Residential interior experiment - C&

[Tiger_993]

I've been staring at this image too long. :?

In this case, I wasn't concerned with perspective, but instead was trying to frame a shot that gave me a bright window, a bright bit of sunlight striking an object, and a darker corner of the room. So with that in mind, I would love to get your C&C on this image.

This was a blend of three exposures.

http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/IMG_1077Blended.jpg

[hawkeye60]

I like it.

[kirkt]

Fantastic - can you post the 3 exposures as thumbnails, if you don;t mind, so we can get a sense of the dynamic range. Also, how did you do your blending (manually, LREnfuse, etc.)? Very well done, nice balance between sunlight and interior lighting. The gobo shadow from the blinds is a nice element as well.

Kirk

[Tiger_993]

Thanks alot for the feedback and glad you like how it turned out! I processed these with LR/Enfuse and then did some very minor adjustments in LR to the blended image. Before shooting, I spot-metered the window and got a value of 1/250, then spot-metered the backsplash and got 1/2. So with 6 stops in between, I figured I had enough dynamic range in a three-shot bracket to capture the whole scene, and then Enfuse worked the magic. Fun stuff.

Exif: 1/60s f/8.0 ISO100
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/thumbs-1077.jpg

Exif: 1/15s f/8.0 ISO100
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/thumbs-1078.jpg

Exif: 1/4s f/8.0 ISO100
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/thumbs-1079.jpg

[Avi]

very nice..I like it..

Avi

[kirkt]

Thanks for posting the exposure thumbnails - great demonstration of the dynamic range. In my opinion (like anyone gives a hoot) this is where exposure blending really trumps typical HDR/tonemapping. You have captured the necessary lighting elements, the relatively large dynamic range of the interior/exterior mix and have none of the artifact of the local tone mapping operators inherent in a photomatix-like image. The color balance is also nicely preserved which, if this shot was for an interior designer or similar application, would be critical in terms of accuracy and portrayal of a product or service. If this were for a commercial shoot, I think the inclusion of a GMB color checker in a test sequence of the scene would give you all the reference you would to really refine the color to the nth degree.

Looking at the exposure sequence also makes it really clear that our cameras cannot see what our visual system can see. I think exercises like this are important to perform so we can understand how to capture an image with a camera and produce a final result that resembles what we remember. Sometimes one exposure is insufficient, and this exercise demonstrates an effective way to overcome that limitation.

Oh, and one more thing, LREnfuse is fantastic isn't it?

Nice!

Kirk

[Tiger_993]

Well said Kirk. I've had Photomatix for a couple of years and have played around with it a good bit. I got Enfuse a couple of weeks ago and it has blown my socks off. I love it.

[Gordeez]

Thats a great shot. Looks like i've seen this in a Movie or something before.
A chick flick...Wifes Idea.

[Jayrs]

Very nice job, and also the heads-up about Enfuse...didn't know it existed. The blending is a much subtler techniques than HDR processing.

[fly my pretties]

Now that's some great work.

[Gnhntn]

Very nice shot. I really like it.

[Roy Webber]

Great shot, and I need to learn this method for my business, especially for larger rooms...my 055xprobtripod arrives next week :-)

[joruiz]

looks great.. and YES! Enfuse for LR is just awesome! I really like that little plugin.

[mattograph]

Has anyone done any side by side noise comparisons with enfuse and Photomatix?

[kwhunter]

How do you guys use the plugin?
Actually they are .exe files, will not load as plugins in LR.
And if launched they run in DOS mode, no way to have them touch a pic.
Just downloaded the package and would appreciate if someone could help.
Thanks.

[pixelbasher]

Wow! That is such a natural looking HDR!

KWhunter, this may help:
After seeing this picture I downloaded enfuse to see how it worked. It is a command line programme and I hate those, so I used a GUI called enfuseGUI. This takes away all the command line stuff and after leaving the default settings I found it to be much nicer in the end result than photomatix for the same image. This is just my opinion, as I find photomatix to be very tricky in finding the best result for my eyes. Maybe I could have made the photomatix image just as nice with more skill with the program but I am impressed with enfuse. The photomatix image I did whilst nice, is still a bit too fake, the enfuse version is much more realistic straight off the bat using the GUI default settings. I found it here. http://software.bergmark.com/enfuseGUI/

[Tiger_993]

How do you guys use the plugin?
Actually they are .exe files, will not load as plugins in LR.
And if launched they run in DOS mode, no way to have them touch a pic.
Just downloaded the package and would appreciate if someone could help.
Thanks.

I don't remember the specifics of own installation process for LR/Enfuse, but it was easy. I just downloaded the package and loaded it into Lightroom using the menu: File, then Plugin Manager. It was a snap, as I recall.

Wow! That is such a natural looking HDR!

Thanks! It was a really quick setup to test Enfuse, but I was very pleased with how it turned out. I think the beauty of it is the early morning sun coming through the window. I am completely hooked on Enfuse.

[pixelbasher]

That's what i like about it so much, the lighting is perfect.

Sorry if I misled kwhunter re enfuse plugin for LR. I don't use LR and just went searching for enfuse after seing Tiger_993 photo and only found the stand alone command line version along with a GUI someone had developed. I too am very impressed how it's doing my images over what i could acheive with photomatix.

[boomer3297]

Great shot, and I need to learn this method for my business, especially for larger rooms...my 055xprobtripod arrives next week :-)

Just got mine and love the horizontal application. Sorry to hijack thread.

[Saxi]

I just downloaded LR/Enfuse and compared it to the photoshop merge HDR, and I like it a lot better. Awesome tool, this was my first HDR, nothing great, made a few mistakes I am going to correct.

[alesi]

Hi guys, I know this is an old thread, but have only come accross it now.
Love the photo
Just want to ask was any flash used at all?
Cheers

[crimsonblack]

extremely well done.

[Tiger_993]

Hi guys, I know this is an old thread, but have only come accross it now.
Love the photo
Just want to ask was any flash used at all?
Cheers

No flash used in these alesi, but it's funny you should ask; I started playing around last week with off camera flash and blending multiple exposures. The initial results I got were enough to make me want to continue to play around with the concept.

[troypiggo]

Now that's the way I like it.

Hadn't heard of Enfuse as a LR plugin. Just checking it out now. How much do you think is a reasonable donation for it?

[KenVP]

I like it.