modern sensor capture an astonishing dynamic range, namely some sony sensors or canon with magic lantern’s dual iso feature.
this is in a range where the image has to be processed carefully to display it in pleasing ways on a monitor, let alone the limited dynamic range of print media.
example images
use graduated density filter to brighten foreground
using the graudated density iop works well in this case since the horizon here is more or less straight, so we can easily mask it out with a simple gradient in the graduated density module. now what if the objects can’t be masked out so easily?
more complex example
this image needed to be substantially underexposed in order not to clip the interesting highlight detail in the clouds.
original image, then extreme settings in the shadows and highlights iop (heavy fringing despite bilateral filter used for smoothing). also note how the shadow detail is still very dark. third one is tone mapped (drago) and fourth is default darktable processing with +6ev exposure.
tone mapping also flattens a lot of details why this version already has some local contrast enhancement applied to it. this can quickly result in unnatural results. similar applies to colour saturation (for reasons of good taste, no link to examples at this point …).
the last image in the set is just a regular default base curve pushed by six stops using the exposure module. the green colours of the grass look much more natural than in any of the other approaches taken so far (including graduated density filters, these need some fiddling in the colour saturation …). unfortunately we lose a lot of detail in the highlights (to say the least).
this can be observed for most images, here is another example (original, then pushed +6ev):
exposure fusion
this is precisely the motivation behind the great paper entitled Exposure Fusion: what if we develop the image a couple of times, each time exposing for a different feature (highlights, mid-tones, shadows), and then merge the results where they look best?
this has been available in software for a while in enfuse
even with a gui called EnfuseGUI.
we now have this feature in darktable, too.
find the new fusion combo box in the darktable base curve module:
options are to merge the image with itself two or three times. each extra copy of the image will be boosted by an additional three stops (+3ev and +6ev), then the base curve will be applied to it and the laplacian pyramids of the resulting images will be merged.
results
this is a list of input images and the corresponding result of exposure fusion:
0ev,+3ev,+6ev:
0ev,+3ev:
0ev,+3ev,+6ev:
0ev,+3ev,+6ev:
0ev,+3ev:
conclusion
image from beginning:
note that the feature is currently merged to git master, but unreleased.
links
Tom Mertens, Jan Kautz, and Frank Van Reeth. 2007.
In Proceedings of the 15th Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications (PG ‘07). IEEE Computer Society, 382-390.
(Sorry, my English is very poor.)
I think this method will never replacing an real enfused LDR from exp.bracketed image series, but very interesting idea. I'm using too sometimes in Gimp with composite layers.
I tested this upcoming future some heavily underexposed raw files from Nikon D90, D7000 and D800 with camera default base curves shipped by Darktable and linear base curves + extracted Nikon ICC input profiles with gamma correction. Images are back- or sidelight landscapes and backlight indoor scenes in various ISO.
The +3+6EV settings is totally unusable for this cameras, but the only +3EV is nice in first look. +3+6EV is making very ugly halo effect and overexposed high tones. Of course, in +3EV mode the noise level is increased in the recovered deep shadow areas. The noise is very high in homogeneous part like blue sky - but easily kill with masked noise filters. Apart from this the overall result have natural tones, nice look for human eye.
Nikon D90 have the worst result with unacceptable high level noise especially over ISO400. D800 is the best - maybe thanks for the more higher resolution. All time the week point if the scene have high contrast areas, example Sun behind mountain peek. In this case I have got some ugly dark and bright halo around border of the very bright and very dark parts - in +3EV mode too.
Yes I know this is an experimental project, but maybe this feature need an independent module in the "Tone group" named "Enfuse" or "Fake HDR". It will been very usable with more adjustable parameters like weight of expo, contrast, saturation, etc. what comes from Enfuse. And it's highly usable with masks! The only three option "none" "+3EV" +3EV+6EV" is very poor.
I think in the actual state this feature is incapable for fine prints, but sometimes usable to processing content-weighted art photos, were the overall image quality is not the primary consideration.
Darktable is my only RAW processing tool from ver 1.1RC and I'm very curious as to where You would develop the latest upcoming future. Thx for the works!
Is this going to be available for 2.0.x?
It seems quite neat, but I notice the enfused (exfused?) images look like they are quite over-saturated at the border between the trees and the sky, is there a good way of avoiding that? Otherwise it feels like this method could lead to a lot of manual work anyway :/
you can influence the result a fair bit by choosing the base curve accordingly. usually making it more gamma-shaped makes the result flatter/less saturated.
the laplacian merge indeed sometimes introduces slight overshoots, but in general i think it's better than what we could achieve so far.
as to separate iop: it can't be, as it requires to apply the base curve a couple of times to an image that is boosted in exposure while it's still linear. we could duplicate the base curve, but that would feel artificial.
But please make sure the boosts can be more customized in the sense of custom amounts of boosts as well as custom boost steps. So far, I usually boosted about 3 EV in steps of 0.5 EV. In my experience, more steps resulted in more details in the resulting image.
In conclusion, I would recommend to have an number field for boost range and another number field for the desired amount of boost steps.
The bush on the left side is very interesting ;)
I make some test meantime. The strong aura is visible if the base curve is linear.
The Darktable make wrong colors with the default settings: some colors have irrational saturation and hue especially in the light shadows, and skin tones is very-very far from the natural look too. So I'm using the most of time Nikon Picture Control icms as input color profile. In this case I don't need adjust the base curve because it is defined in the icm - I must set the base curve to linear in the iop. Otherwise I have too many contrast. But if I use camera-match base curves in the iop with standard or enhanced color matrix as input color profile I have any or really light auras.
There is a sample where the auras coming out with non-linear base curve too.
http://www.dropbox.com/s/y39268lm5w2ag2s/dt_enfuse_test_NIKON_D7000.tar.gz?dl=0
This photo is in right exposure and I never want to take back the deep tones in the real life, but is good sample for the noise and the auras.
Look the backdrop near the arm on the left side: there are unwanted shadows around the arm. This is fake. And You can see the bigger noise in the originally dark areas. Please note: this is ISO100, what is the native ISO setting in this camera.
I'll really happy, that the stable release have more control of enfuse in the future. Please think about of the EV differences too. 0-3EV and 0-3-6EV is very wide in the most of case, it have too flat look for the overall image. 0-1, 0-2 and 0-1-2EV is perfect to bring back more details from the deep shadows. It's only +3 option. There are some scene where we don't want or can't taking exp. bracket HDR. Example if there are some moving object, the shutter speed is too slow in the overexposed shot, strong wind, etc. In this situations an underexposed pseudo-HDR maybe good way to taking great photos.
If You need same D90 D7000 and D800 raw files please send me an e-mail. Nikon revers some rights of the PC icm, so I don't want to share in a blogpost comment.
Have a nice night!
right, it does do these halos, very clearly so in your example. the shape of the base curve still greatly influences it, but i suppose you're right and we need to have smaller exposure intervals as well as more control over the merging parameters to be able to better deal with this. i'll see to get some time to work on this.