Dudes, newbie to HDR here.
Was writing my own program to do HDRi, and was wondering why hardly anyone uses stacking as an alternative. Here's a comparison between stacking and merging:
The base images used for test are http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll89/ArchRival_2008/Photos for Web/O3.jpg and http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll89/ArchRival_2008/Photos for Web/O1.jpg.
The program uses a hybrid stack/merge method with global tone mapping. Comparing the results of a total stack to total merge straight from the program without further pp:
Left is stack only, right is merge only. Note that the aim of the program is not to get a good image rightaway, but to get a maximum dynamic range image for further post processing.
The results after further post processing with curves and saturation are:
Both stacking and merging by themselves will give a maximum dynamic range image as afforded by the base images.
The merged result is at the end slightly more pleasing, but the stacking result is not far behind.
Stacking is faster and easier to use and will preserve the relative brightness of parts of the image. Perhaps most importantly, it is impossible to get haloing in stacking.
So, for natural HDRis, why are so few people using stacking?
Was writing my own program to do HDRi, and was wondering why hardly anyone uses stacking as an alternative. Here's a comparison between stacking and merging:
The base images used for test are http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll89/ArchRival_2008/Photos for Web/O3.jpg and http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll89/ArchRival_2008/Photos for Web/O1.jpg.
The program uses a hybrid stack/merge method with global tone mapping. Comparing the results of a total stack to total merge straight from the program without further pp:
Left is stack only, right is merge only. Note that the aim of the program is not to get a good image rightaway, but to get a maximum dynamic range image for further post processing.
The results after further post processing with curves and saturation are:
Both stacking and merging by themselves will give a maximum dynamic range image as afforded by the base images.
The merged result is at the end slightly more pleasing, but the stacking result is not far behind.
Stacking is faster and easier to use and will preserve the relative brightness of parts of the image. Perhaps most importantly, it is impossible to get haloing in stacking.
So, for natural HDRis, why are so few people using stacking?