https://www.instagram.com/kmunchie/
Can someone please share their thoughts on this processing style for the night photos that this photographer is posting?
I did stuff like that about fifteen years ago. It was a very popular look, but mainly because back in those days there was little alternative to capturing a scene with a large dynamic range. Cameras used back then typically had CCD sensors, which tended to be rather noisy.
Typically, more than one image—and often many images—were captured at different exposures and then combined into a single high dynamic range image, like a 32 bit TIFF file. This HDR image was compressed back down to a standard JPEG using tone mapping software, like Photomatix, Photoshop, or others. This tone mapping did what's called "local contrast enhancement" which retains the impression of shadow and highlights but brings out texture in both areas: "global contrast enhancement" will tend to crush details in the shadows and highlights.
Modern camera raw files, particularly if they are well-exposed at base ISO with high bit depth, have enough dynamic range that taking multiple exposures is unnecessary, and tone mapping can be done directly on the raw file. However, the HDR name stuck, even when not combining multiple exposures; I suppose you can say that the raw files themself are already HDR.
Trouble is, early tone mapping techniques were rather ad hoc and not based on good color science, and so not only textures were enhanced but also colors were saturated. Some people liked the effect, but it soon became overdone and typically only popular with noobs. Newer tone mapping methods give a more realistic effect.
I realize that the lens and the focal length is bringing in some magic. Probably 35-50mm or so FL,
Those will have no effect on the tonality and coloration of the images, which is quite prominent.
The effect is not obtained organically through typical camera settings, but rather through computation.
a long-ish exposure too - something like 1-2 seconds.
Likewise, this won't give the prominent effect seen here. It could lead to a cleaner, well-exposed image.
I think the magenta slider is up in the white balance getting that reddish tone. However, that is only happening in the mid tones - highlights and shadows and protected.
I wouldn't think that these are intentional on the part of the photographer, but rather are side-effects of the tone mapping.
Protection of the highlights and shadows is the whole
raison d'être of using the HDR technique: getting highlight and shadow details that are otherwise outside of the ordinary dynamic range of a snapshot.
Highlights and shadows are exaggerated, probably by increasing contrast.
Quite the opposite: contrast is lowered, greatly. If a realistic tone curve were to be used in these images, that would either blow out more of the highlights or crush the shadows to blackness. The global contrast is decreased, but tone mapping, if done well, will retain the *impression* of darkness and shadows even if they aren't all that different in the final image. The shadow pixels aren't brightened uniformly, and the highlight pixels aren't darkened uniformly as well; the irregular tone change is used to enhance textures.
Sure, you might be able to set the contrast of your camera to a very low level, and successfully capture both highlights and shadows in a JPEG, but the resulting image will look dull, tepid, and flat. Tone mapping with its local contrast enhancement brings back the "pop" into an HDR image.
Early apps and old algorithms would change color saturation whenever tonal contrast was changed, which is why these image are highly oversaturated.
Then there is a glow of some kind added in the highlights. Orton effect does not give me a similar look. Maybe it is added only in selected areas.
One side effect of tone mapping is often haloes around high contrast edges. Local contrast enhancement will typically compare the brightness of pixels against its neighbors, and how far away these neighbors are is a major parameter in the process: a large radius will give a more natural look, but may induce halos; a small radius will decrease the size of the haloes but give an unrealistically crunchy look. There are now lots of methods that attempt to reduce the haloing but still give the desired look, but the linked Instagram photos don't use the newer techniques.
Also, lens flare, typical around bright highlights, will be exaggerated by tone mapping. Veiling glare will likewise cause a loss of detail in the shadows.
I am not sure if this is done using a preset or the photographer has a workflow. Any thoughts appreciated.
This 'look' is not due to a preset, but rather is usually a more complex computational process, which could even require a custom app like Photomatix.
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http://therefractedlight.blogspot.com
