Another HDR

[IzzieK]

I thought I responded to this post awhile ago...now I cannot see any ghost of my response so I will say it again....:
Joe, the edit I was suggesting/wishing is what Manfred had done here. It makes a stronger image...
There! If I lost this message again, I might tear my hair to bits!!!

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. I really like what you have been able to do with this shot. I understand all your points but have not been able to find anything on adjusting gamma in Lightroom 6. As my camera only allows 3 frames with a max 2 stop step size, is there any practical way to add more frames when hand held?

Joe - I'm not a Lightroom expert. There is no way to make this adjustment in Camera Raw and as it an Lightroom's Develop Module and Camera Raw siblings with a different user interface, I suspect the answer is no. In Photoshop, I do this with the levels adjustment tool that lets me move the black point, white point and gamma (mid-point). Unfortunately, Lightroom has its limits.

As for the camera limitation, this is easier to do with a tripod, but you can also manually bracket shots while hand holding if you are careful. You have to disengage your auto focus after you get the focus where you want and then shoot shutter priority and increase / decrease your shutter speed while trying to keep the camera in the same spot (which is one of the reasons I'm a tripod shooter in these situations).

[joebranko]

Joe - I'm not a Lightroom expert. There is no way to make this adjustment in Camera Raw and as it an Lightroom's Develop Module and Camera Raw siblings with a different user interface, I suspect the answer is no. In Photoshop, I do this with the levels adjustment tool that lets me move the black point, white point and gamma (mid-point). Unfortunately, Lightroom has its limits.

As for the camera limitation, this is easier to do with a tripod, but you can also manually bracket shots while hand holding if you are careful. You have to disengage your auto focus after you get the focus where you want and then shoot shutter priority and increase / decrease your shutter speed while trying to keep the camera in the same spot (which is one of the reasons I'm a tripod shooter in these situations).

Thanks Manfred. This is most helpful. I tried today to take and merge 5 or 6 frames but I had not disengaged the auto focus and of course the focus was quite soft. The tripod will obviously be better, but it is useful to know that if careful I might get away with a hand held shot. Thanks again for your useful tips on this.

[joebranko]

I thought I responded to this post awhile ago...now I cannot see any ghost of my response so I will say it again....:
Joe, the edit I was suggesting/wishing is what Manfred had done here. It makes a stronger image...
There! If I lost this message again, I might tear my hair to bits!!!

Thanks Izzie. Your comments are always appreciated and also always encouraging. I agree Manfred's edit was superior.

[Manfred M]

I tried today to take and merge 5 or 6 frames but I had not disengaged the auto focus and of course the focus was quite soft.

This is partially due to the way that the auto focus (and generally other auto) functions work. Autofocus will likely NOT focus exactly the same on each shot of the sequence, so a soft outcome is not unexpected. When I shot HDR or pans, I disable auto focus, auto-ISP, auto WB (although this is irrelevant if you are shooting raw) so that I get consistency between individual frames.

[Wandjina]

Sorry, doesn't work at all for me.

+1 from me