Pimp technique to combine two exposures and increase dynamic range

Baldy · December 1, 2004

How did I ever live without Fred Miranda's Dynamic Range plugin? :huh

A car collector asked me to shoot his 1911 (dark-colored) Pierce in front of a white New England-style church this morning and my heart sank when I saw the light. Even in the early morning, trees caused deep shadows and no matter how I positioned the car the church blew out and the shadows clipped.

You can try RAW processing tricks and curves and yada yada to improve an image like this, but it never seems really great:

Fortunately, I had just returned from Mexico where huge shadows created by the jungle made it impossible to shoot some pyramids without the stones in the sun being blown away and the shadows turning black. So I was forced to practice the multiple-exposure technique.

You just set the camera to shoot three frames, one -1.5 stops down, one regular, and one 1.5 stops up. The underexposed one gets the highlights:

and the overexposed one gets the shadows:

Then you can show how pimp you are (like Shay) and do the mask paint jive... Or you can be a shameless lazy slob and sneak off to Fred Miranda, cough up $19.95 and just run the action:

I don't know how I lived without it.

When the car's owner chooses one of the 25 proofs I made for him at light speed with Fred's plugin, then I'll go back and combine the two or three exposures manually like Shay does to avoid the hot spot on the car's hood, etc., for the final print.

wxwax · December 1, 2004

How does the action do the detail work of the masking? Sometimes combining the layers involves hard edges, and I find getting the layering right to be very painstaking work. I'm curious as to how that work can be automated.

Andy · December 1, 2004

totally cool
i dig the ride, and the poop, too.

y'know, whatever it takes to get the job done, i say. this sounds like a good plugin. thanks for the detailed info on it.

i will caution folks though, that the best thing you can do for yourself is to follow the link to the tute that baldy left, and learn to do this manually first. it really helps to understand what the plugin is aiming to do.

thanks oh bald one

Baldy · December 1, 2004

wxwax wrote:

How does the action do the detail work of the masking? Sometimes combining the layers involves hard edges, and I find getting the layering right to be very painstaking work. I'm curious as to how that work can be automated.

The first time I tried it, on this shot, I thought, "pheh." The frosty grass by the right rear tire had gone from clipped to masked poorly. I knew this would happen.

But it has a blending radius option, which I experimented with and eventually settled on the highest number: 20. It made all the difference.

Fred claims he spent 100s of hours developing this action and most of us believe it.

DoctorIt · December 1, 2004

Fred Miranda + Pimp... didn't think I'd ever hear that combination

That technique works great, I've used it before, but didn't spring for the action

pathfinder · December 1, 2004

Baldy,
Great catch.
I'll have to driftby FM and try this plug in out.

But could this problem have been avolided by using fill-flash or a soft box with a snoot to keep the fill-light from hitting the church also? Thus, lessening the extreme lighting range between the church and the shaded side of the vehicle?

Did you have to shoot in the early morning sunlight? Could this shot have been done in the afternoon with the sun behind the church? Or could this have been shot on an overcast day instead of bright sunlight on the church and shade on the vehicle? How would this problem have been dealt with before digital photography?
Or did the owner just give you a very limited time interval to capture this image? Great subject for further discussion.

Baldy · December 1, 2004

I scouted the location in the afternoon, but the church is south-facing and the sun hit it then too. Lighting the car, the foliage, the asphalt the car is on, etc., and making it look natural is tough, especially if it's a shiny car that will reflect what you shine on it.

And I had just experienced the same problem in Mexico where half a pyramid is shaded by the jungle. You won't be able to light it.

Before digital, you just used color negative film and you were golden. It had 3 fstops of latitude.

pathfinder · December 1, 2004

Baldy wrote:

I scouted the location in the afternoon, but the church is south-facing and the sun hit it then too. Lighting the car, the foliage, the asphalt the car is on, etc., and making it look natural is tough, especially if it's a shiny car that will reflect what you shine on it.

And I had just experienced the same problem in Mexico where half a pyramid is shaded by the jungle. You won't be able to light it.

Before digital, you just used color negative film and you were golden. It had 3 fstops of latitude.

I keep thinking an overcast day is the worlds largest soft box, and here in Indiana we have had no shortage of overcast for the last week. I forget that in California you would have to wait substantially longer wouldn't you? D'uh!

gus · December 2, 2004

Baldy wrote:

Fred Miranda,

At last ...a better way for me to cheat

I just hit santa up for it. She's going to think about it.

gus · December 2, 2004

'a shameless lazy slob '

Hey if the shoe fits baldy.

Well santa just threw her credit card at Fred Miranda... so i should have it in a day or so. Will be interesting to see how well it works for me.

gubbs · December 3, 2004

I had a go at the layer mask tecnique as described here last night, it seems to work really well and is so easy. I did only try it with one pair of images so I'll do some more tonight and post the results....and it costs nothing (extra)

wxwax · December 3, 2004

I'll be honest... I'm not crazy about how the Miranda stuff looks. I'm sure it's personal taste and tweaking settings.

gus · December 3, 2004

wxwax wrote:

I'll be honest... I'm not crazy about how the Miranda stuff looks. I'm sure it's personal taste and tweaking settings.

Its how you use it alright waxedbikiniline...its very easy to use its powers for evil.

After just a day looking at the prog & knowing more about nuclear medicine than photography i recon you just need to blend shots that havnt quite got the extreams than some bracketing allows. Obvious i know.

I was showing a friend last night whom is a graphic artist & she liked the prog as you quickly take a customers one bad shot for a brochure etc...darken or lighten it & use the copy you made for the overlay.

Its a speed thing for a lot of people.

wxwax · December 3, 2004

Humungus wrote:

Its a speed thing for a lot of people.

I can see that for sure.

Pimp technique to combine two exposures and increase dynamic range

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