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Subject: Advanced Technique: Exposure Mixing
One of the things I often do is mix two different exposures together to create an image that looks better than a single image can. One of the things you'll learn in my photo classes is that no camera can capture as much dynamic range as your eyes can. You might be able to capture a blue sky, but the subject will likely be a silhouette. Or you might capture the subject, but the sky is washed out and pale.
Shooting RAW gives you a lot more leeway when it comes to tweaking the light and dark areas of your photo, but it still doesn't let you show you the whole range captured by the camera.
So I mix the two together. In the images below I created two JPGs from one RAW image; one exposed for the subject and the other for the background.
![[Image: http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing.png]](http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing.png "http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing.png")
Starting from the left, there are two exposures, one lighter for the model, and the other darker for the sky. After masking out the entirety of the lighter version except the model, the top image is overlayed on the lower one, resulting in the wicked HDR final result. =)
There are a few caveats. Masking things this way is time consuming, and it's all too easy to get light or dark fringing where you've masked two areas that use very different exposures. This image wasn't bad 'cause the difference wasn't great, and most of the fringing tended to look like highlights from the sun. There are definitely times this simply won't work well enough to bother. I avoid anything like plants, trees, hair or other complicated surfaces.
Here's one that took me a long time to edit. In the original photo only the sky was properly exposed, the buildings in the foreground where nearly black. One image was created as-shot to expose the sky properly, the other was so bright that the sky was a white wall, but offered some illumination on the subject and the buildings in the background.
The editing was complicated because of the fringing. Cut too far into the buildings and they'd have the black edges of the darker exposure. Too far into the sky and it would turn completely white. When you consider the little bit of blur, chromatic aberration (colour fringing in high-contrast areas) and curvature of the fisheye... Well, it took a few hours to get it all right. If there were trees or other messy edges I would have given up on it.
Shooting RAW gives you a lot more leeway when it comes to tweaking the light and dark areas of your photo, but it still doesn't let you show you the whole range captured by the camera.
So I mix the two together. In the images below I created two JPGs from one RAW image; one exposed for the subject and the other for the background.
Starting from the left, there are two exposures, one lighter for the model, and the other darker for the sky. After masking out the entirety of the lighter version except the model, the top image is overlayed on the lower one, resulting in the wicked HDR final result. =)
![[Image: http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing-sample.jpg]](http://nfgphoto.com/grafx/Events/Pole%20Camp%202010/Personal%20Sessions/Brunette/Brunette.jpg "http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing-sample.jpg")
There are a few caveats. Masking things this way is time consuming, and it's all too easy to get light or dark fringing where you've masked two areas that use very different exposures. This image wasn't bad 'cause the difference wasn't great, and most of the fringing tended to look like highlights from the sun. There are definitely times this simply won't work well enough to bother. I avoid anything like plants, trees, hair or other complicated surfaces.
Here's one that took me a long time to edit. In the original photo only the sky was properly exposed, the buildings in the foreground where nearly black. One image was created as-shot to expose the sky properly, the other was so bright that the sky was a white wall, but offered some illumination on the subject and the buildings in the background.
The editing was complicated because of the fringing. Cut too far into the buildings and they'd have the black edges of the darker exposure. Too far into the sky and it would turn completely white. When you consider the little bit of blur, chromatic aberration (colour fringing in high-contrast areas) and curvature of the fisheye... Well, it took a few hours to get it all right. If there were trees or other messy edges I would have given up on it.
![[Image: http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing-sample-2.jpg]](http://nfgphoto.com/gallery/Kamikazi%20Flag.jpg "http://nfgphoto.com/classes/mixing-sample-2.jpg")
BLEARGH