Roosevelt Metro Train Wait Final

The Tip of the day is about getting the right range of light in your bracket for HDR. See end of this post.

This was taken in the Franklin D Roosevelt Metro Station in Paris. On this Platform there is some really nice lighting and décor.

The picture was taken handheld with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 wide angle zoom at 10mm. For the 3 exposures 1 second was the longest to get the movement in the train. As the lightest exposure was not quite enough for the full range I created an extra exposure in Camera Raw with an additional 2 EV. There were then a total of 4 raw images at 2EV spacing for HDR. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs. 

Photomatix

Outputted in Photomatix to Exposure Fusion for a more natural look. Click the Camera name top right on flickr for this image for Exif details and the settings used.

Photoshop

The woman in the foreground helpfully stayed still while the sequence was taken.

The Plus 2 EV image was brought in as a layer and applied with a mask to increase the movement in the train and generally lighten that area..

Detail brought back in with Topaz adjust with HDR presets Vibrant group and Detail 2 preset. Some areas were slightly excluded from the effect by applying Topaz on a duplicate layer with a layer mask.

A general adjustment was applied in curves to enhance. Layer mask used to exclude highlight areas.

Vibrance increased 24 points

Saturation adjustment layer greens used to increase the green tones on the train.

Second Saturation Layer with mask for an increase of the yellows on the shaded lights.

Layers flattened before going on to sharpening.

First duplicate layer Noiseware Pro and a little sharpening.

Second duplicate layer with mask to apply extra sharpening and contrast with low amount and high radius using Unsharp mask (Clarity Effect) The settings were 55 amount and 55 radius. A mask was used to exclude the effect from the train and highlights.

Some tidy up with clone brush.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Below are the Before and After images. First the last of the 3 exposures. Then the tonemapped image and then the final result.

Original at +2EV

Roosevelt Metro Train Wait Original

After Merge with Photomatix exposure fusion

Roosevelt Metro Train Wait Exp Pusion

Final Image

Roosevelt Metro Train Wait Final

Tip of the Day

Most cameras which provide auto bracketing for HDR will provide 3 shots at 2EV intervals. This is ideal as it covers most lighting situations. Higher range cameras will provide more brackets with better choice of the exposure interval between shots. The ideal is that in the underexposed image the shadows are dark black with no detail and in the overexposed images the brightest highlights are fully white with no detail. This means you have captured the full range of light. If the darker end of the range is not dark enough or the lighter end is not light enough there are 2 possible solutions if your auto bracketing is limited. First if the camera is on a Tripod so there will be change in camera position shift the range of brackets by using the exposure compensation setting. Second if you shoot in RAW create one or more extra exposures in camera raw.

Edwin Jones