HDR with subject in rapid motion.
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife in motion, sports, etc the lighting may vary from very dark to very bright. Normal HDR can't be used because of subject motion. My practice is to underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright. Then, in PP I create additional images at plus & minus 2 EV from the original. Then use the three images in what's called pseudo HDR, to create a final image. Usually it works, but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail.
Is there a better way?
mikegreenwald wrote:
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife in motion, sports, etc the lighting may vary from very dark to very bright. Normal HDR can't be used because of subject motion. My practice is to underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright. Then, in PP I create additional images at plus & minus 2 EV from the original. Then use the three images in what's called pseudo HDR, to create a final image. Usually it works, but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail.
Is there a better way?
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife i... (
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Take the shot, wait 'til the subject left the frame, then take your HDR and in PP, superimpose subject back into frame!
Actually, learning your camera's capabilities and exposing to the right is the easiest and most straight forward approach to this, and many other seeming exposure issues.
--Bob
mikegreenwald wrote:
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife in motion, sports, etc the lighting may vary from very dark to very bright. Normal HDR can't be used because of subject motion. My practice is to underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright. Then, in PP I create additional images at plus & minus 2 EV from the original. Then use the three images in what's called pseudo HDR, to create a final image. Usually it works, but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail.
Is there a better way?
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife i... (
show quote)
the Nik collection has single image HDR
The motion problem in HDR is usually called 'ghosting' and most HDR software has the ability to deal with it.
Doyle Thomas wrote:
the Nik collection has single image HDR
That is correct and it's true about On1 Raw as well. /Ralph
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
rmalarz wrote:
Actually, learning your camera's capabilities and exposing to the right is the easiest and most straight forward approach to this, and many other seeming exposure issues.
--Bob
Uh oh - you've done it now Bob - you used the ETTR word 😁. You know what's coming now...
mikegreenwald wrote:
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife in motion, sports, etc the lighting may vary from very dark to very bright. Normal HDR can't be used because of subject motion. My practice is to underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright. Then, in PP I create additional images at plus & minus 2 EV from the original. Then use the three images in what's called pseudo HDR, to create a final image. Usually it works, but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail.
Is there a better way?
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife i... (
show quote)
I think what you are doing is the only way to capture rapid motion in a HDR. I have tried the conventional multi shot HDR for shots at rivers and shorelines and usually have problems merging the waves or flow. An anti-ghosting algorithm in the HDR program can only do so much. A similar problem occurs when shooting panoramas. I saw a photo setup online where the photographer had 5 cheap point and shoot cameras mounted on a board pointing in slightly different directions that were shot simultaneously and then stitched. One could use a similar stacked setup with 3 cameras set to different exposures and shot simultaneously.
TriX, yup, I know what's coming now. However, I also know what works.
--Bob
TriX wrote:
Uh oh - you've done it now Bob - you used the ETTR word 😁. You know what's coming now...
mikegreenwald wrote:
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife in motion, sports, etc the lighting may vary from very dark to very bright. Normal HDR can't be used because of subject motion. My practice is to underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright. Then, in PP I create additional images at plus & minus 2 EV from the original. Then use the three images in what's called pseudo HDR, to create a final image. Usually it works, but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail.
Is there a better way?
Facing a subject such as flowing water, wildlife i... (
show quote)
That's a pretty good way to do it. That way in Photoshop you can have it open in ACR as a 32-bit image and as a Smart Object as well. You have a lot of leeway with a 32-bit image. Don't forget to convert to a 16-bit image when you are finished because many other laying and adjustments can't be done on a 32-bit image. This is done here: Image>Mode>16-bit>Merge>Method>Exposure & Gamma. Do not forget to use the Method of Exposure and Gamma or it will not look the same.
To treat the moving object(s) separately within the image, use layers and selection brush tool. For example, you can apply single image tone-mapping to the moving objects (flowing water, wildlife, etc.) and normal HDR to everything else. This will be far less of a compromise than your approach of completely forgoing HDR. It does not need to be one or the other, it can be both.
rmalarz wrote:
TriX, yup, I know what's coming now. However, I also know what works.
--Bob
The OP specifically mentioned situations that exceed the sensors capability, so your way wouldn't work.
The OP specifically mentioned "...underexpose by 1 EV to minimize washout of the bright" and "...but sometimes the range of light is just too great to get both shadow and highlight detail".
That combination, as an approach, is inherently going to cause issues. That is where knowing the capabilities of one's camera and utilizing those capabilities will be the most straightforward approach to satisfactorily capturing the scene as described.
--Bob
TheDman wrote:
The OP specifically mentioned situations that exceed the sensors capability, so your way wouldn't work.
Doyle Thomas wrote:
the Nik collection has single image HDR
Yep. And surprisingly good HDR considering that.
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