High Dynamic mode in LX3 better than HDR compositing!

[Ed Overstreet]

I've done some head-to-head comparisons of High Dynamic mode with three-frame +2/0/-2 bracket series processed in Photomatrix Pro, shot on the same camera of the same subject and lighting. I am very impressed. The High Dynamic results are less noisy and more pleasing to my eye than are the HDR results, and best of all they come straight out of the camera in a single frame. HDR is much more space- and labour-intensive, and of course is impractical in situations where there is any significant subject motion during the bracket series -- never a problem with High Dynamic, which takes just a single exposure.

I have written a 6-page PDF file describing my test methods and showing the results. You can access it at this link:

Oops this forum doesn't seem to like URLs. Sorry, but the file is too complex and has too many pictures for me to try anything other than a URL to a mediafire post. Take my word for this, or if you have the camera and did the update, do your own tests ...

To summarize my conclusions: I think this new scene mode renders HDR shooting unnecessary, and even counter-productive, on the LX3. Panasonic should make this available on their other cameras; I'd love to see what this great mode could do on the GF-1 sensor! Features like this make their cameras very competitive with those of other manufacturers.

--
Ed Overstreet

 

[Paul Currie]

Ed, can you email me a copy of your pdf? Really unfortunate that there is not a way to share files like this on this forum
THX in advance

 

[Guy Parsons]

Try posting the actual linbk....

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=17d64174b529933dd956df2962098fcbe04e75f6e8ebb871

Regards......... Guy

 

[Gary R.]

Thanks for posting this info. I may have gotten to the High Dynamic mode eventually, but after looking at your samples, could think of quite a few everyday situations where it would be just the thing, and had to try it out.

I'm not a big fan of HDR, partly because of the process involved during and after exposure, and partly because so many unnatural-looking photos are produced when folks get carried away. But your porch situation is a good example of real usefulness.

So the LX3 continues to amaze me, and change some of my habits. I've never been much a fan of any scene modes, or even iA-type modes, but have found so many situations where getting the photo is of prime importance, over the idea of "I chose my own settings" 8^), where the LX3's intelligent modes really do the job.

The LX3, with its 'intelligent exposure' on already does a formidable job of protecting highlights while getting decent shadow detail, I can't wait to try out the new mode in one of those tough situations.
--
Gary
Photo albums: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse

 

[WillieRed]

but what is HDR compositing?

Wil

 

[John Bean (UK)]

but what is HDR compositing?

Have you heard of Google? Typing "HDR compositing" into Google produced "about 104,000" hits in 0.18 seconds...

Of course reading them is down to you ;-)

--
John Bean [BST ('British Stupid Time' - GMT+1)]

 

[WillieRed]

Thank you for your gracious reply, John

Regards,

Wil

 

[Beth]

Where in the new firmware can I find this new HD option? I have looked and must be looking right over it!

Beth

--
Story Hour Photography
'Life's a story. Let us illustrate it!'
http://www.pbase.com/cokids/ or
Blog: http://storyhourphotography.blogspot.com/

 

[Adjuster]

Where in the new firmware can I find this new HD option? I have looked and must be looking right over it!

Beth

It is a new feature of firmware update Version 2, to be avaible end of October.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09092801panalx3firmwareupdate.asp

This is an incredible improvement!

 

[nucmanchh]

Hey thanks. I used the bracketing/HDR with the LX3 and had essentially blown off the idea of using the SCN mode in the new FW update. Your research changed that! Thanks again

 

[Hans Bolte]

Thanks for writing the article. I'm looking forward to the re-release of the upgrade so I can try it. One minor thing, the software is Photomatix not matrix
--
http://www.pbase.com/hb1840

 

[Russell Ervin]

Under 'scene' modes, the last one.
--



http://www.flickr.com/photos/quietrvr/
Gear=A camera with a lens.

 

[Swingline]

I haven't tried it but they you can download the program on a trial basis. If interested search Mediachance and HDR.

 

[patLum]

To summarize my conclusions: I think this new scene mode renders HDR shooting unnecessary, and even counter-productive, on the LX3. >
--
Ed Overstreet

Hi Ed,

I have tried it myself as well, image results look promising to me. However, I was hoping to be able to use this for panorama images as this is the place where additional dynamic range is very helpfull.

The way it's implemented now on the LX3 as a scene mode makes this impossible though. I need to set some fixed manual settings for exposure. I looked at using the AE-lock function instead but is disabled in this scene mode as well !!! Why ?!?

