jimmyd
Posts: 72
Location: United States
Registered: 6 Nov 2004
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Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 14:51 GMT
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My question is simple, does one truly need to use exposure bracketing when they shoot in raw? Simply stated, doesn't CS3 provide enough tools that the entire set for the pano can be made uniform through Raw Converter?
I just recently did a test set in raw. 10D, 8mm 3.5, NN3 5 shots around with 8% tilt and a nadir. Bracket exposure set -1,0,+1. I shoot raw, correct CA and Vignetting, convert to files to tiff for Stitch in PTgui, then save the pano as .tiff where they ultimately are cleaned up and remain a tiff for compression to 2mb Flash file. In the end, I had a 500mb file!!!! That is for one 360 pano! Please advise if there is anything I could do to minimize my workflow. Clearly I cannot expend 4gb to do one property. It may be something simple I am doing wrong..
Thanks
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marcus newey
Posts: 127
Location: somerset, United Kingdom
Registered: 23 Oct 2005
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 15:12 GMT
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jimmyd said: Clearly I cannot expend 4gb to do one property.
Why not, a 4.7gb dvd is what ? 20c?
Back-up then delete everything except the finished files.
I hear what you're saying, and I don't shoot [vr's] professionally, but If I did, memory expenditure isn't abig deal.
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gus
Posts: 378
Location: United Kingdom
Registered: 19 Jun 2007
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 15:31 GMT
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If the tonal range is narrow enough, then yes, there's no reason why you could manipulate one set of RAW to create an acceptable pano. Generally, I found, once you do interior panos, the tonal difference between inside and outside is too vast to achieve this and 3 sets are required, sometimes as far apart as -2,0,+2.
Once you've stitched the tiffs into a equi, there is no need to have the individual tiffs on your harddrive. These are after all, the ones taking up all the space.
I normally only keep the final equi, associated webfiles, and the cubefaces on my PC. The rest go to a DVD which is stored away safely "incase" I ever need it in the future.
DVD's are so cheap nowadays, this is really the only sensible way to manage memory on your PC.
It doesnt make sense to compromise the quality of your pano by taking only 1 series of RAW images, purely for the sake of space.
gus
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VRdundee
Posts: 4
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: 26 Feb 2008
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 16:33 GMT
updated: 12 Jul 2008 at 16:48 GMT
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jimmyd
Posts: 72
Location: United States
Registered: 6 Nov 2004
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 17:30 GMT
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So should I be using PTgui for HDR, photoshop, or posiibly photomatix?
I am a little confused by the order I should be conducting the workflow.
Shoot in raw, bridge in CS3, fix vignetting, and CA on all images, save as tiff? Or keep in raw and apply hdr in photoshop if that is possible.
In short, shoudl I aim to get one fixed set or combine 3 sets in PTgui? Which provides better results? I am having a difficult time layering all 3 in PTGui as the off exposures used to better the details on the whole are causing stiching issues in PtGui whne all 3 are combined. Its saying I have 9 sets of exposures in the HDR function in PtGui.
Thanks for your advice.
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Ayman
Posts: 23
Location: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Registered: 5 Jul 2008
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 20:16 GMT
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I am no expert in the process of creating VRs but I have done many other photos that follow the same workflow.
I usually take 3 raw shots with EC. process them all in the same way (actually do one and copy the adjustments to the other two. These adjustments are not extensive since I am planning to do the HDR (i.e. no levels/saturation/color corrections). Then I export the results and join them in photomatix and use tone mapping (batch processing to ensure same parameters). Join the results as as a pano in APP. Adjust final image colors and levels/curves in PS. 
regards,
Ayman
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gus
Posts: 378
Location: United Kingdom
Registered: 19 Jun 2007
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 21:56 GMT
updated: 12 Jul 2008 at 22:01 GMT
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My workflow:
1) shoot in RAW (bracket of required)
2) open in CS3 raw editor
3) apply any adjustments to all images (CA, WB etc)
4) save individual images as uncompressed tiffs
5) Load all images in PTgui pro, enable HDR (exposure fusion), and create the equi like you normally do. I save as 6000x3000 or 5000x2500 tiff
6) Apply any further post-editting to tif (sharpening, higlights and shadows)
7) convert to cubefaces using pano2qtvr
8) edit hole in nadir
I use FPP, so all I need then is the cubefaces to display online.
gus
I gave up using photomatix which was unable to align my images. PTgui does a perfect job!
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John Houghton
Posts: 2198
Location: Hitchin, United Kingdom
Registered: 17 Jan 2005
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 13 Jul 2008 at 6:32 GMT
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I have had good results batch merging bracketed shots before stitching using Enfuse or Tfuse. The stitching is then quick and straightforward.
John
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DorinDXN
Posts: 1650
Location: Timisoara, Romania
Registered: 14 Nov 2006
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 13 Jul 2008 at 10:14 GMT
updated: 13 Jul 2008 at 10:17 GMT
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Hi,
Tufuse has also the posibility to feed a single RAW serie to it and it automatically extract +-n EV variants along with CA correction then merge those together.
I'm using tufusepro (GUI) but coud be available in free version as well.
Ths is also useful when one shoot in RAW enabled via CHDK like Canon PowerShot S3.
Note: dcraw must be downloaded to be available to tufuse
Dorin
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Vilmer
Posts: 132
Location: Argentina
Registered: 23 May 2007
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 13 Jul 2008 at 14:04 GMT
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And dcraw.exe should be placed on a system path, for example c:/windows/system32, otherwise the raw function in tufusepro won't work.
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Forest42
Posts: 2
Location: Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Registered: 22 Jul 2008
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Re: Bracketing exposure when shooting in RAW?
Posted: 23 Jul 2008 at 0:18 GMT
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I use a handy program called Bracketeer. It batches the whole set of files. You just tell it 3 EV or 5 EV change. It can output 16bit tiff files. I then edit in photoshop then let PTgui take it.
Did you save your final tiff file in layers? Maybe that is why it was so huge. I output to QTVR and the use cubicconverter to pull out the nadir shot.
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