Working with bracketed images

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Alison

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Alison
Edit My Images
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My first experiment and obviously not the best example (just stuck the camera on my gatepost yesterday and set it to AEB + self-timer to give me some images to practice on) but could someone tell me where to go from here in terms of PP? :shrug:

I can get the 3 snaps to show as separate layers in CS3 but what do I do with them? I want to retain the cloud detail and also have the foreground nicely exposed. Help!

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If the photos are too rubbish for the experiment – and I appreciate that the foreground in the “bright” one is still underexposed - I can nip out and take another set of the same scene straight away if that would be useful.
 
You could use hdr software such as photomatix.

Or, copy the correctly exposed sky layer on to the correctly exposed ground layer. Add a layer mask to the top layer, then drag a gradient over the mask so you get the correctly exposed sky visible.
 
Just a quick one here.

What I did:

-Took the two upper and lower images - underexposed and overexposed.
-I put the overexposed image on top, and the underexposed underneath.
-I used the eraser tool to rub out the blown out sky to reveal the nice interesting and more importantly decently exposed sky underneath
-I combined the layers and increased contrast and brightness on both, and then increased saturation on the sky

Might not quite be the look you're going for but it's a start.

3752288541_89ac2e9e7c_o.jpg


Here's another one using the HDR technique that PauloWanClift mentioned.

-Combined the 3 exposures in a program like Photomatix or Photoshop
-Messed around with the sliders until I got what I wanted - usually increase strength of the HDR, brightness and contrast
-Took the image into photoshop, increased the brightness of the grass, decreased the brightness of the sky, and increased contrast on both

3753108112_997a7102b3_o.jpg
 
Better explanation than me ^^

My problem is, I know what I'm doing, I just can't explain it.
 
You can blend two (or more) exposures to pick the best of each.
Using your samples exposed for the sky and the foreground made :-



The method I used was to have each image as a separate layer in PS, the darker one above the brighter one.
Select All on the brighter layer and copy
Apply a layer mask to the darker layer and paste the copied brighter image as the mask. (ALT left click on the mask to select the mask)
Apply a Gaussian blur of 40 pixels to the mask.
Return the the brighter layer and add an exposure adjustment layer to that - adjust to suit.
Once the layers are flattened the contrast can be further adjusted if it has gone a little flat.

I saw this method somewhere once on the 'net but can't remember where to credit. It works pretty well as a quick method.
 
This is a version using TufusePro

This is not a HDR progragram but simply fuses shots for brightness or focus( need different focus settings) It is not free but inexpensive
Gives a natural result but with more detail.

http://www.tawbaware.com/tufusepro.htm

testq1.jpg
 
Flashman said:
That Tufuse blends really nicely Terry, very natural. Unfortunately PC only... anybody know if a Mac equivalent to Tufuse exists?
Click to expand...

There might be something similar with PTGui which is a pano stitcher which also comes in Mac version. I think it has a fuser with it.
 
Flashman said:
That Tufuse blends really nicely Terry, very natural. Unfortunately PC only... anybody know if a Mac equivalent to Tufuse exists?
Click to expand...

I think Bracketeer is v similar - it uses then Enfuse algorithm. I have it, but prefer Photomatix for blending exposures personally.

Here's a Bracketeer image:



Despite playing with the sliders, the final output from Bracketeer remained dark with a large dip in the midtones that required a levels adjustment to correct.

Here's the auto adjust blended output from Photomatix:



This needed no such levels adjustment and looked fine as it was. However, I did click on Auto Smart Fix for both images just to see if there was a colour balance to shift.
 
Tufuse pro uses Max Lyons own math as do most of his programs.

There is a free version "Tufuse" which has a very unsophisticated gui but does the job as well.

He is a very skilled Gigapixel panographer and he aims his programs at very natural results.
 
Comment deleted - stupid idiotic "how do I" question, removed!
 
Lynton said:
Comment deleted - stupid idiotic "how do I" question, removed!
Click to expand...

Easy when you eventually find it..... :)


Go to File-Scripts- load files into stack
Click on browse find yor files
Click on attempt to automatically align source images ass they are likely slightly out.

If you need to separate layers into separate files
File-scripts-export layers to files.
 
Terrywoodenpic - yep! thanks though - different to the way I tried to do it and so so so much easier........ oh so many hours of fun / wasted time coming up when the other half is watching "Britains got a celebrity casualty trying to become a millionaire on who's got no talent"
 
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