Film Simulation Bracketing

Smithy

So I have this new camera, and it offers FSB. Several settings, classic Fuji Velvia among them. When you hit the shutter, it takes 3 images.

My bonehead question: What do I do with them? Individually, I can see differences in how they're capturing light, but is this good for still-photo only (as in, no action shots) where everything in each frame is identical?

I do have Photoshop (CS4, 64 bit) but I only know the very basics of how to use it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Smithy

...is this thing on...?

divamum

Smithy -I'm not one of our resident experts on this, but here's what I know:

I don't know about "film simulation" bracketing, but "auto exposure bracketing" usually gives you three exposures about 1/2 stop apart each; this is great when you're in tricky lighting and not quite sure you've nailed (especially if you need to produce a SOOC shot, or won't get a reshoot or any other number of potentially "critical" situations).

Bracketing has also become popular as the HDR (high dynamic range) processing technique has emerged. I'm not an HDR gal, but I do know that you take 3+ shots ranging from under- to over- exposed, and then combine them in post-processing. Photoshop can do this, if it's something you want to experiment with (I believe it's either under "file" or "menu" and maybe even buried in "scripts" or "automate" or one of htose - sorry don't have PS open right now to look!)

If you google HDR techniques, you'll see how the exposures are used.

I'm not sure about the "film" part of the function you mention but perhaps this will lead you on the right trail to figure it out! HTH.

Smithy

Ok, I found the tool, but it gives me options for each of the 3 input frames. Default for all 3 is the same - do I change these, or leave them be, since the imput images all look different already? What changes drive the processing, I guess, is my question.

angevin1

Smithy wrote:

Ok, I found the tool, but it gives me options for each of the 3 input frames. Default for all 3 is the same - do I change these, or leave them be, since the imput images all look different already? What changes drive the processing, I guess, is my question.

from the FinePix Website : "The S100FS reproduces the color tones of Velvia, PROVIA, which are immensely popular FUJIFILM color reversal films. Together with the bracketing function, just one press of the shutter simultaneously creates images based on the three types of film, allowing you to select and produce images matching your intention and your mood. Only FUJIFILM, with our knowledge of everything there is to know about film, could possibly develop this unique function.

Smithy

Thanks, but I had in fact read that.

My question is, I guess, more of a photoshop one - what am I supposed to do with the 3 images once captured - how do I blend them to get the most out of what the camera has done? What's the principle behind blending bracketed images, that I should be paying attention to when I try it?

adbsgicom

Aside from potentially some artistic effect that was likely not really intended, it doesn't sound like you would want to. Sounds like a 'feature' that pre-converts into some different film effects so you can pick the one you like best later.

As mentioned, you use exposure bracketing for HDR or CYA'ing where you aren't quite sure of how it will really all turn out. This just sounds like something they decided to do because they could and called it a feature.

Smithy

Ok, the way I read it in the manual, was to take a series of photos with different settings, so they could be combined to create "film style" exposure that straight digital can't do.

Here's a set of three, taken using FSB:

Image 1:


Image 2:


Image 3:




In photoshop, I see the File > Automate > Merge to HDR option, and if I load all three images, I get a dialogue that says "Manually set EV", with options for Exposure Time, F-Stop, and ISO for each image.





What does this dialogue do, or mean? Or do I just take the defaults, and the subsequent merged image is the one Fuji intended me to have after the bracketed images are fused?

I get the basic idea behind bracketing for exposure, where you take a slightly underexposed image and an overexposed one, and merge them to get the shadows and highlights right by using some kind of blending - but I'm not sure how this works for the other values I'm dealing with.

In-camera, when you go to the FSB option, it gives you the option of which film you want to simulate, too.. Provia, Valvia, "Soft", and "Portrait", and each option gives you a different combination of settings for D-Range, Color, Tone, and Sensitivity.

Smithy

Also, when you go forward from that dialogue, it gives you a "merged image" preview, with an option to set the white point on a histogram - and it looks really overblown in the bright, unless you crank it full right on this image.


I feel like a monkey at a typewriter - I see the tools, and I can guess at what they're doing, but I was hoping someone with more experience in bracketing could help describe what I'm supposed to be seeing here.


Thanks.

adbsgicom

Sorry, I haven't done any HDR work so I can't help you at this point.
-a

BradJudy

I don't have this camera, but reading the information about the FSB mode, these three photos are not meant to be combined. Each represents a simulation of a different commercial film result (different processing applied in-camera).

Smithy

Hmm. So, rather than "bracketing" in the traditional sense (adjusting exposures and combining to get a better single photo) it's really just a "3 different shots per shutter release"?

No wonder I'm confused.