Photoshop version of ND grad

[digidog]

Hi all
When taking a landscape shot and encountering the usual problem with successfully exposing both the sky and the land the solution most people used to use (and I'm sure a lot still do) is to stick a graduated ND filter in front of the lens. To solve the same issue digitally I've tried exposing two shots (one metering on the sky and one on the land) and combining them in photoshop but this means that a tripod is pretty much essential and I don't always find the postprocessing that straightforward. Alternatively you can expose for the sky (the brightest part of the scene) and then use a gradient layer mask to selectively apply a levels adjustment to bring the detail out of the shadows. As far as I can tell this latter method is the closest to using ND grad filters and in some ways its much more versatile as you can reshape your graduated area easily. Are any of you guys using this method? Either way I'd be interested to hear how you tackle this? Has anyone tried using a Cokin or Lee filter holder with graduated NDs on a G3?

Cheers

Daryl

[jonnyhorizon]

scan down this article the the explanation just after the combined waterfall pic
is is one of the better processes i have found...


http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/content/2004/mar/light_extremes.html

[karusel]

Yes, this is a rather old trick and I haven't really heard of a better one...

[digidog]

Thanks for replying guys. Sounds like I'm barking up the right tree. Jonny, that's a great site you linked to, thanks!

Daryl

[Scottes]

There are several other ways to selectively develop highlights and shadows. All are more difficult than a simple gradient mask, though, but can achieve much better results in many images. If you wish to duplicate an ND filter then a gradient mask is the way to go. But if you wish to do a lot more work to selectively develop highlights and shadows there are a number of ways.

Developing highlights and shadows using curves.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35041

Blended Exposures using RAW
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/blended_exposures.shtml

Hybrid conversion using RAW
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hybrid-conversion.shtml

And then there's the Shadow and Highlights tool in PS CS.

And gmitchel's tutorial on a better way to Dodge & Burn can help in this endeavor. http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/samples/dodge&burn.mov

[Desperate Dan]

You could always try something "quick & dirty" on a landscape :) if you don't fancy fiddling around for hour after hour...

http://www.creativestoke.org.uk/action.html

[Ken Fong]

There are a lot of things you can do on the post-capture side to match the ND effect (various masks, etc.)...all depending on how much time you are willing to put in, but you should always try to get the most data during the capture so that the photo will keep its realism.
For that reason, I use the graduated ND filter whenever I can...often just hand-held...no cokin holder.
If I forget my ND filters and I can't afford to move the camera (to re-meter) between shots, I would use the auto-bracketing feature if one is available (+/- .5, 1, or 1.5 stop) and fire 3 shots in sequence.

From an adjoining forum, I read a good section on a simulated GND process in the middle of an article on wide-angle photography:

http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/How_to/m_Mastering_Wide-Angle/m_Mastering_Wide-Angle.html

...apparently, there is an extra 2-3 stops that can be brought back in post-processing if shooting in RAW!

[digidog]

Thanks for the link Ken, very useful! I've pulled back a few stops fairly successfully with good jpegs (although it usually needs a good dose of denoising as well) but I'll have to see how RAW works. I think I'm going to try a number of these digital methods and mess around with filters too. I think your point about maximising the data during the capture is a good one.

[Ken Fong]

From another thread, Scott Berger recommends the practice of favoring the histogram to the right side. A little bit of clipping of the highlights (on the right side) is acceptable if shooting in RAW mode, because you supposedly can bring it back per the method metioned earlier. He recommends this link for good reading (it's a great article...I've read it a while ago but have not applied it yet):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

I've been trying other things also, like re-composing the shot to remove unwanted highlights (e.g. a bright street light if shooting at night, or a bright horizon if I don't need it)...a single unwanted yet extreme highlight in your field might compromise the entire histogram. For example, I shot some plants that were in front of a shadowy hedge with a bright blue sky background (representing an extreme range, so something had to give). I recomposed to make the shadowy hedge as the background, keeping out the bright blue sky. The range 'recalibrated' so that (from shadow to plant) the range was not pushed to extremes. The results were dramatic, and the colors in the plants came to life without any post-processing. This would have been the equivalent of using a GND filter on the capture side.

[jonnyhorizon]

....good dose of denoising ...
what process is used for this?

...

[Ken Fong]

I've been using neatimage software...others have been using Noise Ninja...both seem to be pretty easy to work with. Neatimage works as a plug-in filter for Photoshop or as a standalone software application. I imagine Noise Ninja is similar. It's great! These plugins can remove noise (and sharpen) from both jpgs and raw files.

www.neatimage.com