We had some great light from a setting sun last night, so I thought I would finally play around with the Spark's AEB photo capability and then play around in Adobe Lightroom for the first time.  

This is my first time playing around with AEB as well as the first time ever trying to use Lightroom.  Go gentle on me, but I'm looking for some constructive criticism.  

Here is the result I created:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zngzR8mi5Mz7ZZKF2

These were the 3 original AEB photos straight out of the Spark that I used in Lightroom to create the above pic:


https://photos.app.goo.gl/q8GQduLBZPoyN0ng2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/txXJ4wle6vYC6Ljf2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qaMvNObyoalu0dly2

I would love for the Spark's AEB feature to be upgraded to 5 pics like the Mavic Pro.  I think the couple of extra exposures would have made it much easier to pull out a great image.

Quite a good result. The more different exposure the better seems to me. It depends a lot on the circumstances whether an AEB has a positive effect. This is a nice example.

I don't use Lightroom, but I do love and use HDR  photography.  (I use Photomatix Pro for HDR.) On my cameras I like to shoot from 3 to 9 pictures, depending on how much light contrast is present in the picture.  For instance, if I am shooting interiors and there is sunlight streaming in a window, I might have to use 9 or 11 or more shots to combine for 1 shot that shows details within shadows in the room, and shows the landscape outside without the window looking "blown out".   My main issue with AEB on the Spark, is the amount of exposure difference between the 3 shots.  Spark only has .7 EV (Exposure Value) difference between the shots.  When I do HDR photography, I use a 2 EV difference.  (almost 3 times the difference the Spark uses)  I would really love to see more exposures (at least 5, as you suggested), but also I would  like to see a variable EV difference setting for AEB.  However, being practical, I doubt we will see this.  All in all, the Spark has amazing capabilities considering its small size.  

mtnlandpix Posted at 2017-11-9 11:32
I don't use Lightroom, but I do love and use HDR  photography.  (I use Photomatix Pro for HDR.) On my cameras I like to shoot from 3 to 9 pictures, depending on how much light contrast is present in the picture.  For instance, if I am shooting interiors and there is sunlight streaming in a window, I might have to use 9 or 11 or more shots to combine for 1 shot that shows details within shadows in the room, and shows the landscape outside without the window looking "blown out".   My main issue with AEB on the Spark, is the amount of exposure difference between the 3 shots.  Spark only has .7 EV (Exposure Value) difference between the shots.  When I do HDR photography, I use a 2 EV difference.  (almost 3 times the difference the Spark uses)  I would really love to see more exposures (at least 5, as you suggested), but also I would  like to see a variable EV difference setting for AEB.  However, being practical, I doubt we will see this.  All in all, the Spark has amazing capabilities considering its small size.

Yes, you have nailed what I was trying to say.  Only 3 shots with 0.7 EV between them is not enough contrast from one end to the other to be able to have a lot to work with.  I think next time instead of relying on the AEB feature, I'll try to manually capture multiple images with a higher degree of exposure difference between them.

Having said all that, I thought the final result in my test came out pretty good considering the inputs I was working with.

Kloo Gee Posted at 2017-11-9 11:41
Yes, you have nailed what I was trying to say.  Only 3 shots with 0.7 EV between them is not enough contrast from one end to the other to be able to have a lot to work with.  I think next time instead of relying on the AEB feature, I'll try to manually capture multiple images with a higher degree of exposure difference between them.

Having said all that, I thought the final result in my test came out pretty good considering the inputs I was working with.

Absolutely, it came out very good, especially, as you said, being confined to only 3 shots with a .7 EV differential.  

I usually set my AEB difference on about 1.5 to 2 EV, hope they add that option to Spark.
Nice shot btw.

I think you did a fine job in lightroom. Thanks for posting this because its another feature of the Spark I haven't played with yet! A little inspiration for this weekend.

This is among the goals I am trying to achieve..good job!

Kloo Gee...

Wow...you must have pulled a lot out of the shadows because none of the 3 exposures are as light as the final result.  I actually like the final result, it has a cinematic feel...like it was pulled from the intro to some movie like a panning shot...very nice.

I tried several AEB's for my first time a few nights ago, not too many worked....seems there was too much movement.

Here is about the best one of the bunch.  You can see the cars are all blurred.  I'm only using Adobe Premiere Elements.  Are you using the cloud version of Lightroom?

Cheers..

Todd in Chicago

Todd in Chicago Posted at 2017-11-11 00:06
Kloo Gee...

Wow...you must have pulled a lot out of the shadows because none of the 3 exposures are as light as the final result.  I actually like the final result, it has a cinematic feel...like it was pulled from the intro to some movie like a panning shot...very nice.

