Saturday
Aug142010
picture window # 53 ~ radiant light
Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 10:21AM 
Kitchen window ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenThis picture is a blend (manual) of 5 separate exposures.
Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 10:21AM
Reader Comments (5)
Exactly the kind of HDR that works for me: I didn't see the technique, just the result - light in all forms. Can't help, but every visible HDR is just manieristic in my eyes.
@Markus: is "manieristic" derived from the German word "manier"? As in "fashion"?
@Mark: nicely judged rendition ... it looks natural but thinking about it, the outdoor light must have been brighter to create the interior highlights ;-).
Question 1: 5 separate exposures ... are these all evenly spaced (e.g 1 stop apart) to capture the full DR or do you have a more complicated recipe for determining the EV of each shot?
Question 2: Would 3 exposures be enough to do the job? Do the extra exposures improve the resultant image quality or perhaps make the blending process easier (by having more to choose from)?
Question 3: Is the exposure blend technique a manual version of HDR, or are they two distinct processes (at the pixel level)? I'm thinking they might be distinct as badly done HDR gets that hideous "contrived" tone look.
[Excuse my ignorance: I've never attempted an exposure blend nor a HDR image.]
Indeed, I wouldn't have noticed the use of HDR - what a great thing!
One often sees HDR images which are unbelievably unnatural. And one thing that often is missing from HDR photographs is real honest deep black - it provides the ground for the colors.
I wonder will we get a new source of photograph "badness" when automatic HDR functionality starts to commonly appear in cameras. I shudder when thinking about this.
This is a technique I use frequently, but as this example is rather well done, I like to hear your technique for this one.
@Sven: This adjective exists in German in two flavours. Quite rarely you find it correctly used for that epoch between 1520 and 1600 in Italian painting, more often in a pejorative sense as contrived or precious.
I certainly was in for that second meaning.