Exposure stacking versus hdr

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i have affinity photo which allows stacking,i was going to buy Aurura for mac to do hdr,how exactly do the tecniques differ and has anyone tried both?
 
HDR is a technique where a series of images are taken of the same subject at the same time with varying exposures then combined in a HDR program to extend the Dynamic Range of the original subject.

Focus stacking uses the same exposure but changes the focus slightly - the resulting images are then put into a stacking program in order to get greater depth of field and sharpness - usually used on macro subjects.

Although in both cases multiple exposures are taken of the subjects the results are totally different.
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I think exposure stacking is HDR. Do you mean exposure blending? In effect this is HDR too but done by using layer masks in PS to do the same sort of thing as a HDR program will do. Both entail taking a set of bracketed shots of the same image. Personally unless you like playing with PS a lot I don't think you see a lot of difference and there seems to be a bit of snobbery about it. HDR being a bit frowned upon particularly when it's obviously been done and blending being described as maybe more professional by people who have an issue with HDR but in effect want to create the same thing. :whistle:
 
Exposure stacking and tone mapping both attempt to capture a larger dynamic range than available in a single capture, then render it on a low dynamic range medium, like paper or an sRGB display.

The problem comes when people use a range of exposures beyond the instantaneous range of the human visual system and things begin to look odd.

Better HDR is on the way, with HDR capture and HDR display.
 
I think exposure stacking is HDR. Do you mean exposure blending? In effect this is HDR too but done by using layer masks in PS to do the same sort of thing as a HDR program will do. Both entail taking a set of bracketed shots of the same image. Personally unless you like playing with PS a lot I don't think you see a lot of difference and there seems to be a bit of snobbery about it. HDR being a bit frowned upon particularly when it's obviously been done and blending being described as maybe more professional by people who have an issue with HDR but in effect want to create the same thing. :whistle:

An ARRI Alexa blends 2 exposures.
 
Exposure stacking and tone mapping both attempt to capture a larger dynamic range than available in a single capture, then render it on a low dynamic range medium, like paper or an sRGB display.

The problem comes when people use a range of exposures beyond the instantaneous range of the human visual system and things begin to look odd.

Better HDR is on the way, with HDR capture and HDR display.

I use Easy HDR Pro which is also excellent for processing single exposures and avoids all the usual problems with HDR apart from increased noise at high ISO levels.- for those shots I use a noise reduction program first.
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The Nik collection (now owned by Google) has an HDR program "HDR Efex Pro 2".

Since Google took it over it is now FREE. Give that a go first before shelling out on Aurora.
 
The Nik collection (now owned by Google) has an HDR program "HDR Efex Pro 2".

Since Google took it over it is now FREE. Give that a go first before shelling out on Aurora.
it doesn't seem to accept raw files?
 
I did have but cancelled my cc as i found i cud most of wat i wanted to do without those
 
You should be able to use stand-alone Nik software by dropping the image files onto the Nik desktop icon.
 
There is also exposure fusion such as Tufuse which blends exposures.
it is also built into PTAssembler for blending multiple exposures in pans. Within limits it works very well with out looking unnatural.
it will also focus fuse. To increase depth of field.
 
Hi Elliot,sorry i don't quite understand,in new stack it accepts the raw files or isn't that what you mean?
 
Hi Elliot,sorry i don't quite understand,in new stack it accepts the raw files or isn't that what you mean?

Sorry I understood you wanted to output a raw image like Lightroom. Affinity photo may load raw images into the stack but the output will be a tif or psd just like Nik and pretty much all the other HDR packages.
 
yes thats ok ,what i meant was Nik HDR standalone won't accept raw files but as Ploddles says it apparently does within lightroom,
i actually like the stacking in Affinity as it doesn't make it look unreal :)
 
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