Comments on: How to make an HDR image

By: Jacob Surland

Jacob Surland — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:23:57 +0000

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In reply to winecoastersblog.

Hi Gail,
Thanks for the feedback – glad you could use it. Good luck with your new camera 🙂
–Jacob

By: winecoastersblog

winecoastersblog — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:00:23 +0000

Jacob – many thanks for this straightforward explanation of Bracketing. Just got a new camera which is like going from a go-cart to a race car for me. Thanks! gail

By: Lars

Lars — Tue, 27 May 2014 11:43:32 +0000

Thanks Jacob,

Your reply totally makes sense – it’s funny how you (in this respect: Me) get caught in the habit of using the in camera bracketing feature and combine the pictures in post that way too but your way is much more controlled.

Tanks again.

/Lars.

By: Jacob Surland

Jacob Surland — Tue, 20 May 2014 15:25:56 +0000

In reply to Lars.

Hi Lars,
Thank you very much – glad that you like it! For 90% of the work I do in Photoshop, I can do exactly the same in Gimp. However, Photoshop is more optimized and has native integrations with some of the tools that I use. This makes it faster to work with Photoshop, and that is my primary reason for using it.

I used to have the 5D mark III, which also does -3, 0 +3, and my current Nikon D600 also do -3, 0, +3. I have done a little shooting at this interval, but I am not happy with the results and will not do it again. The contrasts gets too harsh and you are more prone to get artifacts and banding into your photos.

I have considered making ‘fake’ -2, -1 and +1, +2 photos, by adjusting the exposure in Lightroom, to see if this improves the quality. It should do it. I know that if you do a single 0 exposure and then make fakes -2 and +2, you get a better result in Photomatix, than using just one 0 exposure in Photomatix.

What I would suggest instead, is to do two series, adjusting the exposure compensation to get more photos. This I do sometimes when I shoot with my D600. I might do this then:

First shoot the normal -2, 0, +2, and then if the scene is very bright, set the exposure compensation to -1 and shoot another set of -3, -1, +1.

And if the scene has some very dark areas, then set the second set to +1.
-2, 0, +2 and then -1, +1, +3.

And usually you know what the problem is, and can do the right series. And if you are really in an extreme situation do -2 or +2 or both:

-4, -2, 0 and then a 0, +2, +4

Just be careful not to move the camera, while adjusting the exposure compensation, between the two series.

I hope this answers your question.

–Jacob

By: Lars

Lars — Mon, 19 May 2014 15:02:09 +0000

Hi Jacob,

First of all – wow what a blog! Nice that you even included the Gimp software in one of you tutorials! It is quite unique.

I have a question in regards of EV’s that I would like your opinion on – I changed from a Canon 500D (crop) to the Canon 6D (FF) some time ago and as you probably already know this camera can bracket -3 to +3 EV which is great BUT are there any drawbacks in terms of using the “max” bracketing for each HDR shot or am I better off using the “normal” -2 to +2 bracketing in some situations?