[PlayRaw] HDR Challenge

Processing
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Half an hour ago I looked through the window and saw interesting lighting on the street and thought that would be a nice opportunity to learn about HDR image processing.

This is my first attempt and I’m curious about what can be made to extend dynamic range without that typical HDR look.

Here are the raw files:
_DSC4492.NEF (26.7 MB)
_DSC4493.NEF (25.0 MB)
_DSC4494.NEF (25.6 MB)
_DSC4495.NEF (27.9 MB)
_DSC4496.NEF (29.4 MB)

Here is EXR file that I’ve made with Luminance HDR:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5z-GQUVfbtzRFFuTG1TcUpjT00/view?usp=sharing

Motive is nothing special, but I liked that framing of the illuminated street by reflection of fog in the sky and snow on the ground.

Here is my result so far:

2000×1335 577 KB

So, I’m curious what else can be made of it. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
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If this is a Play Raw, please explicitly give your files a permissive license. You may also want to post the original raw files, since not everyone’s HDR workflow includes LuminanceHDR/EXR files.

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@paperdigits Oh, I forgot that - thx to remind me.

Here are raw files:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5z-GQUVfbtzMXJyYU9NWDAxS2M

Both, RAW files end EXR file are realised under CC BY-NC-SA licence.

1 Like
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Thank you!

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I may have gone a bit overboard.

Darktable → Hugin → RawTherapee

In a very “use every tool you have” type of fashion.

_DSC4492 - _DSC4495_blended_fused.jpg.out.pp3 (9.3 KB)
_DSC4492.NEF.xmp (4.6 KB)

1 Like
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According to my experience this is the best way to achieve good results :slight_smile:

Although the contrast is a bit too strong for my taste, white balance and separation between yellow and blue are very nice.

Which software did you use for merging RAWs to HDR? Darktable or Hugin? I would like to try Hugin but I don’t understand how to do that there.

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I don’t get the multiple exposures. Your brightest shot has all the information, or am I missing something??

Anyway, here’s my go only on the brightest exposure:
Basics done in RT
Then some local enhancements in Gimp

3000×2001 1.03 MB

1 Like
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No HDR file for me. Enfuse via hugin to a tiff. I used hugin’s align image stack, which we have a tutorial on here: PIXLS.US - Aligning Images with Hugin

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Omg, I missed that one! Great tutorial Mica! I’ll try that tomorrow!

You’re right, in this case you do not get very much with multiple exposures, but I just wanted to know what is the difference, do I get some more playground with dynamic range for further processing. I am actually sure that I have this possibility but the question is if I have enough knowledge to be able to take advantage of it. :slight_smile:

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I was quite undecided on the color of the sky so I just picked a grayish blue that is not obtrusive, then nuked the whole sky with a GND. This lens also appears to be very soft toward the edge/corners, which is quite distracting to me.

My processing pipeline:

  • RawTherapee: export as 16-bit TIFF after demoasicing and lens correction
  • align_image_stack: not sure if they actually need to be aligned, but I still ran it regardless
  • enfuse: blend the exposures together and output as 16-bit TIFF
  • RawTherapee: sharpening, tone curve and color grading, output as final JPG

Edit: I feel like my original version crushed way too much details in the black areas, so I uploaded another one with the shadows lifted a bit more.

1 Like
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Here’s mine, processed in LuminanceHDR, McGIMP, and finally Rawtherapee for stormy colors. More conservative with the R-L deconvolution because of the artifacting in the dense branchy parts.

1500×1000 731 KB

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I used only the 4496 image. Processed with RT and then GIMP.

3 Likes
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Oh boy, that was fun.

2048×1367 1.1 MB
Stacked with enfuse and processed with DT. Thanks :slight_smile:

5 Likes
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Nice Version! I like amount of details on snow and smooth sky. Tricky part are the trees on the sky. :wink:
And thank you for great Darktable videos on Youtube. I learned a lot watching them!

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Here’s my take, working only on _DSC4495 with RawTherapee. I’m not completely happy about it, but that’s the best I could get.
Thanks for the picture!

1920×1281 1010 KB

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Thanks @s7habo for sharing the raws and everybody 4 contributing their versions {2237 A.C., a one-eyed granpa cockroach inspecting some ancient human remains with a loupe} =)
BTW can I ask where is?

I did a couple passes directly from the EXR with photoflow, yet not completelly happy with the sky; in the mix there’s a sensia film emu and a lot of mental garbage translated in layers, shapes and silly whatnots, e.g. :cow:

 
Fensterblick_PF_2passes.zip (3.9 KB)

For all detective’s candidates and hex watchers, I could not make photoflow crop the file so I’d to transit through another app to crop and convert the jpeg ,-)

 

5940×3393 4.39 MB