HDR Test - ADDENDUM HDR & PSEUDO

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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AlP
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Location: Alberta, Canada

HDR Test - ADDENDUM HDR & PSEUDO

Post by AlP »

When I looked down into the mouth of this Tiger beetle with a microscope I was very excited at the image possibilities of doing a stack. Problem one, trying to get lighting inside the mouth and secondly, shoot for the shadows or the highlights.
tiger beetle 5x copy 1024.jpg
Tiger beetle side view, 5x, 44 steps at 70µ. Canon 5D MK IV with MPE 65mm
Tiger Beetle 7x copy 3 1024.jpg
The hairs are not too bad exposure wise but the mouth is on the dark side. Nasty halos. 7x, 70 steps at 40µm. Canon 5D MK IV, MPE 65mm at 5x and Canon 1.4 extender.
tiger beetle mouth 7x 2 copy 1024.jpg
Mouth has more detail but hairs blown out with nasty halos. I had to reposition the specimen to get more light into the mouth. 7x, 70 steps at 40µm. Canon 5D MK IV, MPE 65mm at 5x and Canon 1.4 extender.
7x HDR copy 1024.jpg
Then I thought a test in HDR might work. I only did three images (88 each - 264 total) and processed using Nik HDR. Personally I prefer 5ive minimum but the 8 gig card ran out of space, my bad. I do see some use in this method. Instead of using shutter time I decreased flash output from 1/4 for the first to 1/16th for the third. If I get time tomorrow I'll see about doing a 5ive image HDR.
Last edited by AlP on Mon Jan 23, 2023 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

wwheeler48
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Re: HDR Test

Post by wwheeler48 »

really nice images. I have a stupid question. Could you, instead of running a new stack for each HDR image, just overexpose a couple of final image copies and send those through HDR? Or would all the overexposed areas just mess it up? How about brushing exposure in Photoshop?

Olympusman
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Re: HDR Test

Post by Olympusman »

That's a pretty wild critter. Nice shots.

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

AlP
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Location: Alberta, Canada

Re: HDR Test

Post by AlP »

wwheeler48 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:24 pm
really nice images. I have a stupid question. Could you, instead of running a new stack for each HDR image, just overexpose a couple of final image copies and send those through HDR? Or would all the overexposed areas just mess it up? How about brushing exposure in Photoshop?
Not a stupid question. I thought about that. I've done both true and pseudo HDR images in the past. This is the first time with an insect and focus stacking. When I get time I'll do a test with an actual 5ive image stack and compare it to a 5ive image "pseudo" stack. Luckily winters are loooong up here (winky eye).

wwheeler48
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Re: HDR Test

Post by wwheeler48 »

:D

MarkSturtevant
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Re: HDR Test

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Nicely done. That seems a pretty efficient approach to the old problem about exposing for the brights versus exposing for the darks.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

AlP
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Re: HDR Test - ADDENDUM HDR & PSEUDO

Post by AlP »

tiger beetle 7x 89 steps 40µm 5 stack HDR copy 1024.jpg
I had time today, camera setup as above. So, for the "true" 5 image HDR stack, I did 1/2. 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 flash power with 1/8 being my normal exposure. 89 images per stack (445 images total), 5x at 40µm. Processed in NIK HDR Effex Pro 2.
2 under tiger beetle 7x 89 steps 40µm pseudo HDR copy 1024.jpg
This is the "pseudo" version. I used the middle (1/8th power) as my centre point 0 and created another four images in RAW at -2, -1, +1 and +2 and processed in NIK HDR Effex Pro 2. However, I did make one mistake, I did not write down my settings for the previous HDR image and thus I do not have an identical test. For what it is worth... One thing I did notice was that the pseudo image has a green cast especially in the grey background.

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