The additional range for bracketing is nice though, but like you say, HDR this way is a lot more work, especially as a single panorama picture is already composed of 24 images :-(

So, request to panasonic: include this HD mode as a film mode instead of a scene and/or include AE-lock support in the current scene mode, please.

Regards,
Pat

 

[degger]

Hi Ed,

I gotta say I wholeheartly disagree with your conclusion. The point of HDR is not to compress the highs and lows into the mids and punch up the saturation which clearly happened to your "High Dynamic Standard SCN capture". Instead the idea is to keep the mids, the highs and the lows where they are but bring in additional information which was not visible before due to the limited range of the sensor.

In your example I fail to see where the "Base exposure" lacks any highlights or shadows. Since you properly corrected exposure for the highlights to not blow out but the shadows especially on the left still have the same amount of detail (at least from what can be seen in your crops) as the "DR" versions the "Base exposure" shot looks right on spot for me. I especially don't like it when the range is compressed as much as it is in the High Dynamic mode -- let the shadows be shadows instead up knocked up mids.

Just for the fun of it I took a (several times heavily compressed) snapshot out of your PDF, imported it in lightroom, cranked up the fill lights (to get the compression effect you seem to enjoy), cranked up the brightness, a little bit of vibrance, a little bit of saturation, took out some contrast, boosted the saturation of the purples, the reds and the greens, et voilà c'est ça. Can't crank up the green too much as the green blocky compression artefact are amplified to much but otherwise it's pretty much there.

I really don't appreciate the looks of this mode though. And in my personal testing I made exactly the same discoverings. Oddly the High Dynamic Mode seems to overexpose the image by default, so I happened to find out (by forgetting to turn off exposure bracketing) that by underexposing at least 1 EV that "High Dynamic" would produce images which are almost usable by having well defined shadows. Though this picture has a nasty green tint and oversaturated contrastry areas which made me like the +-0EV Raw picture a whole lot more even without retouches which are of course also much easier in the RAW version.

My conclusion: The High Dynamic mode is merely useful at special locations and only when shooting RAW is not an option. Neither of those options has anything to do with HDR though.

--

Regards Daniel

 

[degger]

Please excuse the slightly different angle since I had to switch modes and my son wouldn't keep still.



Shot at 1/125s f2.8 24mm



Shot at 1/100s f2.5 24mm

Both are uncorrected from the camera. The one I like better I also have a RAW version of, the other one was shot in High Dynamic mode so obviously no way to make corrections.

Now, which one is which? :-D

 

[terryoregon]

The way it's implemented now on the LX3 as a scene mode makes this impossible though. I need to set some fixed manual settings for exposure. I looked at using the AE-lock function instead but is disabled in this scene mode as well !!! Why ?!?

The two stitching programs that I've used are extremely forgiving on exposure levels between images. The software adjusts the exposure between images very well - you only run into problems in gross differences of exposure.

I've even done experiments where I've stitched three images together where I intentionally bracketed the exposure -1, +1, 0

Still couldn't tell where they came together.

The two programs were Microsoft ICE and Canon's PhotoStitch

 

[Rossuziers]

which is rare for me since I always jump on them ASAP... I'm gonna wait till the end of October now... However!

Under 'scene' modes, the last one.

Is it adjustable, like iExposure or in any way & can both be employed at the same time?

--

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Tz5aLx3Fz50Fz30C8080wzE100rsC2100uz

 

[patLum]

The way it's implemented now on the LX3 as a scene mode makes this impossible though. I need to set some fixed manual settings for exposure. I looked at using the AE-lock function instead but is disabled in this scene mode as well !!! Why ?!?

The two stitching programs that I've used are extremely forgiving on exposure levels between images. The software adjusts the exposure between images very well - you only run into problems in gross differences of exposure.

I've even done experiments where I've stitched three images together where I intentionally bracketed the exposure -1, +1, 0

Still couldn't tell where they came together.

The two programs were Microsoft ICE and Canon's PhotoStitch

Thx for your reply Terry,

I'm using PTGUI as well as some other progs, most of them support exposure matching like you say. I did use it in the past. I noticed though that the overal exposure of the resulting panorama picture is very different. Especially with panorama shots in darker situation.

Cheers,
Pat
http://www.flickr.com/photos/patlum20/

 

[RoyGBiv]

some scenes defintiely benefit more from hdr than others.
--
'I have no responsibilities here whatsoever'