Tiger_993
10th of April 2009 (Fri), 08:59
Part I is here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=641445).
There have been a couple of threads and posts in the last week about HDR/bracketing for interior and exterior architectural photography, so I decided to do another interior test using LR/Enfuse to blend multiple exposures of an indoor shot.
In most cases, three exposures will not provide enough dynamic range to allow me to paint a nice window scene into my interior shot. At least not on a bright day. Even in the most underexposed image of a three bracket, the window will either still be blown out, or will lack the detail and contrast that I would like to have. So, I decided to play around a little bit with blending various exposures to find out what it took to get a nice result.
The setting is the lower-level (basement) family room of my home. The only windows in the room are the two on either side of the fireplace on the far wall. It's a pretty dark room when the lights are off - even with the two windows. There's also some dark furniture and mid-toned carpet and paint. All-in-all, there's a pretty significant contrast between the natural light level of this room and the outside light. Looks like the perfect place for an experiment!
I set my 40D on full manual with WB = tungsten, aperture = f/13, metering mode = evaluative. I then fired off these images at two stops apart:
-2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus2.jpg
0EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/zero.jpg
+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/plus2.jpg
My -2EV exposure offers the best exposure of the window, but even so, it lacks contrast, is overexposed, and has a blue color cast due to the camera WB being set on tungsten. Blending these three images with Enfuse produces a reasonably nice result (below), with the exception of the window. This image is straight from Enfuse - no other processing was done:
Three blended exposures -2EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/3exposure.jpg
This result gives me a nice image of the interior. Nice details there. But my problem with the window is twofold: first, my blended image doesn't reveal the detail and contrast I want, and two, the white balance is inappropriate for sunlight. I need another exposure specifically for the window.
With the camera still on manual mode, I switched the WB to sunlight, and turned off AEB. Then I exposed for the window -1/3 stop and took this shot, which is essentially a -5EV exposure:
-5EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus5.jpg
I should have uploaded a larger thumbnail for you to see, but the window is about 1/3 stop underexposed and the WB is correct for daylight. I then ran Enfuse to blend my four images (-5EV/-2EV/0EV/+2EV) which generated this:
Four blended exposures -5EV/-2EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/4exposure.jpg
As you can see, adding the -5EV exposure brought the window into better view with more detail, better contrast, and a little warmer temp. Big improvement. Next, I wanted to see what would happen if I eliminated the -2EV exposure completely and instead blended the -5EV/0EV/+2EV together. My thought was that the -2EV exposure was only giving me the window, and it was doing it with the wrong WB, a lack of detail, and overexposure. If that's all you're going to do for me, why keep you around -2EV? So I blended the -5EV/0EV/+2EV together and got this result:
Three blended exposures -5EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/3exposure_dropped_lowest.jpg
That gave me a slight improvement in contrast and a more accurate temp. Lastly, I did some further PP for overall temp, a little saturation, and clarity. There is still a slight WB issue where sunlight puddles on the floor in front of the large window and reflects off the ceiling above, but I still think it makes for a fairly attractive image, and is incredibly better looking than a single exposure would be. The final result with PP is below:
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus5-2.jpg
There have been a couple of threads and posts in the last week about HDR/bracketing for interior and exterior architectural photography, so I decided to do another interior test using LR/Enfuse to blend multiple exposures of an indoor shot.
In most cases, three exposures will not provide enough dynamic range to allow me to paint a nice window scene into my interior shot. At least not on a bright day. Even in the most underexposed image of a three bracket, the window will either still be blown out, or will lack the detail and contrast that I would like to have. So, I decided to play around a little bit with blending various exposures to find out what it took to get a nice result.
The setting is the lower-level (basement) family room of my home. The only windows in the room are the two on either side of the fireplace on the far wall. It's a pretty dark room when the lights are off - even with the two windows. There's also some dark furniture and mid-toned carpet and paint. All-in-all, there's a pretty significant contrast between the natural light level of this room and the outside light. Looks like the perfect place for an experiment!
I set my 40D on full manual with WB = tungsten, aperture = f/13, metering mode = evaluative. I then fired off these images at two stops apart:
-2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus2.jpg
0EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/zero.jpg
+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/plus2.jpg
My -2EV exposure offers the best exposure of the window, but even so, it lacks contrast, is overexposed, and has a blue color cast due to the camera WB being set on tungsten. Blending these three images with Enfuse produces a reasonably nice result (below), with the exception of the window. This image is straight from Enfuse - no other processing was done:
Three blended exposures -2EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/3exposure.jpg
This result gives me a nice image of the interior. Nice details there. But my problem with the window is twofold: first, my blended image doesn't reveal the detail and contrast I want, and two, the white balance is inappropriate for sunlight. I need another exposure specifically for the window.
With the camera still on manual mode, I switched the WB to sunlight, and turned off AEB. Then I exposed for the window -1/3 stop and took this shot, which is essentially a -5EV exposure:
-5EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus5.jpg
I should have uploaded a larger thumbnail for you to see, but the window is about 1/3 stop underexposed and the WB is correct for daylight. I then ran Enfuse to blend my four images (-5EV/-2EV/0EV/+2EV) which generated this:
Four blended exposures -5EV/-2EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/4exposure.jpg
As you can see, adding the -5EV exposure brought the window into better view with more detail, better contrast, and a little warmer temp. Big improvement. Next, I wanted to see what would happen if I eliminated the -2EV exposure completely and instead blended the -5EV/0EV/+2EV together. My thought was that the -2EV exposure was only giving me the window, and it was doing it with the wrong WB, a lack of detail, and overexposure. If that's all you're going to do for me, why keep you around -2EV? So I blended the -5EV/0EV/+2EV together and got this result:
Three blended exposures -5EV/0EV/+2EV
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/3exposure_dropped_lowest.jpg
That gave me a slight improvement in contrast and a more accurate temp. Lastly, I did some further PP for overall temp, a little saturation, and clarity. There is still a slight WB issue where sunlight puddles on the floor in front of the large window and reflects off the ceiling above, but I still think it makes for a fairly attractive image, and is incredibly better looking than a single exposure would be. The final result with PP is below:
http://photos.bryanflanagan.com/potn/minus5-2.jpg