# Pharmacist's bench



## The Barbarian (Apr 23, 2018)

Mrs. Barbarian's work.


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## Jeff15 (Apr 23, 2018)

Nice light and lovely detail


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## tirediron (Apr 23, 2018)

Nicely done; any chance of pulling a little more detail out of the window?


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## The Barbarian (Apr 23, 2018)

Jeff15 said:


> Nice light and lovely detail



Apparently not.  This was a single image, and much more burning in makes it muddy.

I'm in a cast at the moment, so I couldn't go up stairs.   When I can, I plan to go back with a tripod and get several exposures.


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## Fujidave (Apr 24, 2018)

Like it, but maybe get rid of some of the shadows in the self corners.


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## DGMPhotography (May 12, 2018)

The Barbarian said:


> Jeff15 said:
> 
> 
> > Nice light and lovely detail
> ...



Wait, so why is this in the HDR section if it's just a single image?


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## The Barbarian (May 12, 2018)

Raw file, converted to three different exposure levels, and HDR on those.


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## DGMPhotography (May 12, 2018)

The Barbarian said:


> Raw file, converted to three different exposure levels, and HDR on those.



Forgive my ignorance, but what is the point of that? If you're using a single image, why not just edit that one image?


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## The Barbarian (May 13, 2018)

In raw,  there's enough data to make three different exposures.   You could just tonemap one exposure, but it doesn't seem to work as well.


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## DGMPhotography (May 14, 2018)

The Barbarian said:


> In raw,  there's enough data to make three different exposures.   You could just tonemap one exposure, but it doesn't seem to work as well.


idk...


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## Amocholes (May 16, 2018)

If the end result is indistinguishable from a multiple image HDR, then what difference does it make? It's still an excellent image.


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## Braineack (May 16, 2018)

DGMPhotography said:


> The Barbarian said:
> 
> 
> > Raw file, converted to three different exposure levels, and HDR on those.
> ...



he did...


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## DGMPhotography (May 17, 2018)

Braineack said:


> DGMPhotography said:
> 
> 
> > The Barbarian said:
> ...



Sounds like he used one image, and created three different files from it. I'm just wondering why not just edit the one file. It has all the same data in it. Just seems like a waste of time to me. 

I'm not trying to be mean, I just legitimately don't understand the benefit of doing it this way.


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## Braineack (May 17, 2018)

DGMPhotography said:


> Braineack said:
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> 
> > DGMPhotography said:
> ...



technically he did edit just one file.

the information is all there, correct.  But you need to gather the information to display it back correctly.

By creating the three exposures out of the single image, then merging them back using HDR techniques, he was able to unlock the details from the shadows/highlights and then combine it back into one layer.

Otherwise, just using sliders on the signal raw image may not (or may) garnish the same results.

Especially just in LR, it's hard to mask out certain areas like just the window in this one, without brining those exposure layers into something like PS.

Currently I'm fond of using luminosity masks to do something similar.  I would create a digital copy in LR with the sky recovered, then bring both images in PS to combine using luminosity masks, then export back to LR.

something about skinning animals...


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## DGMPhotography (May 17, 2018)

Braineack said:


> DGMPhotography said:
> 
> 
> > Braineack said:
> ...



Just sounds like a lot of effort to me. Why not just use the brush tool in Lightroom to bring up/down what you need in the image?


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## Braineack (May 17, 2018)

because LR is an awful program and the brush is not precise enough for most masking work.

And again, using the sliders may not yield the same results as traditional HDR methods of merging layers and/or tone-mapping.



I had to export two images out of LR and bring them into PS for this below:







Imagine trying to accurately mask out the sky area between the pillars and trees in LR.  IMHO it would lead to sub-par results and obvious haloing.

this was the mask I used:





Plus PS did a stellar job removing the people scattered through compared to LR's performance-killing spot "tool".


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## The Barbarian (May 18, 2018)

A somewhat simpler method is to make three exposure levels from a raw image, and then blend them as layers.   Not quite as controlled, but it often works.


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## The Barbarian (May 18, 2018)

Braineack said:


> Currently I'm fond of using luminosity masks to do something similar. I would create a digital copy in LR with the sky recovered, then bring both images in PS to combine using luminosity masks, then export back to LR.



I need to try that.   A lot of people whose work I admire have recommended it.


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## Braineack (May 18, 2018)

google greg benz -- get his free mask plugins and watch his tutorials.


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## dm50384 (Jun 3, 2018)

I have many times taken images of airplanes flying where only a single image is possible and using photoshop will change exposure values  + and -  1 step apart giving me the multiple images needed for a good hdr  in photomatix with very good results


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## The Barbarian (Jun 7, 2018)

I love what good HDR can do for machinery.


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