CybrSlydr

I'm mostly doing quick editing of photos I took at a baseball game for the team, so my thought process is thus: Start with auto white balance as the "baseline" so I'm good with a more "natural" look. Then I apply auto-colors to further refine the colors aspect of the JPEG/RAW. Then I go with auto-levels to further refine that aspect. Finally I use the auto-contrast to hopefully create good contrast between nice, natural colors. Do you see any errors in my thought process above or a basic misunderstanding of what each of those options do? Thanks!

I was hoping you folks could tell me in what order I should apply the auto-corrections to my JPEGs for the best results? Auto levels, contrast, colors, and white balance. In what order should they be applied? I don't want to be using them and end up getting some sort of feedback loop using them in the wrong order. Also, does this order apply to RAW files as well? Thank you!

Here's my first attempt at the focus and exposure bracket merge. Took four sets of three +/- 2.0Ev bracketed photos on four different focus points on the pistol in RAW. I then merged the exposure stacks into four separate photos, exported those HDR images as TIFFs, and then focus merged those four photos into a single photo as a JPEG. I think it said this single JPEG is over 40MB before I cropped it to this size. Taken with my A7R IVa and Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 (photos taken at f/8) on a tripod. Appears to be some artifacting/haloing on the rear-edges of the image such as the beaver tail and hammer/slide/rear sight. Otherwise, I'm pretty impressed with the quality. The tutorial I watched did say that Affinity 2 automatically selects the clone tool and allows you to view the component images and pick which parts look the best and can then use the clone to cover up artifacts, but I was having a very difficult time getting the rear-top edges to blend well. It was either accept it the way it is, or choose to have the pistol look great with the cutting board looking off, or the cutting board look right, but the pistol part is off. Does that mean I simply need more images of those possible problem areas to generate more data for a more seamless blend of images?

Here's my first attempt at the focus and exposure bracket merge. Took four sets of three +/- 2.0Ev bracketed photos on four different focus points on the pistol in RAW. I then merged the exposure stacks into four separate photos, exported those HDR images as TIFFs, and then focus merged those four photos into a single photo as a JPEG. I think it said this single JPEG is over 40MB before I cropped it to this size. Taken with my A7R IVa and Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 (photos taken at f/8) on a tripod. Appears to be some artifacting/haloing on the rear-edges of the image such as the beaver tail and hammer/slide/rear sight. Otherwise, I'm pretty impressed with the quality.

Thanks John - I wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something in the process and degrading quality or destroying data doing it one way rather than another. I'm thinking I just go with a standard +/- 2.0 Ev with 3 shots (Auto exposure bracket mode in my camera) and pick... 3 or 4 focus points. Do the exposure bracket for each of the 3 or 4 focus points. Then I HDR merge each set so I end up with the 3 or 4 HDR photos with each having a different focal point. Then perform the focus stack merge and see what I get. Need to get my sensor cleaned first though. lol

Hello folks! I purchased a new-to-me used camera a few months back and decided to take it out today to practice some exposure stacking. I like to do landscapes and such, so I figured this would be a great little test. I was very pleased with the results I got from Affinity 2 using the HDR Merge function. Here's one of my favorites from today: Then I read about focus stacking - and for landscapes, this sounds like something I should really embrace! Nice, blurry backgrounds can work, but some of these I want more in-focus than a large aperture can create. Then I got thinking - what about combining focus stacking with exposure stacking? This is certainly more complicated than just exposure stacking, but I think it could create some really great photos. So my main question is - if I'm going to do this, which should I combine first and how might I go about doing this? Should I merge the exposures first, then merge the focus, then merge the result of those two processes or something else? Thanks for your help!