Todd,
I use a Premiere Pro CC subscription for my video production.  I figured I would use Adobe's 7-day free trial of Lightroom CC to play around with a bit.  I was quite shocked how much detail it allowed me to pull out of the shadows given how dark the Spark's input images were.  

Yeah, I can imagine cars driving would be blurred because of it taking 3 separate pics.  Depending upon the actual images, it could potentially be a pretty cool effect.  But I could also see how it could potentially be a problem.

Thanks for the feedback!

mtnlandpix Posted at 2017-11-9 11:32
I don't use Lightroom, but I do love and use HDR  photography.  (I use Photomatix Pro for HDR.) On my cameras I like to shoot from 3 to 9 pictures, depending on how much light contrast is present in the picture.  For instance, if I am shooting interiors and there is sunlight streaming in a window, I might have to use 9 or 11 or more shots to combine for 1 shot that shows details within shadows in the room, and shows the landscape outside without the window looking "blown out".   My main issue with AEB on the Spark, is the amount of exposure difference between the 3 shots.  Spark only has .7 EV (Exposure Value) difference between the shots.  When I do HDR photography, I use a 2 EV difference.  (almost 3 times the difference the Spark uses)  I would really love to see more exposures (at least 5, as you suggested), but also I would  like to see a variable EV difference setting for AEB.  However, being practical, I doubt we will see this.  All in all, the Spark has amazing capabilities considering its small size.

Ditto! I wish the exposure range was broader too!

A few thoughts. If your screen is not calibrated, it is going to be hard to judge contrast and exposure unless you look at the histograms. My guess though is the mid tone haze, is from the sun flare from shooting into the sun. It looks like it needs some more contrast or snap added to it. Lightroom is a pretty bad way to go about merging exposures, much like photoshop is. Specialized HDR tools tend to do better generating the tone mapping, and help eliminate the haloing you see in the sky/land juxtaposition. I have used Photo Matix, then switched over to Google/Nik HDR Efex (the entire suite is available for free, at least it was for the longest time, after Google stopped development). More recently I started using Aurora from Skylum, and it is a vast improvement over HDR Efex... which was worlds better than Photo Matix. You can get a free, fully functioning demo for Aurora, and it is now cross platform. Well worth the download!

Sassafras4me Posted at 2017-11-12 10:34
A few thoughts. If your screen is not calibrated, it is going to be hard to judge contrast and exposure unless you look at the histograms. My guess though is the mid tone haze, is from the sun flare from shooting into the sun. It looks like it needs some more contrast or snap added to it. Lightroom is a pretty bad way to go about merging exposures, much like photoshop is. Specialized HDR tools tend to do better generating the tone mapping, and help eliminate the haloing you see in the sky/land juxtaposition. I have used Photo Matix, then switched over to Google/Nik HDR Efex (the entire suite is available for free, at least it was for the longest time, after Google stopped development). More recently I started using Aurora from Skylum, and it is a vast improvement over HDR Efex... which was worlds better than Photo Matix. You can get a free, fully functioning demo for Aurora, and it is now cross platform. Well worth the download!

I have had great results with Photomatic Pro.  Which version did you have?

My wife is a professional photographer (people, animals, and events not really landscape).  I just got around to showing her my attempt with this image this evening and her first words were "where did all the orange go!?"  Haha, if your spouse doesn't give you an honest response, who will!

Thanks for the responses.  If I find some time, I'll check out the tools you mentioned Sassafras4me!

Thanks all!

wooow
Great capture!
Actually, you can upload pics directly on the forum and then they will appear in the thread.

I took a VERY quick stab at merging the exposures using Aurora. There are a boatload of issues I did not attempt to address. There is quite a bit of chromatic aberration (odd purple/green jpeg artifacts – see the roof on the lower left), and also quite a bit of posterization (harsh tonal transitions. like in the blue sky or around the sun). The problem is the exposure was set by metering the sky, so the lower quadrant is plunged into murky darkness. You can do an exposure lock on an area to force the camera to meter off the houses instead, which might have helped. With some massaging of the settings, and a lower saturation/vibrancy (and a but of time spent tweaking) you could probably get a passable result. Not sure that I have done that here.

https://imgur.com/a/NvCOW

Photomatix result ... default filter

Kloo Gee Posted at 2017-11-12 18:11
My wife is a professional photographer (people, animals, and events not really landscape).  I just got around to showing her my attempt with this image this evening and her first words were "where did all the orange go!?"  Haha, if your spouse doesn't give you an honest response, who will!

Thanks for the responses.  If I find some time, I'll check out the tools you mentioned Sassafras4me!

Really good job doesn’t need critique, just encouragement to carry on as you are.

Good work. looks great.