Combining exposures... Help , Advice!

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Pirate Neilsouth

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Basically i've tried without an NDGRAD to get the correct exposure for sky and ground however without HDR i am completely failing..

I've read some tutorials on tp about doing it, however the after image just comes out crap . Can someone please give me a run down of how to correctly combine images in software and what must i do to correctly expose for sky and ground?

Thankyou :thumbs:
 
Thanks both ( ps photomatix = too much hdr for my liking )

Not saying hdr is a bad thing far from it :D
 
The results from photomatix are only as extreme as you make them. One method I use for getting natural looking results is create the hdr but back in photoshop convert the hdr to black and white and use the original in a layer above in in colour blend mode to get the colours of the original.

Normally I tend to just layer them up in photoshop, select and feather the blown out/overexposed sky of one layer and delete it. It really does take quite some time to do properly. Care to post some examples so we can have a go at blending them ?
 
it's relatively straight forward (if you have PS) but can take a lot of time. The method i use is just by layering the differently exposed pictures (from darkest at the bottom to lightest at the top) and gradually adding layer by layer and masking off(in?) the parts of the lighter image that you want to keep...

so, dark on bottom, light on top. Select the lighter layer, hold alt down and click on 'add layer mask'. Fill that layer mask with black and with a soft edged brush at around 2-8% opacity paint over the areas that need brightening in white.

Added bonus: You can always undo a mistake by just painting back over it in black.

I use the same method for dodging and burning. the dodge and burn tools are dangerous :)

hope this helps
 
sanchopanza said:
it's relatively straight forward (if you have PS) but can take a lot of time. The method i use is just by layering the differently exposed pictures (from darkest at the bottom to lightest at the top) and gradually adding layer by layer and masking off(in?) the parts of the lighter image that you want to keep...

so, dark on bottom, light on top. Select the lighter layer, hold alt down and click on 'add layer mask'. Fill that layer mask with black and with a soft edged brush at around 2-8% opacity paint over the areas that need brightening in white.

Added bonus: You can always undo a mistake by just painting back over it in black.

I use the same method for dodging and burning. the dodge and burn tools are dangerous :)

hope this helps
Click to expand...

This is the method I always use too. It can be made easier sometimes by just adding a black to white gradient on the mask.
 
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