EV latitude in CS5 Landscape composites

[John Platt]

All you landscape photographers, I have a question regarding composites in CS5.

How much latitude do you have when blending sunset/sunrise images? I find that anytime I am trying to blend more than 2 1/2 stops of value I struggle with halos. I love the look of a visible foreground combined with a darker, more saturated background, but the halos that come with the value difference demand a ton of time to resolve.

I am considering using filters but always felt they were unnecessary when I can simply bracket and blend. After constantly having to deal with halos I went back and reviewed the images that were problematic, they were consistently a blend of around 3 EV values.

Is that the normal outside limit or do I need to learn a more advanced technique?

FWIW -- I have ordered a 3 stop reverse grad ND and a 2 stop soft ND grad for evaluation.

[Roger Clark]

John,
I haven't done this myself, but is there a radius adjustment you can vary? When I dodge and burn, I select with a feather and the feather is tuned to the job at hand (usually with the refine edge tool). Since photoshop I've reduced my use of split density filters in the field, and often do not carry one anymore. I think you'll find less control with a split density filter than with photoshop.

When I do blending and/or dodging and burning, I find a dark subject is better to make darker so giving a dark halo rather than a bright one. For example, a bright halo around a mountain peak is more noticeable than a dark halo on the mountain. Same with trees and sky: darker trees are ok, but a bright halo in the sky gets noticed.

Roger

[John Platt]

Thanks for the reply Roger. I can blend away a halo using Gassian Blur and/or edge mask radius tools, I was just hoping for a "Ninja" move that would make it fast and painless.

I stopped using GND filters in my film days because without a preview it was a waste most times, since I went digital it has been all PS blending.

I will try the new filters and see how they work.

[Jay Gould]

John,
I haven't done this myself, but is there a radius adjustment you can vary? When I dodge and burn, I select with a feather and the feather is tuned to the job at hand (usually with the refine edge tool). Since photoshop I've reduced my use of split density filters in the field, and often do not carry one anymore. I think you'll find less control with a split density filter than with photoshop.

When I do blending and/or dodging and burning, I find a dark subject is better to make darker so giving a dark halo rather than a bright one. For example, a bright halo around a mountain peak is more noticeable than a dark halo on the mountain. Same with trees and sky: darker trees are ok, but a bright halo in the sky gets noticed.

Roger


Now you have to put that into English! :Whoa!:

[Roger Clark]

Now you have to put that into English! :Whoa!:

OK. Can you be more specific on what is confusing?

Next time someone comments that there is a halo in the image, take a look. Is the halo a bright halo of=r a dark halo? In every case I can remember, it is a bright halo.

Roger

[Jay Gould]

John,
I haven't done this myself, but is there a radius adjustment you can vary? When I dodge and burn, I select with a feather and the feather is tuned to the job at hand (usually with the refine edge tool). Since photoshop I've reduced my use of split density filters in the field, and often do not carry one anymore. I think you'll find less control with a split density filter than with photoshop.

When I do blending and/or dodging and burning, I find a dark subject is better to make darker so giving a dark halo rather than a bright one. For example, a bright halo around a mountain peak is more noticeable than a dark halo on the mountain. Same with trees and sky: darker trees are ok, but a bright halo in the sky gets noticed.

Roger

Hello my friend,

You said when you D&B you select a feather and tune the feather to the job. Where is the "feather". When you D&B you are either laying on black or white with the brush tool in some configuration, i.e., hard or soft, size, amount of opacity.

Please expand the use of the refined edge tool when D&B.

Thanks,

[Jay Gould]

Thanks for the reply Roger. I can blend away a halo using Gassian Blur and/or edge mask radius tools, I was just hoping for a "Ninja" move that would make it fast and painless.

I stopped using GND filters in my film days because without a preview it was a waste most times, since I went digital it has been all PS blending.

I will try the new filters and see how they work.

John, please explain the use of Gaussian Blur and/or edge mask radius tools to eliminate the halo caused by sharpening. Thanks,

[Jay Gould]

John and Roger, you both are no longer using GNDs and RGNDs!? What are you doing to tone down a hot sun?

[Roger Clark]

John and Roger, you both are no longer using GNDs and RGNDs!? What are you doing to tone down a hot sun?

Hi Jay,

I do not use graduated neutral density filters any more with digital. For high dynamic range subjects I do bracket and take several exposures. They could be put together into an HDR, but I've never done it as I usually find one single exposure that does the job just fine with some dodging and burning.

Roger

[John Platt]

John, please explain the use of Gaussian Blur and/or edge mask radius tools to eliminate the halo caused by sharpening. Thanks,

Jay -

I will try.

After you have created a mask and used the radius/refine tools to get the mask as perfect as you can there is another step you can take to refine it after it is applied. You run a gaussian blur with a radius fo 3 or 4 pixels on the mask itself, then go to the image menu and open up levels adjustment on the mask itself. By manipulating the levels you will expand and contract the mask edge and can usually completely eliminate any bright halos you have created.

Hopefully that is clear. Try it, I have found it to work well.

JP

[John Platt]

John and Roger, you both are no longer using GNDs and RGNDs!? What are you doing to tone down a hot sun?

The only thing I have found that will help with the specular (sp) highlight created by a hot sun is too use a color fill layer behind the topmost layer, mask it and then allow the chosen color to show through only in the highlight area. You can use the color sampler or eye dropper tool to get he right color for the fill layer from an area near the sun. It is an easy method to overdo, I am still learning but it seems to work well.

Here is an example of an area that was completely blown out which has been filled in this manner.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6134/5996683767_e84bb086aa_z.jpg

JP