Combining Images to Expand Dynamic Range?

D
Posted By
dyuhas
Sep 9, 2005
Views
221
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I often take two shots of a landscape. The first exposure for the foreground, and the second exposed for the sky. I’ve tried selecting the over-exposed sky area, deleting it, and then replacing it with the correctly exposed sky. But I can never get the selected area and the foreground to align perfectly.

Is there a better way?

Dave

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R
Roy
Sep 9, 2005
"dyuhas" wrote in message
I often take two shots of a landscape. The first exposure for the foreground, and the second exposed for the sky. I’ve tried selecting the over-exposed sky area, deleting it, and then replacing it with the correctly exposed sky. But I can never get the selected area and the foreground to align perfectly.

Is there a better way?

Dave

Yes there is, but it comes expensive.

Photoshop CS2 has a new Tool in File > Automate called "Merge to HDR". It will automatically combine several images to provide a single image with the best Dynamic Range. The shots all need to be identical apart from the exposure values.

No doubt this will become available, eventually, in Elements 4 or 5 or———?

Roy G
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dyuhas
Sep 10, 2005
Roy – Thanks. Guess I’ll wait for the next version of Elements.
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PcB
Sep 17, 2005
<<But I can never get the selected area and the foreground to align perfectly.>>

You really need to be shooting with a tripod for this to work best.

Also, if you are doing your sky replacement by cut-and-paste, try feathering your selections to get a more gradual transition – this is something which can be done in Elements 2 (I do it quite often myself). Play around with the settings as these will vary from shot to shot.


Paul ============}
o o

// Live fast, die old //
PaulsPages are at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pcbradley/
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dyuhas
Sep 20, 2005
Paul – Thanks for the tip, but I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I don’t use a tripod. I ALWAYS use a tripod+cable release+mlu in the field. I’ve been at this since the early 70’s.

FWIW I’ve discovered a better way to accomplish my goal. Use layers and paint out the blown out sky on the top layer to let the correctly exposed sky show through. This method eliminates the need to get the edge of the selection matched perfectly with the border of the non-selected area.
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PcB
Sep 21, 2005
<<Thanks for the tip, but I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I don’t use a tripod. I ALWAYS use a tripod+cable release+mlu in the field. I’ve been at this since the early 70’s.>>

Oops, mistake on my part mis-interpreting your problems to get shots to match up. Apologies.

<<Use layers and paint out the blown out sky on the top layer to let the correctly exposed sky show through. This method eliminates the need to get the edge of the selection matched perfectly with the border of the non-selected area.>>

Pretty-much what I had in mind when I suggested feathering. As you say, makes the aligning of the images less important.


Paul ============}
o o

// Live fast, die old //
PaulsPages and image galleries are at
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pcbradley/
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dyuhas
Sep 25, 2005
I came across a notice about the new version of Ulead’s Photo Impact. It has the HDR (High Dynamic Range) feature. According to a review in "PC World" this feature alone is worth the price ($70) of the software. The examples on Ulead’s web site are nothing short of miraculous.

Dave

PcB wrote:
<<Thanks for the tip, but I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I don’t use a tripod. I ALWAYS use a tripod+cable release+mlu in the field. I’ve been at this since the early 70’s.>>

Oops, mistake on my part mis-interpreting your problems to get shots to match up. Apologies.

<<Use layers and paint out the blown out sky on the top layer to let the correctly exposed sky show through. This method eliminates the need to get the edge of the selection matched perfectly with the border of the non-selected area.>>

Pretty-much what I had in mind when I suggested feathering. As you say, makes the aligning of the images less important.


Paul ============}
o o

// Live fast, die old //
PaulsPages and image galleries are at
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pcbradley/
D
dyuhas
Oct 6, 2005
PhotoImpact 10 has an HDR tool. It seems to work albeit slowly.

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