Shooting Interior Architectural images - Photo Merge to HDR in LR6

[caribsurf47]

Those of you who have traditionally rejected HDR techniques for what ever reason, may want to re-evaluate the technique in light of the new Photo Merge to HDR facility in LR6. It lines up the multiple frames beautifully and produces a very natural looking high dynamic range image. As an example, I am including an image I produced last Friday utilising three RAW Frames shot bracketed at -1EV, 0EV and +1EV. The bracketed frames were shot from a tripod with electronic shutter release using the Sony ILCE-7R camera and the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II lens. It was shot inside the 12th century abbey at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England.

[Mark D Segal]

Very well done piece of work. It looks natural.

The photo raised a question in my mind - suppose you wanted to preserve the HDR while creating a vertical pano that would include the ceiling? I haven't tried it, so I'm wondering how LR would handle a combined photomerge + HDR merge.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

With a Sony sensor, why even bother with HDR with only +/- 1 stop?

[Paul2660]

Very well done piece of work. It looks natural.

The photo raised a question in my mind - suppose you wanted to preserve the HDR while creating a vertical pano that would include the ceiling? I haven't tried it, so I'm wondering how LR would handle a combined photomerge + HDR merge.

Mark,

The pano feature in LR CC 2015 has really been a blessing for me.  The fact you can now stitch the files together as raw, then work on them as one large image with all the LR tools is a huge gain in production for me.  Also I find that the LR sticking is very good most of the time, and you can easily zoom to 100% and see if there are errors.  Something that you can't do in Ptgui or Kolors tools very easily.  They output to a jpg for preview and the preview to me doesn't have enough resolution.  LR also carried over the excellent exposure/color blending that I always found Photoshop had.

The HDR is also very good, and I agree can produce a normal looking file easily. 

Paul

[caribsurf47]

"so I'm wondering how LR would handle a combined photomerge + HDR merge."

I am afraid that I cannot answer your question but I am sure that someone with greater experience of Lightroom may be able to help. I shot the vaulted ceiling as a seperate exercise with a Distagon T* 2.8/21 ZE and that worked well as an image in its own right. The vaulted ceiling is very high and when I was there it was illuminated by very strong light on one side. Exposing for that and getting the altar correctly exposed might be a challenge.

[Mark D Segal]

With a Sony sensor, why even bother with HDR with only +/- 1 stop?

As terrific the DR of the Sony sensors is, there remain situations, such as church interiors, where the huge luminance difference between highlights and deep shadows call for an HDR type of solution, if only to produce exposures in the shadows that reveal all the detail one would like, without however the noise floor getting in the way  - and of course taming highlights where extremes of light pours through windows that contain desirable highlight detail. So essentially - wanted detail from scene luminance would often exceed the capability of even Sony sensors, such that merging different exposures remains useful.

[Mark D Segal]

Mark,

The pano feature in LR CC 2015 has really been a blessing for me.  The fact you can now stitch the files together as raw, then work on them as one large image with all the LR tools is a huge gain in production for me.  .........

The HDR is also very good, and I agree can produce a normal looking file easily. 

Paul

Thanks Paul - yes, I'm aware these tools are independently very capable and thanks for confirming. I'm wondering about user experience combining them.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Mark, I am not questioning the use of HDR with Sony sensors, just the use with such narrow brackating. Besides, the OP Image still contains blown highlights.

[Mark D Segal]

Mark, I am not questioning the use of HDR with Sony sensors, just the use with such narrow brackating. Besides, the OP Image still contains blown highlights.

Ah - OK - different story. he just happened to have used that range - and you're right, could have taken it further.

I appreciated the general point about the capability to rather easily make NATURAL looking HDR photos in LR6.

[Mark D Segal]

And I should add - where the highlight looks blown in that sample could well be unimportant - depends whether it would have contained any useful detail; we don't know that, but the OP would :-).

[caribsurf47]

last one. Three RAW Frames shot 5 years ago today. Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Distagon T* 2.8/21 ZE. Camera resting on the top of a balcony and a 3 Frame bracketed burst. Good alignment again for a non-tripod capture. Like this LR6 feature.

[Mark D Segal]

Another good one. Very convincing! I also appreciate the DoF you achieved.

[caribsurf47]

Shot at ISO 100 and f/4. My favourite lens.

[michaelbiondo]

I am also loving the HDR feature in the new LR. Typically I prefer to not use autotone and tonemap the image using the LR develop module.
But am I really "tonemaping" the image at that point? I am not ready certain how that works.
I am shooting pentax 645z and even though I could probably get away with a single image, I am finding that I have a bit more control working with a HDR merged file.
BTW, file size is for the HDR  DNG file is 193mb vs the single image file size at 63.2 mb
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