HDR Photography II

[Dolby]

Sorry to start a new thread - but I've played a little more with it learned more of it.

What's the difference between HDR and exposure fusion? Seems they do similar (multiple photo's at different exposures combined).

Also, is anything better at HDR than Photomatix? Or is that still considered the best? I've tried free programs and get the best results with my watermarked Photomatix :/

Problem is its R730 which is steep for a little program!

 

[plazma]

I use Dynamic Photo HDR, which is better than Photomatix imo.
Get a working trial at www.mediachance.com
and try it out to see if it gives you better results that Photomatix.

I think exposure fusion is another name for exposure blending, which is what any HDR software does.

 

[bwana]

HDR vs Exposure Fusion

Lets set things straight from the start, Exposure Fusion is not a kind of HDR.

 

[plazma]

From further down on the same page bwana links to:

"Exposure Fusion is also available from Photomatix: The “Exposure Blending” methods are all types of exposure Fusion. Exposure Blending – Adjust is actually the same algorithms as Enfuse – The photomatix team actually helped on testing Enfuse."

 

[Dolby]

On exposure fusion - I'm guessing the better the camera, the less one needs to use it to expose differennt areas correctly?

I know most camera's can't expose on two contrasted items correctly (ie sky and forground), so I *think* that most pictures I've seen of buildings in Europe etc have a white sky.

But I see with expensive camera's, they have an advanced metering system with many zones to expose everything correctly.

Am I right in saying that advanced camera owners never need it?

 

[SubliminalThought]

The different metering systems can only choose a better exposure for you. The zones, allow you to meter closer to your subject. For example, many times I photograph people its on the right third or top third. I would like to expose for my foreground subject and let the background fall where it may. This is where the advanced metering helps. But the exposure set is for the whole frame. You can choose a 'middle' exposure but thats the most evil, since neither your foregound or background would be properly exposed.

The feature in advanced cameras that does help a little bit in these situations is Canons Highlight Tone Priority and Nikons Active D-Lighting. Also having a 14bit dac vs a 12 bit dac also helps. The extra two bits allows the raw image to maintain more detail, and these can be brought out in post production where you can increase/decrease the exposure for only certain sections of the image.