6 Exposure Shot

Definitely very effective, I would love to learn how you do it so effectively! You say “Carefully combined in PS”, that sounds so easy, but it isn’t, at least for me.

I would like to ask, do you really need 6 exposures or could you have achieved the same result with 3 or 4? Although the 1Ds does not handle overexposed highlights very well, it does have a decent exposure range, and it seems to me you could capture the darkest darks and the sunny waterfall highlights in fewer exposures. You must understand, I have yet to combine more than two exposures, and still prefer to use a GND whenever possible, so my question is asked in all sincerity. Thank you for sharing.

The quality of light you captured in this is just beautiful. Could you share some more details about the 6 different shutter speeds (ie. why?), and how they were all combined in PS.

I love experimenting with ME on film, but there is a definite amount of uncertainty you are playing with. I would really like to see a digicam allow for ME in camera - but perhaps that takes too much processing.

Beautiful shot and great technique!

BTW I moved the shot from Photo Topics to Landscapes because I think this is where it belongs

thapamd wrote:I don't want to start this whole digital vs. film war, but I can't see myself using film again (unless it's LF).

really?

I love digital dont get me wrong and perhaps Im biting and debating something that I will inevitably just debate with myself...... but there hasnt been a single Black&white conversion/action/filter etc etc that Ive seen or heard about that will ever adequately reproduce the feel of a true black and white negative and print.

just my two cents.

Big image really evokes a sensation of looking down into the swirling waters, very different for me at least than the smaller. Like Ron, I'm wondering about the process. Could you give us a hint about what parts of the six are where? (That I'm asking the question should be considered a complement because I don't have a clue even based on the larger size; the feathering between the sections is absolutely amazing! Any secret there? )

Rich

Mahesh,

This is indeed an interesting technique. But I wonder if you really needed six exposures here? What was the shortest and longest exposures used?

Don't get me wrong, this is a way to increase dynamic range of a photo that I believe is unbeatable, and you definitely have both nice highlights and good shadows. But still six exposures is huge...


Anders

That's very cool. One day they'll have a full frame digital back for 4x5 that's affordable. I'll definately buy one.

- Dan.

Thanks for all the feedback and constructive criticism, everyone. Why 6 exposures...fine control, that's all. I took shot sets at 3, 4, and 6 exposures. They all look about the same at this reduced web size, but printed out large, you can see a lot of subtle shadow detail in the 6 exposure shot that just isn't visible in the other sets. As I'm sure you already know, noise is intimately related to the number of photons hitting a pixel. In fact, the amount of variation of light hitting a sensor or film or any recording device for that matter follows a poisson distribution (which can be aproximated by a normal distribution for N>10). Noise is produced from the variablility of light that hits each pixel. The amount of variability is proportional to the square root of mean value hitting a pixel. So if there is enough light to give an average of 100 photons per pixel, any one pixel will have a 67% change of having photons between 90 and 110; 95% chance of having photons between 80-120. If you increased the average number of photons to 10000 per pixel, then 1 standard deviation would be between 9900 and 10100; 2 standard deviations would be 9800 and 10200. The percent variation between the 2 conditions is substantial (10/100 vs 100/10000). The less the percent variation, the less the noise. Where am I going with all this?...The increased control one has with 6 exposures, really allows one to control noise and level of detail in the shadows. With 6 exposures, I can make a gradual change from shadow to highlight, much more gradual than with just 2, 3 or 4 exposures.

For those interested in combining lots of exposures, try this software:

photomatix

I've been doing everything manually, with the opacity brush and layers, but this program looks very promising. They have a trial version.