[Solved] hdr workflow - ask for guidance

[gaaned92]

@gadolf

EDIT: As for the noise, I think it’s similar to what you get when you stack layers using mean or median, Try to stack those five layers in Gimp, for example, and you’ll get a less noisy image.

No, as the five images are coming from the same HDR image, there will be no statistical noise average. They are identical except for exposure.

@gadolf

Then you must recover all that good information, aka high dynamic range, and make it visible in a low dynamic range image.

Yes it is the definition of tonemaping. A lot of Gurus designed methods to do that (fattal, Mantiuk and many others)

@gadolf

Actually, I think the best stacking mode to reduce noise is median.

I agree with Patdavid, but it does’nt apply here as your five or three images have different exposures and come from the very same HDR image.
The mean method is a very brutal method that is never used in measurement processing. At least extreme values are to be discarded.