{"id":2423,"date":"2014-05-23T11:32:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T02:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-05-23\/2423"},"modified":"2014-05-23T11:32:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T02:32:46","slug":"the-lazy-photographer-exposing-for-single-shot-hdr-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-05-23\/2423","title":{"rendered":"The Lazy Photographer: Exposing for Single-Shot HDR (Sort Of)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCafe with a View<\/span><\/span>\nWedding-Venue Rokusisui (\u516d\u7d72\u6c34), Kyoto Japan\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Photos in yesterday's “<\/span>Heian Shrine Gate From a New<\/span> Perspective<\/a>”<\/span> were taken during an open\nhouse at a new<\/span> wedding-venue business. The fifth-floor terrace from where I took<\/span> those photos\nis off a small<\/span> cafe where wedding guests can wait for the\nevents to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n

The cafe was richly lit with shade streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows\nthat made up two walls, but it was much darker than the outside, so the\nwide dynamic range (wide range between shadows and brights) made for a fun<\/span>\nchallenge.<\/p>\n\n

To create the photo above, I overexposed for the outside and then “<\/span>slightly”<\/span> adjusted things in Lightroom (where in this case “<\/span>sightly”<\/span> means “<\/span>a lot<\/span>”<\/span>. The result<\/span> above is actually not too bad, I think.<\/span> At least<\/span> it doesn't have too<\/i> much of an HDR fakeish smell<\/a>\ndespite the rather extreme adjustments made in Lightroom.<\/p>\n\n

For reference, here's the original pre-“<\/span>slightly”<\/span> photo that the above was derived from:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSlightly Overexposed for the Outside<\/span>\noriginal\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

As you can see, quite of bit of detail and richness can be extracted from the shadows. Much of that ability derives from\nshooting raw instead of JPEG. (In the past I've posted some pretty amazing examples of data recovery:\nhere<\/a>,\nhere<\/a>, and\nhere<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I also tried exposing for the dark inside, which I\nknew<\/span> would turn the outside into a\nblinding<\/span> wash of white:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>50 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDifferent Shot, Exposed for the Inside<\/span>\noriginal\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

The blinding nature of the outside can make for an artsy<\/span> kind of view, and with a little<\/span> work this could be made a nice<\/span> shot.\nBut a “<\/span>natural”<\/span> view couldn't be created from it the way it was created from the initial shot because blown highlights like this are simply gone and can't be recovered.\nHere's the best I could<\/span> come up with:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>50 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNot Worth The Effort<\/span>\nbest try at “<\/span>fixing”<\/span> the “<\/span>Exposed for the Inside”<\/span> shot\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

The first shot of the cafe shown above used an exposure that was slightly overexposed for the outside... the overexposure allowed the dark inside\nto record a few<\/span> extra photons, but at the same time the slightness of that overexposure kept it from blowing out the outside view, so detail could be recovered.\nThis brings to mind two old posts about exposure recoverability:<\/p>\n