Since starting to use a Nikon D800 with the large dynamic range files it produces and processing them in Adobe LightRoom 4 and now LR5, I have been amazed at the amount of shadow detail that can be revealed without significant noise. Faced with a scene with a wide range of tones, I would routinely capture a 5 frame bracket (usually -2,-1,0,+1,+2) to use in Nik HDREfex or Photomatix but have found that I can often process a single frame in LR and get quicker, simpler results with none of the problems of tone mapping an HDR stack. Yesterday while photography a sunset at Rotoiti from the jetty at Emery’s Store I took one of the usual 5 shot brackets and then processed the 5 through HDREfex Pro and then also processed the middle exposure as a single image. Apart from the single image being much quicker it also needed no work with the clone stamp to clean up ghosting in the mobile elements, I think it has a cleaner look while still keeping details in the highlights and shadows. Neither are polished images but the LR version is a much quicker way to get to this point.
andrew
18 Sep 2013nice comparison thank you! I have a d700 so probably not quite on par with the d800 but I’m excited to know I can stop bracketing as much. I used to all the time even though I never had bracketing software to stick them together I anticipated I someday might.
now I’ve since kinda moved onto just exposing well and boosting shadows in LR3, I wonder how much better LR5 would be?
tony
18 Sep 2013Hi Andrew, thanks for the comment. The D700 is, so far my all time favourite SLR but the D800 has some advantages in some areas but the huge file sizes can be a liability. I think the Adobe process 2012 that came with LR4 and now LR5 was a big step forward and have managed to reprocess old files to achieve much nicer images using the new process. You might want to try the 30 day trial and compare it with LR3 on your files.