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More on tone-mapping
December 10, 2007
A local graphic designer suggested that the HDR technique I described yesterday is too specialized to be practical, and I might have agreed... but.
This morning I had a photo assignment to shoot a hot rod for a magazine article. One of the shots was of the interior including the pedals. I shot both as an HDR and with fill-flash. Both worked nicely, but I prefer the results of the HDR image. The photo is extraordinary.
In order to get a good exposure of the interior detail of the car, the background must be overexposed. This makes the photo unacceptable.
I shot bracketed sets of three images: one-stop over, one correct, and one-under. Combining the three in Photoshop is time-consuming, but worth the trip. Then, applying tone-mapping with Photomatix made all the difference in the world. I told my graphic designer friend it’s like using a steroid-enhanced version of Photoshop’s
Shadow/Highlight control.
In the final version of the photo I combined the three HDR exposures, then applied tone-mapping in Photomatix Pro software. The background is still exposed correctly, and the interior of the hot rod is as clear as necessary.
The results speak for themselves in this case. I recommend this process to professional photographers who need to get light where there is not enough light, and who want to expand their photographic dynamic range. Prepress professionals can recommend this technique to their clients when shadows are just too dark.
Posted by Brian Lawler on December 10, 2007 | Comments (0)
