{"id":458,"date":"2010-09-09T08:31:03","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T15:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=458"},"modified":"2010-09-09T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T00:58:10","slug":"manual-versus-automated-camera-methods-for-hdr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=458","title":{"rendered":"Manual Versus Automated Camera Methods for HDR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chuang<\/a><\/p>\n

Reading around the web, I came upon a series of sites that talk about HDR Photography technique and how the use of the Manual mode of the camera will yield the best results. \u00a0Now, while this could yield great results for some people, and I think its a great way to have control over ALL of the elements of a picture, I think that the idea can cause a bit of confusion. \u00a0I figure it’s probably best to do this with an example.<\/p>\n

Take it To the Bridge<\/strong>
\nLet’s say you’re just getting into your camera for HDR work. \u00a0You get the entire Shutter\/Aperture combination for your work but now you’re in the exploration phase of HDR.<\/p>\n

\n

You walk up to a scene of a bridge at night with lights and you want to setup a 5 shot bracket. \u00a0How do you know what the correct exposure is? \u00a0Someone told you about Sunny F16 as a rule, but this is a scene at night, and you have no idea as to where to start. \u00a0What do you do?<\/p>\n

Scenario 1: Aperture Priority Mode + Spot Metering<\/strong>
\nYou switch to Aperture Priority mode and the camera reads the scene, giving you a base exposure. \u00a0Our modern cameras have got great meters inside of them. \u00a0If you meter the scene and fire a shot, there’s a very good probability that the scene is going to be rendered well. \u00a0If it isn’t, you use your EV to slide up and down the exposure to artistically compensate. \u00a0If you need more of a dead on area, you can probably switch from matrix to spot metering – but i’ve rarely had to do this.<\/p>\n

From here, just set the bracket that you need (However many exposures, and however many steps apart – dependent on what your camera lets you do) and fire the frame. \u00a0Now, you’re off to Post Processing Land.<\/p>\n

Scenario 2: Manual Metering<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You don’t know what your starting exposure is going to be, but you have a general idea that you want to shoot at F11. So, F11 goes into the camera, and you dial in a shutter.<\/li>\n
  2. Click. Look back at the scene and wonder about the exposure. \u00a0Too Dark? Too Light?<\/li>\n
  3. Pull up the histograms on the image to check, or highlights to check for blinkies. \u00a0Ah, a little too dark.<\/li>\n
  4. Change Shutter value to another amount. \u00a0What amount? \u00a0I don’t know.. maybe a smidge less(or more) than what the last one did.<\/li>\n
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 ad\u00a0nausea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My Beef with M Here<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Manual mode in this scenario presumes you will have a ballpark idea of what your exposure of a given area is. \u00a0It presumes you can walk into a room with a “This is a 120 5.6 scene” mentality. \u00a0That’s totally fine if you have that and much respected. \u00a0However, many users will not. \u00a0And when they don’t – the Manual mode just confuses something that need not be confusing.<\/p>\n

    Now, if you are staring into the viewfinder, \u00a0and looking at the lines to the right that show that you are ‘under’ on a scene, and adjusting according to that – congratulations. \u00a0You are using the camera’s built in meter anyway, and there is no difference between what you’re doing there and just switching it over to Aperture Priority.<\/p>\n

    Shooting More Frames with EV<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In the process of writing this out, I came across the “Canons only shoot 3 frames, whereas Nikons shoot more” situation. \u00a0Figured i’d throw in a little bit of a tip while I was at it.<\/p>\n

    Remember that these cameras are shooting over and underexposed automatically when you’re doing a bracket. \u00a0Switch yourself to Aperture mode, but DO NOT bracket. \u00a0From there, click and make 1 shot. \u00a0Go into your EV setting and minus however much you want for the next frame. \u00a0Once that’s done, click again. \u00a0Continute to adjust your EV for the rest of the frames, and in no time, you’re done. \u00a0If you’re shooting a landscape scene this shouldnt affect your exposures too much, and any movement will easily be removed using deghosting technologies in HDR tools. \u00a0Now, for high speed needs or for extended time HDR techniques, we can use the cameras built in Intervalometers or external devices. \u00a0 But that’s a conversation for another time.<\/p>\n

    The Takeaway<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this. \u00a0A long time ago, people used manual mode because there was nothing else to use – not because it was a better way of doing things. \u00a0While I firmly believe going manual is one of the best ways to control an image in specific scenarios – HDR photography just\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0seem like its one of them. \u00a0For people just getting into the space, it can confuse unnecessarily. \u00a0HDR\u00a0photography\u00a0is actually very easy to do, and\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0require a super secret mode of developing it to make it awesome. \u00a0It just requires your time and your passion..<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading around the web, I came upon a series of sites that talk about HDR Photography technique and…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technique","7":"cs-entry"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}