HDR solution of a contrasty image

[JohnRostron]

The image below is of a walkway to a bird hide on Tresco. The day was sunny, but with scattered clouds, giving fairly strong shadows. I took it using a Canon Powershot camera, so I did not have the bells and whistles nor the RAW facility of my DSLR. I took three shots at different exposures and hand-held, but supporting myself against one of the vertical posts.

The three images were processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro.

These were not ideal conditions for HDR. The question is? have I pulled it off? Comments welcome.

John

[Shadowman]

Looks fine, I'd play with altering contrast between the different sectors.

[JohnRostron]

Looks fine, I'd play with altering contrast between the different sectors.

Not sure what you mean by this. Could you be more specific please.

John

[Shadowman]

Not sure what you mean by this. Could you be more specific please.

John

Adding contrast between each frame, lessening as you get to the horizon. For instance, you'd expect more contrast in the foreground.

[Geoff F]

The shadows have brightened but have they gone a fraction too far in places?

Have you lost some saturation from the green leaves?

Basically, what has already been mentioned. But difficult to tell without actually seeing what the 'real life' scene looked like.

I have tried several different HDR software options but never really liked the results from any of them. So now I create my own choice of blending by using layers and masks. Sometimes referred to as Hand Made HDR.

[pnodrog]

You have done the hard bit and got the exposure totally under control. However the result is a bit flat. All you need to do is to locally burn in using mid-tone and/or shadow modes to restore some local contrast.

[Inkanyezi]

But your camera probably does have RAW capability, either already there, or with CHDK.
I thought it is only the PowerShot G7 that does not have RAW without CHDK. I have one, and I have used it extensively with CHDK.

Probably it can span the contrast in that situation with just one shot, and you would see what parts of the image that would be overly dark or bright with the "zebra mode" of CHDK.

If you do multi-shot HDR anyway, you would need only two images, and it is important that the sky is properly exposed in the dark one. The present image has posterisation in the sky.

Maybe you need to calibrate your monitor. The image is flatter than I think it should be.

[Manfred M]

I find that HDR images tend to be flat and low contrast, so any image that has gone through HDRI needs to have both the white and black points tweaked as well as a touch more contrast:

[proseak]

These were not ideal conditions for HDR. The question is? have I pulled it off?

Yes. it's fine

[JohnRostron]

Adding contrast between each frame, lessening as you get to the horizon. For instance, you'd expect more contrast in the foreground.

I'm still unsure what you are suggesting here. The usual designations of 'foreground' and 'background' are difficult to apply. What I have done is to increase the local detail in the posts and the vegetation to the right and bottom left using Viveza.

Geoff. As far as I can tell, the shadows are not blocked and there is no saturation in the foliage, at least not in the original.

Urban. Thanks for the tip about CHDK. This is the first I have heard of this. I will certainly look into it.

Thanks also to Manfred and Peter for your comments.



John

[Manfred M]

John - the one thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that this image does not appear to be one that would benefit from an HDRI treatment. The dynamic range in the image appears to be one that does not appear to be particularly wide and so I wonder why you chose that approach?

[MrB]

We all see things differently and the processing has not worked for me - it seems to have removed much of the natural colour and contrast that would be expected in viewing the actual scene. Also I wonder if the posts are really leaning to the right, or is that distortion from tilting the lens slightly downwards?



Cheers.
Philip

[dennybeall]

Subtle difference but that looks better. Straight , nice greens and sharper shadows.

[JohnRostron]

John - the one thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that this image does not appear to be one that would benefit from an HDRI treatment. The dynamic range in the image appears to be one that does not appear to be particularly wide and so I wonder why you chose that approach?

Manfred, the three original images OOTC were loaded into the stack and aligned, then cropped, and exported to the three you see here:

I do not consider any of the three well-exposed, and so chose to attempt the merger. I think the final version shows detail in the foliage, and even the shadows on the near walkway. It also gives detail in the sky, although there may be some posterisation there.

Philip, the posts were leaning as in the photos. I would imagine that, in the original walkway, the posts were erect, but they were embedded in a soft substrate and have listed with time. It is a matter of judgement whether to 'correct' something which is a true depiction of the scene. I tend to stick with the actuality.

Denny, thanks for your comment.

John

None of the three

[Manfred M]

Thanks John - the images that you posted confirm my initial suspicion that a bit of standard tweaking on PP (mostly dodging and burning) will probably get you a better looking image than HDRI will. Just playing a bit with the centre image of the three.



The real issue is that the images were taken at mid-day and the lighting conditions are harsh and sub-optimal. HDRI can only do so much, and poor lighting is still going to be the main issue.

[JohnRostron]

Thanks Manfred. We have visited this place (the Isles of Scilly) for fourteen out of the past fifteen years, but we have decided that this would be our last - so I won't have the chance to try again!

I am intending to create a portfolio or slideshow of our visit to the islands, so I was keen to get a best shot for this walkway.

John

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. We have visited this place (the Isles of Scilly) for fourteen out of the past fifteen years, but we have decided that this would be our last - so I won't have the chance to try again!

That seems to be a common issue in "travel photography". We photographers never seem to be at the places we are visiting when the lighting is "good", or at least I don't.

[MrB]

Thanks Manfred. We have visited this place (the Isles of Scilly) for fourteen out of the past fifteen years, but we have decided that this would be our last - so I won't have the chance to try again!

I am intending to create a portfolio or slideshow of our visit to the islands, so I was keen to get a best shot for this walkway.

John

Hello again John, and thank you for clarifying the leaning posts of Tresco!

I agree with Manfred - the main point here is that 'a best shot' from the three you captured does not need HDR, and I think that his edit of the second of the three has much more natural colour and contrast than the HDR image.

As another example, the camera has recorded plenty of details in the shadows of the 1st image, which a few image software tweaks can bring out, while retaining the blue sky.



Cheers.
Philip

[lenelg]

My first, simple choice for an image like this would be to start with a single exposure showing detail in the sky area (looks like the ideal would have been midway between image 1 and 2, but image 1 will work fine), open the image in Camera Raw (or use the Camera Raw filter if you have PS CC) and adjust the Shadows slider until you see details returning in the dark areas. Then adjust overall exposure to taste with the midpoint in Curves. No dodgy burning..

[JohnRostron]

My first, simple choice for an image like this would be to start with a single exposure showing detail in the sky area (looks like the ideal would have been midway between image 1 and 2, but image 1 will work fine), open the image in Camera Raw (or use the Camera Raw filter if you have PS CC) and adjust the Shadows slider until you see details returning in the dark areas. Then adjust overall exposure to taste with the midpoint in Curves. No dodgy burning..

Thanks Lennart. I will try that and report back.

John