Bracketing?

[PeteQ]

Even with RAW I use bracketing on occasion. Sometimes if I am shooting a situation with changing lighting I will switch it on. I typically set it for a normal exposure and a -1/2 ev exposure. I would rather be underexposed than to blow out the highlights. As Jeff mentioned, once they are gone, the're gone!

Sure you can move things around in post, but if I have an image that starts off better, chances are it will end better. Just my $.02

[jerrykr]

Bracketed shots can be used to increase dynamic range, and reduce noise.

This shot is 3 images bracketed -.3, 0, +.3 EV if I remember correctly. The images were stacked in PSE2 layers, the 0 image was the background, the -.3 was the second layer at 50% opacity, and the +.3 image was the third layer at 33% opacity. You can reverse the images/layers/opacity in the stack for minor difference in the result.

Noise is reduced because it is random in the seperate images, and when you stack and blend the images, the noise will appear to be smoothed out in the stacked result. This shot would tend to have some noise due to the low light condition.



-=- Jerry -=-
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[awsilver]

jerrykr did you try processing that as an HDR image??? I'm just curious what the results would be since I've never tried it and what your describing with your bracketing would "supposedly" work perfectly for and HDR image. The photo you got looks good, but would love to see if as HDR and see if there is any difference.

[jerrykr]

AW,

I don't know what HDR is. Maybe enlighten me?

Thanks,

-=- Jerry -=-
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[Digital Prophet]

HDR linky link.

Prophet out.

[saroy]

I need to play with CS2 more -- I didn't even know about the HDR feature. That could be very useful to me someday!

[merock]

dang..... that HDR is a good reason for me to update. I didnt think CS2 offered that much difference from CS1. things that make you go hmmmmm. Now to topic, I still bracket when I am shooting jobs. Like mentioned above, you can't make up for blown highlights even with RAW and I want to make sure that I get the best image possible and have to do minimal PS work. I would rather shoot to much then not enough. The only time I don't bracket is when I am shooting action shots, for obvious reasons. As far as the noise thing that jerrykr is talking about, I personally would just use noiseware to get rid of the noise. (and I do the same, add a layer with the noise filter on and reduce the opacity to where the image looks normal). But your way seems to work too.

[jerrykr]

Thanks, I don't have CS2, one more reason to eventually get it.

The discussion about changing only the shutter speed to bracket made a lot of sense. I believe this is what i happened to do for these 3 shots. My auto-bracket stops working at anything below 1/30, so I was changing settings manually for this scene. I'll keep this in mind next time. Good idea.

Most of the stacking tutorials I have read suggest that you set each layer's opacity by a percentage of the previous setting, usually about 1/2 (I probably need to re-read up on many layer stacks again). I wonder how HDR approaches this.

-=- Jerry -=-

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by jerrykr

Most of the stacking tutorials I have read suggest that you set each layer's opacity by a percentage of the previous setting, usually about 1/2 (I probably need to re-read up on many layer stacks again). I wonder how HDR approaches this.

-=- Jerry -=-

Stacking for dynamic range is a bit different, you're usually going to bracket over a larger EV range. And rather then just blending each image with opacity setting you would use masking to take the parts of each image that are correctly exposed.

With Photoshop HDR, I don't think it would even work with +/- .3, it really want a minimum of +/- 1EV and preferably +/- 2EV (5 shots total). I've found that some times HDR works well, other times it's hard to get the result you want so I have to rever to using layers/masks.

[KeithM]

I tried it with HDR and didn't have much luck. I bracketed from -3 to +3 in 1 stop increments. My results from running it through HDR were about the same as using highlight/shadow in CS2.

[Ben]

this is such a gorgeous thread. u guys rock! i'm gonna run out and take some low lit pics to see how this really works out.

[jerrykr]

Ben,

If you are going to be stacking images, make sure that your images line up exactly with each other. use tripod and remote.

If you don't, and have even one shot out of registration, you will end up with the same thing as camera shake.

I don't care much for this tutorial, but it does illiustrate a way to check registration between images.

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial...-Stacking/8462

pay attention to steps 4 and 5. If you can't nudge an image into registration (ie: the image edges go away, and the image looks totally black), you may want to leave that image out. The screen shot in step 5 shows that the two images are not registered with each other. The edges appear to be lighted.

Sometimes in a stack set you might have an image or two that don't register, just don't use those in the stack.

hope this helps.

-=- Jerry -=-
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