Want to combine exposures for a realistic look? Do it this way!

Three or four years ago I first heard about HDR. It was said to be a method of combining a series of different exposures in order to capture a wider range of tones in a scene. This would create an image with more detail in the shadows and highlights, much the way our eyes see things and not the limited range of film or digital. Sounded pretty neat at the time but it was only a little over a year ago that I finally started to learn and use the technique. A Photoshop seminar in the fall of 2008 and a book I purchased both claimed that Photomatix Pro was the best software for this technique and tone-mapping your images was the way to go. Well, tone-mapping has always seemed a little hard to understand and results seem inconsistent. Processing is definitely not over after tone-mapping. Mid tone values usually lack contrast and that needs to be fixed. The Topaz Adjust software seems to fix much of this problem but I usually have to dig a few more things out of my bag of tricks until I am happy with an image. I have also realized that HDR photography is quite the rage now. However it's not a realistic look like I have been trying to get, but a hyper saturated colors surreal look which seems to be the big thing. Nothing wrong with that but not what I want to do with my images and I'm not sure if that was what the HDR technique was intended to be. After all there has always been plenty of plug-ins and stand alone software programs that will take away the "real" look of your photos.
A few months ago I got an upgrade to my Photomatix software. When I opened the updated version of Photomatix I noticed an option for "Exposure Fusion". After blending exposures with it a few times I realized it did a much better job of keeping the image looking natural, real, and believable. I have been considering doing a blog post describing this method but haven't done it up to this point because I knew it would be quite time consuming to do a thorough one. I came across another blog post today which did a good job of describing the technique much as I would have. I have never met Kevin McNeal but he has some of the best wilderness photography that you will ever see. If you go to his blog you can get a rundown of this method of combining images.  http://kevinmcneal.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/exposure-fusion-best-way-to-blend-images/
Some of what I do is a little different than Kevin's method. Like most post-processing techniques there are several ways to get the end result you are looking for. In the next paragraph I will detail the differences in how I do it. I suggest going to his blog and reading it before proceeding here.

 Guanajuato Opera House

The U Drop Inn

 When you choose your source images in Exposure Fusion, you will notice that it says "Note: Blending exposures works with converted files. For good results with Exposure Blending, it is recommended to convert your Raw files into Tiff or Jpeg files." I have taken their word for it and done it that way. I open the raw file that is in the middle of the range of exposures that I have taken. I will make many of the same adjustments in the raw converter that I would if it was a single exposure I was going to use for my image. However, I won't worry too much about the clipped shadows or highlights. The other exposures should take care of those values. I will save it as a TIFF. I then open the other raw files in my range of exposures and make the same adjustments to them before saving. The brightest and darkest exposures may get a small tweak from the adjustment brush if an area needs it. I then choose these images to be Exposure Blended. I will start with the default values in the final dialog box before processing the images. It is easy to get an understanding of what the sliders are doing. A description of what they do comes up when you mouse over them. I have found I can improve the image more by adjusting the sliders. Unlike tone-mapping they don't do strange unreal things to your image if you get a little heavy handed with them. When happy with the way it looks I will tell it to process the image. I then give it a name and save it. I will open it back up in Photoshop. I will then look at the brightest areas of the darkest exposure and see if I think some of the detail is missing from the processed version. I will also look at the darkest area of the brightest exposure and see if it will improve the processed version. If I believe the processed version still didn't retain all the detail in one of these areas then with the move tool I will drag the TIFF image which includes that detail onto the processed version. Dragging while holding down the shift key should line it up perfectly when you let go. I then click the icon for a layer mask while holding down the alt key. This creates a black layer mask which hides the new layer. Then I choose the brush tool set to white with a 10-20% opacity and gradually paint back in the parts of the layer I want to keep. I paint and change the brush size and opacity until happy with the results. I repeat this with another layer if necessary. I will probably make some other small adjustments in Photoshop but the image is usually looking pretty good at this point. I will look at the image and try to decide if it needs something else done to it. If not, its finished.

A Stadium Double!

