BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I thought about whether or not to post these in the HDR Challenge but decided to do this separately so as not to clog up the thread. In that thread I challenged folks to try different edits with a 3 shot exposure bracket series (see the challenge thread for the originals). One of the edits I'd mentioned in a tutorial was creating an exposure series from a single image, and I thought it would be interesting to see how much different the HDR created from one image would be from an HDR created from a 3-exposure set. So, I decided to do an edit in HDR Efex Pro 2 using the original images without using control points of any kind, and then saving that edit as a preset that could then be applied to any series of one or more exposure sets that I would send in. The idea being to see how much different they are. I then took it to some additional extremes, applying varying amounts of exposure compensation to one image and sending in sets of varying numbers, again, all processed with the same presets.
It's very difficult to see just how different they are in this format, and I'm going to try and come up with a way of displaying the differences. But while I'm working on that, I thought I'd let you take a look. I'll post my comments on each below in separate posts, each time comparing the photo to the original, traditional HDR in Image 1.
Image 1 - Original Three Image HDR (+/-2 EV bracket series)
Image 2 - Three Image HDR with +/-2 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image
With this image, I created 2 virtual copies of the center image in the series and applied a -2EV exposure adjustment to one and a +2EV exposure adjustment to the other in Lightroom. In the HDR Efex Pro 2 mapping screen I input those adjustment values in order override the metadata. Variations on this technique will be used to add'l images below, so I will not reexplain.
Image 3 - Seven Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image
As with Image 2, I created 6 virtual copies of the 0EV image to create a -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 image series. The rule of thumb is that you can always go +/-2EV, but can start losing details after that. I was interested to see how this compared to Image 2.
Image 4 - Single Image HDR Tone Mapping using only the 0 image
I sent only the 0 EV image to HDR Efex Pro 2 and applied the same edit.
Image 5 - Five Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image and processed with the +/-2 original images
This is essentially Image 1 with two add'l images sent in, a +/-1EV copy created from the center image in the series.
Image 6 - Seven Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image and a +1EV and a -1EV image created from the ends
Essentially Image 5 with two added images, a -1EV copy of the dark original, and a +1EV copy of the light original.
Image 7 - Nine Image HDR with +/-0.7 EV images created from virtual copies of the each image
I created 2 virtual copies of each of the original 3 and applied +/-0.7EV adjustments to each giving me 9 images in total.
It's very difficult to see just how different they are in this format, and I'm going to try and come up with a way of displaying the differences. But while I'm working on that, I thought I'd let you take a look. I'll post my comments on each below in separate posts, each time comparing the photo to the original, traditional HDR in Image 1.
Image 1 - Original Three Image HDR (+/-2 EV bracket series)
Image 2 - Three Image HDR with +/-2 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image
With this image, I created 2 virtual copies of the center image in the series and applied a -2EV exposure adjustment to one and a +2EV exposure adjustment to the other in Lightroom. In the HDR Efex Pro 2 mapping screen I input those adjustment values in order override the metadata. Variations on this technique will be used to add'l images below, so I will not reexplain.
Image 3 - Seven Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image
As with Image 2, I created 6 virtual copies of the 0EV image to create a -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 image series. The rule of thumb is that you can always go +/-2EV, but can start losing details after that. I was interested to see how this compared to Image 2.
Image 4 - Single Image HDR Tone Mapping using only the 0 image
I sent only the 0 EV image to HDR Efex Pro 2 and applied the same edit.
Image 5 - Five Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image and processed with the +/-2 original images
This is essentially Image 1 with two add'l images sent in, a +/-1EV copy created from the center image in the series.
Image 6 - Seven Image HDR with +/-1 EV images created from virtual copies of the 0 image and a +1EV and a -1EV image created from the ends
Essentially Image 5 with two added images, a -1EV copy of the dark original, and a +1EV copy of the light original.
Image 7 - Nine Image HDR with +/-0.7 EV images created from virtual copies of the each image
I created 2 virtual copies of each of the original 3 and applied +/-0.7EV adjustments to each giving me 9 images in total.
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