Exposure Blending vs Filters

milster

milster

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Gary
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What do you guys do and what are the pros and cons for each? I have a friend who swears by exposure blending but I am a complete noob to Photoshop, I really know nothing, I've been trying to do some blending today but with very little success. Filters look like they might be a better option for me but I'd like to find out what you guys think.

Cheers,

Gary.

Please feel free to move this if its in the wrong section, wasn't sure where to put it.
 
I'm a complete Neandarthall when it comes to using Photoshop beyond the basics, so I use a combiation of spot metering and filters.

I find the biggest problem with filters is added flare - but then I do push the limits a bit.

They have to be spotlessly clean.

Here's an example - not meant to be a great picture, just experimenting.


Sunny Side of the Street by simon ess, on Flickr

Mind you, it's surprising what can be achieved without filters if you shoot raw and play with levels and curves.


Green Shadow by simon ess, on Flickr
 
Exposure blending is particularly good if you have to account for awkward shaped areas of brightness/darkness, such as skylines.
 
Learning to use filters properly and learning ps are equally difficult, or equally easy. Thing with filters, is if you get it wrong, it's difficult to put right afterwards. In ps, you can revisit the image as your technique improves.

You need the best quality filters you can afford. Cheaper you go, the more likely you are to suffer from colour casts - especially when stacking. Filters really help when the subject is difficult to blend afterwards because of subject movement. They also allow you to be creative with slower shutter speeds.

If you have foliage, or any other moving objects relatively close in the frame, then blending can be a nightmare. The problems I usually see with blended images are halo's. Areas of unnatural brightness at the join. Bit like overdone HDR. If you can 'see' these problems, then learn how to deal with them, blending works well.

Techniques to learn are how to use large soft brushes on layer masks at the join. Tony Kuypers luminosity blending is also excellent, but quite advanced for a beginner.
 
Cheers guys, I think filters might be the way I go although I can't go spending hundreds of pounds on filters at the moment. If they're good enough for Mark they're good enough for me :D Ad like Mark says I'd rather not spend so much time in front of the monitor. I'll have to have a look around, I've heard fairly good reports on SRB Griturn, anyone heard of them?

Also I meant to say, I was trying blending with a tree in the scene so probably wasn't the easiest subject to try on for a first effort.
 
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Thanks Mark, I'll look into them, cheers.

Edit: What would you recommend size wise? My biggest thread at the moment is 67mm but I'm hoping to get a 10-20mm fairly soonish, I think they tend to have 77mm threads
 
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markmullen said:
Have a look at Hitech filters, they're better than Cokin but cheaper than Lee. You don't need millions, my 3 stop hard edged is my most used, then a 2 stop hard. Get those, a holder and an adaptor ring and you'll be up and running.
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Think I might start looking at Hitech. Might resolve some of the flare issues I get with Cokin. Thanks Mark.

Love your Flickr stream BTW :thumbs:
 
markmullen said:
With ultra wides you'll want 100mm filters, either Hitech 100, Cokin Z Pro or Lee.

Get an adaptor ring for the biggest filter thread you need, you can always use stepping rings for lenses with smaller filter sizes.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark, it's a bit of a minefield this filter lark :)
 
Filters 90% of the time for me, it's so much more enjoyable and rewarding spending time in the outdoors and getting it right in camera.

It's the best way to start off too as it will give you a good understanding of the limitations of your camera and filters making it much easier to decide when you may well need to resort to Photoshop, this for me is a last resort though..

If you're buying filters my suggestion would be to go straight with Lee, I'm speaking through a costly experience of having tried both cokin & Hitech beforehand.

Simon
 
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