HDR problem

[Jon Stevens]

HI All, 

This feels like I'm doing something obvious and stupid wrong - so I apologise if I'm wasting your time - but I've spent hours trying to fix this and searched the forums and I'm still stuck:

I'm an interiors photographer using HDR to correct blown windows, I've followed the (very good) tutorial closely, and HDR does indeed bring the windows back, but it leaves the rest of the room underexposed, and every way i try to lighten the interior the windows end up being blown again.  I've tried lots of different combinations of input exposures, but still get the same result.  So I'm back to using tons of flash to light the room, which does not give the same results as i know HDR can.  If any one can help I'd be very grateful - I'm worried I'm going to start loosing work as my output is not as good as it could be.

Thanks very much

regards

Jon

[AlejandroJ]

I wonder: if you have different shoots / takes of the same scene taken with a tripod but with different exposures, why do you prefer to just go for an HDR if having difficulties with this method to get it right for certain scenes, instead of, in such cases, opting for masking the windows and using the better exposure for what is outside in one layer, and the better exposure for what is inside (or an HDR of the photos from the inside if needed) in a different layer? Wouldn’t it be simpler and more controllable this way for extreme cases of too much of a tonal dynamic range to be covered? Maybe the windows are too complex to mask.

I’m curious, but as well interested in finding out how to get better HDRs (I did some interior photos some years ago and although I managed to get some acceptable results trying with HDR, they were always better if masking), so I’ll keep paying attention to what might be answered to your question in this thread.

[Murfee]

Hi @Jon Stevens, welcome to the forums.

You do not say which tutorial you are following or how many exposures you are working with. There is a legacy Serif tutorial here that uses exposure blending. You will need more than one exposure for this method. If you only have one raw file then you could try developing one version for the windows and another for the interior. Import these and hopefully you will get a pleasing result.

Alternatively you could develop 2 versions from your original file and then do an HDR merge.

[Jon Stevens]

hi, thanks Murfee, i was following the hdr merging tutorial, and trying combinations of between 2 and 5 exposures in raw.

I did also try stacking before posting here but was having the same problem. I am wondering if instead of correctly exposing for the room i should overexpose it so that when stacking averages it out, it brings it back down to a more correct level?

[John Rostron]

Did you develop (and save) your raw files before loading them into the HDR Merge? Or did you load the raw files directy into the merge? This latter can give quite different final results. 

John

[Murfee]

44 minutes ago, Jon Stevens said:

hi, thanks Murfee, i was following the hdr merging tutorial, and trying combinations of between 2 and 5 exposures in raw.

I did also try stacking before posting here but was having the same problem. I am wondering if instead of correctly exposing for the room i should overexpose it so that when stacking averages it out, it brings it back down to a more correct level?

Hi Jon, I would bracket for exposures so that you get a range of under exposed for the room but retaining the windows and slightly over exposed for the room to retain shadow details when merging or stacking. 

It might be an idea to try what @John Rostron has said and save the processed raw files first. It has been a long time since I used HDR merging. I use exposure blending with luminosity masks and blend ranges when dealing with extreme dynamic range.