This example is a shot that my Uncle took while on a trip out west. It was early morning and he had to shoot this toward the sun. Obviously it wasn't shining down into the valley but the range of light from dark to light, the dynamic range, was beyond what could be shot and make a good photograph.
So he had no option but to shot three successive shots and blend them into one as a "Hight Dynamic Range" photograph. One exposure is over exposed to correctly expose the foreground. The second shot is under exposed to correctly expose the sky and the sun shining through in the back ground and the third shot is exposed as you would expect the camera (a Canon D7 by the way) to expose the shot if normally set.
But how do you blend the three shots? Well with software of course. There are more and more programs that can do this. Adobe is late to the game I believe with CS5.
Photographer Fred Ross - Processed with OloneoOne is a Beta release (available until the end of this month) called Oloneo. You can take a look at results of using it to the right.
Photographer Fred Ross - Processed with Photomatrix ProThe second program was Photomatrix Pro a program I've seen suggested many times.
He felt that the results of the Oloneo verions were very realistic. And I think that it looks better too. We'll have to assume that he worked both programs toward the same results.
I think I see much less of a Halo around the left mountain in the Oloneo processed version and certainly the vegetation growth in the Oloneo version looks more realistic.
What do you think? As our discussion continues I'll put addendums up.
Update on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:09AM by
Tom S.
I modified the blog entry above. I had assumed incorrectly that the second program used was Pictureaunt but it was actually Photomatrix Pro. We'll have to watch Oloneo and see how it will be priced after the 1st.
The color difference too might very well be differences in processing done in CS5 too and may not have had anything to do with either of the HDR programs, so keep that in mind.
Fred Ross' comments:
"No, it was done with Photomatix Pro. Picturenaut couldn't do an acceptable job. Like all HDR, I had to work at it and make further adjustments in Photoshop. Photomatix gives you the most control but I'm still learning how to use it effectively. I still have to experiment more with Oloneo but it's pretty good for free. I wonder how much it will cost after Nov 1?"
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Don't forget this Friday night Gregg TeHennepe will be in town to do his HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography program for us. It will be in the store front in the Mall where we do the Photography shows. It will start at 7pm sharp.;)
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