Stained glass windows and HDR

The brightness on the glass is ideal for full detail - if anything the result is almost too 'perfect' ... i'd expect in reality to see a few brighter almost burnt out whites there (assuming daylight outside), so I'd nudge the whitepoint upwards a bit just on the glass areas, just to add a little reality.
The stonework brightness tone is great, very true to life. I would prefer a little less red/yellow saturation there, just to bring back more grey, it looks a bit tungsten but there's no light source apparent for that. And finally I think it could do with some more sharpening or other micro-detailing work to give a little more sizzle.
How did we ever reproduce church interiors before HDR?

My Guides to the Pentax Digital Camera Flash Lighting System : Download here from the PentaxForums Homepage Article .... link
Pentax K7 with BG-4 Grip / Samyang 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC / DA18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL WR / SMC A28mm f2.8 / D FA 28-105mm / SMC F35-70 f3.5-4.5 / SMC A50mm f1.7 / Tamron AF70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD macro / SMC M75-150mm f4.0 / Tamron Adaptall (CT-135) 135mm f2.8 / Asahi Takumar-A 2X tele-converter / Pentax AF-540FGZ (I & II) Flashes / Cactus RF60/X Flashes & V6/V6II Transceiver

A quick and dirty conversion of one of the set used for input to the HDR processing, taken at f/8 0.5sec ISO100.
With a bit of work ...... who knows. Some of the blues in the stained glass are better, rather than the purple version in the HDR.
Andrew
Flickr photostream

Andrew
Flickr photostream
I still think the HDR version has the most 'pizzazz' and depth, although I'd like to see it with a bit more sharpening. And I think the WB on the last one is the most natural. The issue with the tungsten is that the light source is not in the frame, so the yellow cast doesn't appear to come from anywhere - for that reason I'd opt for a cooler tone coming from the natural light outside.
Its an excellent example of appropriate HDR work!
My Guides to the Pentax Digital Camera Flash Lighting System : Download here from the PentaxForums Homepage Article .... link
Pentax K7 with BG-4 Grip / Samyang 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC / DA18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL WR / SMC A28mm f2.8 / D FA 28-105mm / SMC F35-70 f3.5-4.5 / SMC A50mm f1.7 / Tamron AF70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD macro / SMC M75-150mm f4.0 / Tamron Adaptall (CT-135) 135mm f2.8 / Asahi Takumar-A 2X tele-converter / Pentax AF-540FGZ (I & II) Flashes / Cactus RF60/X Flashes & V6/V6II Transceiver
All that was needed for this shot was two exposures. One for the building interior and one for the window. After editing each shot separately with regard to it's purpose, layer the two, window shot on top, remove anything non window from the window shot and merge. job done

[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283

Best Regards, Larry.
All the gear & no idea.


You could combine images in Photomatix, or even use the in-camera HDR, and I think you'd get a more natural appearance.
Best regards, John
HDR is a much more intelligent solution (intelligent processing that is), and has done a great job of it here.
My Guides to the Pentax Digital Camera Flash Lighting System : Download here from the PentaxForums Homepage Article .... link
Pentax K7 with BG-4 Grip / Samyang 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC / DA18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL WR / SMC A28mm f2.8 / D FA 28-105mm / SMC F35-70 f3.5-4.5 / SMC A50mm f1.7 / Tamron AF70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD macro / SMC M75-150mm f4.0 / Tamron Adaptall (CT-135) 135mm f2.8 / Asahi Takumar-A 2X tele-converter / Pentax AF-540FGZ (I & II) Flashes / Cactus RF60/X Flashes & V6/V6II Transceiver
The TIFF produced by LR/Enfuse was too dark. Bringing up the shadows; reducing the reds a bit, adding +20 contrast in LR, reducing saturation to -20 but no other processing generates this image.

I certainly prefer this to the over-cooked version. I'm not sure whether I prefer it to the second image above (single shot at 0.5sec).
I don't understand why there's a large area of purple in the bottom left corner of the window - it's blue out of the camera (preview images). I wish I could remember what it really looked like.
I'm still not sure what I think about using LR-Enfuse. It seems that most of the time, even in quite extreme situations, you can get a decent result from a single image, providing you don't blow the highlights.
I'll have a ponder .......
Andrew
Flickr photostream

Cheers.
Philip
I used to under expose by either 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop but since moving from a K10 to later models, K5, K30 and now K3, I find the meter gives me acceptable images from straight exposures.
Shooting RAW also helps to recover any hint of blown highlights.
For me the most successful treatment of those posted Andrew is the final, by Mr B. It has good saturation in the glass. There's a lot of detail in the stonework too but as I said earlier I prefer to see that area quite dark.
David
PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout
PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout
You can see some of my photos here if you are so inclined
I have tried to concentrate on getting the glass as I think it should be and pretty much ignoring the stonework.

This is a crop from the bottom of that image.

How are we doing? Any better?
Andrew
Flickr photostream
The solution suggested by smeggy is very intricate and difficult - layer-blending windows is never easy as you have to use a brush stroke over every tiny detail of window frame to give it the interior lighting, and it is a painstaking task to get the right brush softness to make a perfect divide between the glass and its framing material. You'll spend a lot of time going back and forwards over the same bit until its right.
HDR is a much more intelligent solution (intelligent processing that is), and has done a great job of it here.
Absolute nonsense. There's SIX separate elements od that church window to draw a selection round, invert the selection and cut out the non window stuff for the Window exposed frame. It's not difficult at all.
see this pano I did....
https://www.360cities.net/image/burnham-mkt-post-office-xmas-day#83.50,2.99,64.4
I used two exposures, 6 to 10 seconds for the street and another set of shots exposed for the lit shop windows ( can't remember the exact exposure but probably somethign like 1/200s at the aperture/ISO I was using ), and I combined them exactly as described.
HDR is NOT the right solution as IMO it hasn't worked in the results offered up here.
[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283
andrewk
Member
Oldham, Lancashire,UK
I took 8 shots at f/8, ISO 100 with shutter speeds ranging from 1/15sec to 8 secs, using a Pentax K30 and DA55-300mm zoom (at 87.5mm). I used Lightroom, with a plug-in LR/Enfuse to convert/merge the 8 RAWs into a 64bit TIFF just over 120MB. After a bit more twiddling and cropping in Lightroom, this came out of the mill.
I'm quite happy with the result. Thoughts?
Andrew
Flickr photostream