Tricky exposure - how can you HDR a stiched panorama?

[frisby]

Hi there,

I have a slightly tricky evening shot, There's a well lit restaurant but a very poorly lit waterfall somewhere out there. How can I lift the waterfall without blowing out the restaurant?



EXIF

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 2s
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 22 mm
ISO Speed 200


Cheers,

Fraser

[Doug Sundseth]

Shoot when it's lighter out, add light to the fountain (flash or otherwise), shoot for HDR, or conceivably use a graduated neutral density filter tilted to the side (that would be pretty tricky, BTW).

[frisby]

Thanks Doug,

I'll try with lighter out. But it's a bit of a swim to get to the waterfall for flash ;-)

Can you do HDR with a series of stiched shots like this?

Cheers,

Fraser

[Doug Sundseth]

Actually, I was thinking about light painting with a 2,000,000 candlepower flashlight, or maybe car headlights. IIRC, Dave Black lightpainted one of the Mitten Buttes in Monument Valley, so a dinky little fountain shouldn't be too hard.

For flash, depending on how dark the lake is, one or more snooted Alienbees B1200s might do the trick. (Or maybe you could hire a diver to carry a speedlight? )

For HDR, you can certainly do that with stitched panoramas. Shoot multiple different exposures of the first pane of the panorama without moving the camera, then repeat for the remaining panes. (Manual everything is key here.) When you get to your computer, stitch the different exposures into panoramic images first, then do the HDR merge.

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

When you get to your computer, stitch the different exposures into panoramic images first, then do the HDR merge.

I just took a workshop with a HDR Panoramic Photographer and he taught us to do the HDR Merge first then exported to TIFF then stitched the merged TIFF in Photoshop. Someone in the class asked if they could do it in the other order (stitch first then HDR merge) and the answer given was no, it wouldn't work well.... I can't remember the exact reasons he stated, I'll see if I can find my notes tomorrow. Don't know if that's right or not, just thought I'd throw it out there.

[scootermcq]

This:

Was done as GCG suggested.....
9 images, made into 3 HDRs and then photomerged into one image

[inkista]

You can also do exposure-merging and pano stitching all at once with Hugin.


24 shots, 8 sets of three shots, auto bracketed at ±2EV. (handheld)
Hugin, enfused.

Just loaded 'em all up into Hugin and let 'er rip. No HDR/tone-mapping weird file formats required, either, since I used enfuse. Hugin can output HDR if you want, but I'm lazy and prefer exposure fusing.

[kirbinster]

I believe PTGUI will do what you want with just a set of raw images.

[frisby]

Thanks guys. Sorry not to have got back to you sooner. Weather's been crap so hopefully next week will give some of your suggestions a shot. Now where will I find me a diver. . .

[Tzetsin]

If you want to try something a little simpler, you could take only two exposures, layer them and then mask off the appropriate areas.

Thats how i did this image:

12 images, 2 exposures.