Bracketing film shots for HDR processing

[thecornflake]

Wondering if anyone has done this before (and whether it's worth playing with). Discussing dynamic range between film and digital at lunch with another photographer I know, and started wondering what would happen if I bracketed some film shots and then ran them through HDR processing like you would with digital? Presumably just more range would result. And I guess I'd have to use shutter speed or ND filters to bracket as I don't have exposure compensation

 

[Nikon_Nick]

For me, part of the attraction to film photography, is the challenge of getting correct exposures when I push the shutter button. Im not able to check the LCD, delete if necessary, and keep trying until I get a good one. Just my personal opinion of course, but I would rather invest in some ND filters instead of wasting frames of film on bracketing exposures. Get it right in camera, its much more satisfying.

 

[thecornflake]

Oh I totally agree, and I'm not looking to bracket to make sure I get a correct exposure. I'm just interested to see how an HDR image made from bracketed film shots would look given that film already has higher range than digital.

 

[Nikon_Nick]

In that case, I guess it would depend on the quality of the scans then.

 

[dmb]

It has been done on film (or rather glass plates) before in the 1850s by Gustave Le Grey doing seascapes - took two exposures - one for clouds and one for sea, taped together negs and printed.

 

[ChrisR]

I think it was fairly common in days of yore, pre digital. More exposure blending than HDR (which has connotations of automated over-cooked nastiness), as David suggests using the sky from one shot with the foreground from another, with lots of masking, dodging, burning etc? Today many folk would do that with Photoshop...

 

[thecornflake]

I was under the impression that HDR (and I mean in order to get a wider range, not to intentionally have that over-real effect) was mainly a digital era invention to overcome the smaller range. I'm referring to software-based HDR processing with negative scans here though rather than multi-negative printing, although that does sound like something quite interesting to play with (once I sort out my darkroom and find a few more hours spare time...).

 

[Peter B]

It's not quite the same thing, but Multigrade b&w paper allowed split grade printing. This meant you could partially print with 1 soft grade and then finish with 1 hard grade, or whichever way round suited the photo. This would allow more detail than just exposing the sheet at a grade halfway between the 2.

 

[Steve Smith]

The nice thing about film is that there is no need to make HDR images which make your ears hurt!

It's not quite the same thing, but Multigrade b&w paper allowed split grade printing. This meant you could partially print with 1 soft grade and then finish with 1 hard grade, or whichever way round suited the photo. This would allow more detail than just exposing the sheet at a grade halfway between the 2.

If you just exposed the whole scene with two grades of separate exposure, it's no different to a single exposure at a grade somewhere between the two. To have any effect, you need to combine it with masking/dodging/burning. e.g. expose the whole image at a high grade then burn in the sky with a low grade.


Steve.