 The Ballpark in Arlington

My friend Gary went with me to shoot last night. Since he lives in Grand Prairie I decided that we could meet at his house and then drive out to nearby Arlington and photograph The Ballpark and the new Cowboys Stadium. We had another one of those "not a cloud in the sky" sunsets. Where have all the neat high clouds been for the last ten days? Both Stadium shots were taken from a bridge that crosses a small lake that is almost between the two stadiums. It was frozen solid except around the edges. We have been close to record cold the last two mornings, colder than it has been around here for about ten years. Both shots were 4 different exposures that were combined in Photomatix Pro. Instead of using the tone-mapping feature I have used Exposure Fusion to combine the images. Even after it has combined the images I make several new layers from the original exposures and mask in a few of the best exposed areas. A lot of extra work but I am pleased with the results and it is not going to give you that over processed funky look which so many tone map images have.

Cowboys Stadium

After checking out a few other possible photo locations around Cowboys Stadium we headed to Tom's Burgers and Grill. After a nice 1/2 pound burger we took a few shots of the exterior before heading back to Gary's house.

Tom's

Spending a little time in Fort Worth!

I spent Saturday over in nearby Fort Worth looking at the Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Art Museum. Before driving home we looked at an old theater and several old gas stations. My friend, Dan Meredith and I decided to come back Sunday evening and shoot several of the locations. The first two images were taken at a business which has several restored gravity pumps out front. It also has a metal fence around the whole place and you can barely fit a lens through the openings. It limited the compositions we could shoot because you had to shoot straight ahead from each opening. I took the top image with my 24 mm tilt-shift lens. It was also multiple images combined in Photomatix Pro.
We stopped at this bottom location twice. The evening light came in nicely on this station and I was able to get this shot. I like the red and green that repeats itself on the doors. Our theater location didn't have any lights on so we stopped back here while driving back to Big D after sunset. The only light on was the globe of the pump. We just kept driving. Oh well.

Busy, busy, busy

Wow... has it been crazy the last two weeks. My show in Omaha, Nebraska on June 26-28 went very well. It took most of the following Monday to drive home. This only left about three days to replace quite a bit of inventory that I would need for my next show in Rockport, Texas which would be held over 4th of July weekend. It seemed like I worked almost non-stop printing and stretching canvas but Thursday evening I was loaded up again and was off for Rockport. My brother, Allen, went with me. We made a stop in Salado around dusk to photograph the "City Garage". I had photographed it back in May but felt I could do some more with it. The first 2 images are from our stop at City Garage. Both are HDR images that were created in Photomatix Pro from multiple exposures. The top image still needed some manual blending of exposures to get it looking its best. Its also a challenge to decide what color balance to use because its a mixture of fluorescent, incandescent, and natural light. Auto white balance on the camera did a poor job. The white balance of the "81" sign is quite different in these 2 images.
Yesterday was spent driving home from another successful show in Rockport. We took the back roads and looked for interesting things to photograph. It seemed for awhile that every small town had a Rialto Theater. We found some other interesting subjects but I'm not sure if I got anything I would consider outstanding. The bottom image was taken in Sinton, Texas.

New images from Kerrville!

Today was the first day of the Texas Arts and Crafts Festival in Kerrville. Usually I grab something to eat after the show ends for the day and after that will go crash in my motel for the rest of the evening. I did go feast on some fajitas but after that I decided to go find something to photograph. I came across the old Arcadia theater in downtown Kerrville. Both of these images were created from a series of different exposures that were combined with Photomatix Pro. I like both but I especially dig the Ticket Booth. Anyone out there second that motion?
The show went well today despite receiving some rain and hail in the afternoon. It was quite a storm. My booth is under a large tent that contains about 12 spaces. I am set up in 2 of the spaces. The sides of the big tent are open. The front of my display is 10 feet from the edge of the tent which puts the back walls of my display about 20 feet from the edge of the tent. The wind blew so hard that about half of my work hanging on the back wall got wet from rain which blew in. Some things got very wet, but the clear UV coating did its job and nothing was damaged. However there was some damage to other booths in the show. Some artists are in there own 10x10 tents. An area in the parking lot had about a dozen tents this morning. This afternoon when I left I only saw three. Several mangled EZ-Up tent frames were laying off to the side. Sadly, I heard a potter lost all his work.