you take images one stop apart from about -3 to +3 from your "correct"
exposure. the old way of merging was to load the images into separate layers
in Photoshop and create channel masks for each layer to show only the parts
of the image layer that contains the exposure you want. this takes many
hours per image and works best with a pressure-sensitive tablet to create
the masks with smooth blending. the fast way to do it is to use the Merge to
HDR tool in Photoshop CS 2. an almost as fast way is to purchase a 3rd party
plugin that does the same kind of thing. with all of the automated tools,
the blending is very sensitive to micromovements of the camera or anything
in the subject. these show up as subtle to dramatic loss of sharpness, and
sometimes ghosting. i suggest exposures no more than one stop apart in
manual exposure mode by varying the shutter speed so as to keep DOF
constant. you'll find descriptions of these and more if you search for High
Dynamic Range Photography in Google.
Herb...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:02 PM
Subject: Managing extreme dynamic range with multiple exposures?
I know there is a technique for shooting stationary subjects with huge
dynamic range, by taking a few bracketed exposures and combining those
bracketed exposures into a single image. Can anyone point me to an on-line
tutorial that explains the best way to do this? I want to try this on some
nighttime cityscape images I have.
