Digital BW, The Print

I have seen some beautiful B/W images online that used HDR.
Mike J.

-----Original Message-----
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of pr_roark
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 7:08 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] HDR & B&W

Luminous Landscape currently has an article and forum thread on HDR.  I
don't want to duplicate it here, but I'm curious if people on this forum are
finding HDR very useful with respect to B&W printing.

With B&W I've always tended to increase contrast and do quite a bit of
dodging and burning.  I think this is contrary to the usual color printing
style and may make a difference in whether the automated HDR approaches are
useful to us.

So far, I do not find them very useful.  My central/main exposure with an
auto-bracketing shoot is usually closer to the final contrast I'll want than
is a stock HDR.

As such, what I find is that with CS4 and its ability to align layers, I can
do a better job than HDR by simply putting the main exposure on the top
layer and slowly "erasing" the burned out areas with the -2 frame below, and
later erasing the too dark areas in the central exposure with the +2
exposure below.  It feels to me just like the dodging and burning type of
image compression I've always done in printing -- with just a little
different workflow.

I think the manual approach can avoid some of the artifacts of HDR, and the
control it give plays into the aesthetic of printing that is central to how
I see good B&W printing.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com