Adirondack pond, exposure blending

paddler4

I've been experimenting with exposure blending to avoid the tonal distortions that HDR often creates. This was a blend of 3 images using Lightroom Enfuse at default settings. It is Cascade Pond, not far from Blue Mtn Lake, NY.

bgarland

Looks like it turned out pretty darn good to me.

Were they 3 separate shots or one image saved at 3 different exposures? The clouds and ripples in the water are still crisp and for me that usually doesn't happen if I am combining 3 different shots due to the movement between frames.

I like how your turned out.

paddler4

Brad--

Thanks. These were three hand-held exposures taken in slow burst mode on my 50D, at 2-stop intervals. If you are lucky and steady enough, the shots will be close enough that LR enfuse can align them. Doesn't always work :-( If you want to compare HDR, I combined the same three shots using HDR pro in CS5. It's here: http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/Other/test-shots/50442HDR2/960908746_c5zpr-XL.jpg. Compare the sky and the middle of the pond. LR Enfuse is much more realistic.

Dan

Tracker

Looks good. Thanks for the heads up on LR Enfuse. I will definitely give it a whirl. Although I think some of the HDR stuff looks good, after awhile, I want to see something that looks more "realistic" to the eye. This looks like it would result in better dynamic range.

redleash

Exposure blending my hand definitely pays good dividends sometimes--and this is one of them. Well done!

Lauren

paddler4

Thanks all. Actually, LR Enfuse is automated, if you accept the defaults. Just select the images in Lightroom and tell enfuse to blend them. One of the programs it calls does the alignment, and another does the blending. It then inserts the blended TIF into the LR database, with the originals. As far as I have experimented so far, the defaults have been fine. The hard part is being steady enough that the images can be aligned if you don't happen to have a tripod, and deciding on the exposures you want blended, since if you lack a tripod, you are pretty much limited to the three shots your camera can do in burst mode with bracketing.

Dan