Re: SNS-HDR v1.x
Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:43 pm
[attachment=0]GhostStackPost.jpg[/attachment]The recent release of Lightroon 6 and ACR 9.0 included a "new" HDR function. Emphasis on "new" because while it looks like a port of the HDR Pro that has been in Photoshop for a while, it is not. There are significant differences. One of those is improved deghosting.
The following attached image set is a small 100% crop of a 3 bracket set. The exposures were at 1/200, 1/500, and 1/1250. All 3 originals are sharp, no movement blur. But due to a moderate wind, there is significant movement of the leaves and branches between exposures. A typical landscape ghosting problem.
The "Originals" frame was made by layering the 3 exposures and setting opacity of the top layers to 50%. It shows the actual movement of elements between shots. The other frames are labled by the HDR program used to create them. Default settings were used on all, no atttempt was made to match tones. This was a deghosting test only.
ACR-HDR (same as LR6) has 3 deghosting settings: low, medium, high. This test used medium. Oloneo has 2 settings. Method 2 was used because method method 1 failed miserably. Photomatix has a deghosting slider that goes from 0 to 100. At 50, Photomatix also failed miserably. At 100 is was much better and showed no artifacts. SNS has no deghosting variable. It's just on or off.
Observations: ACR-HDR did a very good job of deghosting. Best I've ever seen, in this test and in several others I did. Photomatix was a close second. Oloneo left a number of random ghosts. Not bad, but not useable without a lot of repair work. SNS was a distant last. Almost no ghost removal, and not useable at all.
SNS has been my favorite HDR program because I prefer its tonemapping, but it can't be used when even moderate ghosting occurs. The new ACR9/LR6 HDR function has now become a top competitor. Its tonemapping is more "natural" and is very close to SNS. It can't do the over-the-top, cartoon like images that Photomatix, Oloneo, and other HDR programs are famous for. But like most people, I don't care about that.
http://kellyphoto.smugmug.com/photos/i- ... bkNV63.jpg
The following attached image set is a small 100% crop of a 3 bracket set. The exposures were at 1/200, 1/500, and 1/1250. All 3 originals are sharp, no movement blur. But due to a moderate wind, there is significant movement of the leaves and branches between exposures. A typical landscape ghosting problem.
The "Originals" frame was made by layering the 3 exposures and setting opacity of the top layers to 50%. It shows the actual movement of elements between shots. The other frames are labled by the HDR program used to create them. Default settings were used on all, no atttempt was made to match tones. This was a deghosting test only.
ACR-HDR (same as LR6) has 3 deghosting settings: low, medium, high. This test used medium. Oloneo has 2 settings. Method 2 was used because method method 1 failed miserably. Photomatix has a deghosting slider that goes from 0 to 100. At 50, Photomatix also failed miserably. At 100 is was much better and showed no artifacts. SNS has no deghosting variable. It's just on or off.
Observations: ACR-HDR did a very good job of deghosting. Best I've ever seen, in this test and in several others I did. Photomatix was a close second. Oloneo left a number of random ghosts. Not bad, but not useable without a lot of repair work. SNS was a distant last. Almost no ghost removal, and not useable at all.
SNS has been my favorite HDR program because I prefer its tonemapping, but it can't be used when even moderate ghosting occurs. The new ACR9/LR6 HDR function has now become a top competitor. Its tonemapping is more "natural" and is very close to SNS. It can't do the over-the-top, cartoon like images that Photomatix, Oloneo, and other HDR programs are famous for. But like most people, I don't care about that.
http://kellyphoto.smugmug.com/photos/i- ... bkNV63.jpg