using software. It’s one of the reasons why I prefer to do things manually (still). Then you’re sure that things are looking more natural, and if you HAVE to cheat, you decide where you cheat and how you cheat. Of course I’m cheating. Do you really think I’m masking around branches and leaves in the trees? Of course not. I cheat. But I make sure you don’t see it, unless I want you to see it 😉
Thanks for your time to leave a comment, Yusof (I’m not Tori Amos, no, sometimes I wish I was *LOL*).
I never did imply that HDR images are cheating. And you’re right, when done correctly, the outcome of a good HDR image is exactly what the human eye recorded, but the camera can’t, for the simple reason that it can’t record such a wide range of contrast.
But as I mentioned in previous posts, many people mix up HDR and cross-processing and call one the other when it’s not.
When I talked about cheating in this post I was referring to the places you mask when you merge manually.
The time it takes to merge images manually depends a bit on the kind of picture. This one is merged with 2 images and it took about 30 minutes. Most of that time went into masking the opening in the tower. The rest is all straight lines and can be done in under 10 minutes.
Sorry about my questions about John Fogerty from my previous comment. I was reading your post and only saw “Tori Amos and John Fogerty” at the bottom of the screen. For one crazy moment, I thought your name is Tori Amos and your partner is John Fogerty!
Just like you to know that I am a fan of CCR. I have some collection of their CDs. I still listen to their music once in a while. Brings back memory of my younger days.
I think the image after you post processed is probably what you actually see when you took the picture. To me it is not cheating. How long does it take to manually merged the images?
I don’t see any link about yourself. Is your partner John Fogerty has anything to do with CCR? Or is he a motorcyle world champion?