Blending 2 pictures of different exposure

[Jonny]

Ok, i know about taking the same shot twice exposing for both the highlights and the shadows and then merging the two to get a balanced image. But my question is this:

Is it best to take TWO shots meter for the Highlights and the shadows seperately ?

OR

Just take one shot in RAW and adjust the exposure in photoshop for either the highlights or shadows and create the two shots from the same capture?

????????????

Whats the best thing to do?

[Scottes]

I like to expose to the right, so I'll make one exposure that pushes the highlights way up. Then I'll add 2/3 stop and get another frame, this time exposing more for the mid-tones. And if necessary add another 2/3 and get another for the darkest parts.

I just don't like to blend with more than a 2/3-stop difference. After that, in my opinion, it's not so much blending as cutting & pasting parts of the image. But I'm picky like this, so don't take that as law.


So in a nutshell I would find the exposure that maximizes details in the highlights and then increase exposure once or twice to get more details from the darker bits.


Lazy Way: :-)
Set Auto-Exposure Bracketing to +/- 2/3 stop. So expose normally, which will take a picture normally exposed, and then the next pic will be +2/3, and the third pic will be -2/3. Make sure that the +2/3 pic doesn't have an blinkie highlights and you're golden.

[tumb]

I usually use exposure bracketing, with the 20D you can change the order that the images shoot, I like to use under/normal/over. The amount varies with the scene, but I always start at -2/3 +2/3 and go from there.

If you can get a good shot with 2 images you can combine the 2 layers in PS and use one or the other to make a mask. You have to tinker around with the saturation and brightness/contrast to get it just right but it sometimes works very well. I am working on an action to do this but have not yet been completely successful.

[tim]

This site might be helpful: http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZ4Docs/combinez_4.htm