Stitching HDR pano Question

[Mr Moose]

Stitching HDR pano Question

by Mr Moose » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:39 pm

My work flow for stitching HDR pano's.
I now shoot vertical columns vs horizontal rows. I bracket as many raw exposures as I think I need, bring these into Adobe Camera Raw, set everything to zero adjustment, convert to Tif, bring these into Photomatix pro for blending. I use exposure fusion for a more realistic looking result, then stitch in APP.
In regards to capture sharpening, is it a good idea to do ANY capture sharpening before stitching? If so, at what point in my work flow would it be best? It would have to be done in ACR though.

Last edited by Mr Moose on Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[hankkarl]

by hankkarl » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:09 pm

The conventional wisdom is to do sharpening last because you have to sharpen after you resize the image for print/web.

However, there is some discussion that you should do a preliminary sharpening also, especially when converting from RAW.

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:30 pm

The conventional wisdom is to do sharpening last because you have to sharpen after you resize the image for print/web.

However, there is some discussion that you should do a preliminary sharpening also, especially when converting from RAW.

Well i don´t see it this way: when using sharpening as last step you sharpen all manipulations you did also - this makes artifacts more visible. I always do sharpening first and do all manipulations then.
Working on sharpened images definitely is preferable. Clearly defined edges help much with composings as an example.

best, Klaus

[Mr Moose]

by Mr Moose » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:58 pm

Thanks for the reply's.
Yes, output sharpening is usually done last. But capture sharpening is done before the raw conversion to compensate for the AA filter on the camera sensor and is very modest, but this would be part of a normal work flow for a single image.
But HDR blending, and stitching the result, is a whole different work flow, and I seem to remember that everything should be set to zero in ACR before the raw conversion for Photomatix, but I wasn't sure about the capture sharpening.
Klaus, I could do the capture sharpening right away on the bracketed raw images, or, I could do it on the blended Tif's out of Photomatix just before stitching in APP.
So that's my question.

The conventional wisdom is to do sharpening last because you have to sharpen after you resize the image for print/web.

However, there is some discussion that you should do a preliminary sharpening also, especially when converting from RAW.

Well i don´t see it this way: when using sharpening as last step you sharpen all manipulations you did also - this makes artifacts more visible. I always do sharpening first and do all manipulations then.
Working on sharpened images definitely is preferable. Clearly defined edges help much with composings as an example.

best, Klaus

Last edited by Mr Moose on Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.