New HDR Technology in the Pipeline?

[Mike Farley]

A while back Dave posted a HDR shot for comment and I noted that including a moving subject in such images is problematic due to the difference in its position between each shot. It looks as though technology might eventually come to our aid if a recent patent application by Apple is anything to go by. Normally, data captured by the sensor is cleared after it is read, but the patent allows it to be processed more than once to create the multiple exposures required for HDR.

Apparently this would work better than reprocessing a single Raw capture at different exposure levels, but without a working device available it is hard to know for certain at present. Of course, it is currently only a patent application, so an actual product could be some way off, if it ever appears at all.

There is more information at Imaging Resource.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/12/28/hdr-without-the-drawbacks-apple-patent-hints-at-the-future

[Simon Clarkson]

I believe Adobe photoshop CS6 already has this feature.. If you choose the Merge to HDR option there is also a function to remove ghost's (a tick box) which sounds like the same thing.

Regards

[Mike Farley]

Hi Simon

Good to hear from you again. As with a lot of things, there are often multiple ways to achieve the same objective. Adobe's solution is done at the software level, but Apple proposes using the original data captured by the sensor. Possibly Apple's approach will give better results if it ever materialises as a working feature in a product.

Not having used it as HDR is not my thing, I am not sure how well Adobe's ghosting feature would deal with a moving subject which appeared in every frame used to create a HDR image. It must be more difficult to achieve an effective result than with reprocessing a single capture multiple times. Do you have any experience of using Adobe's HDR processing for such images?

[davidc]

I tend to use the selective deghosting tool and it works pretty well although on night city shots it often pays to leave the ghosting in to boost the perceived level of people moving around.

I wonder if apple will attach it to something more than just an iphone.

[Mike Farley]

In the instance of your London Bridge image, a train would have been at diiferent sizes and exposures in each shot which made me wonder how well deghosting would handle such a circumstance. It might make a good effect, but on the other hand it could look distinctly odd. Worth experimenting, perhaps?

[davidc]

I've seen exactly the effect you mention on light trails from traffic and it produces unpleasant effects, particualrly when using RAW files. In cases like that I tend to mask of the area I don't want multi-image HDR to touch - i.e. the rest of the scene is "full" HDR but the light trails just single image.

I'd be curious to see how a hardware implementations does this which at it's core isn't simply taking more exposures and combining them in software.

[Simon Clarkson]

As much as HDR has its place, I have very much gone off it. When its done correctly on the correct subject matter it looks fantastic.

I have recently been shown another way of post editing which is very easy and produces similar tone mapping results.

I import an image into photoshop, convert it in Silver Efex to B&W then on the right you should have two layers, The background (original) and then the Silver Efex. All you then do is change the blend mode to "Luminosity".

Can produce some lovely results...

You wont get any moving objects issues either..


Hurst Castle by Simon Clarkson Photography, on Flickr


Arundel Wildlife by Simon Clarkson Photography, on Flickr

Pulls the textures out nicely!

Regards

Simon Clarkson

[davidc]

Interesting idea and though I don't have silver efex pro I'll be able to replicate effects manually and follow your steps, nice

I'll try and post some results with side by side comparisons of different HDR techniques, raw images and "Simonified" ones

[Mike Farley]

Thanks, Simon. As it happens, I have been struggling with my picture of the day from 25 February and was not particularly happy with the results I was getting. Things were greatly improved when I used your technique. I also found that using Overlay to blend the layers worked quite well, so it is worthwhile experimenting.

[Simon Clarkson]

That's good to hear Mike...

I also found the results better if you changed to Sepia instead of B&W ....

Its also nice as you can still adjust the layers contrast, saturation etc etc

Regards

Simon