I thought I would bring this topic up because of many discussions which have occurred on various forums regarding lots of issues.
The specific issue I wanted to briefly discuss was the handling of a scene with very high dynamic range (eg shooting at a foreground object into the sun which would otherwise be silhouetted)
There are literally dozens of ways to achieve the end result and most people have a different variation of similar concepts
For me, reading about all of these methods broadens my horizons and has me trying out these methods to see which scenes would benefit.
In part of the discussions though, it seems clear that many are dogmatically adhering to their one technique and not wanting to consider other methods? Why is this? I presume they are not masochistically wanting to restrict their ability to present a scene so I can only presume it's an issue of 'pride'



This is a compilation of methods I've come across and tried ( by no means exhaustive)
Feel free to add !
1. Using GND's creatively to enhance dynamic range in the one shot : limited by grad lines and positioning of filters and non-straight edges
2. Taking a most evenly exposed shot possible and bringing out shadows, reducing highlights in post process (limited by getting desired effects of the scene for shutter speed and ability to recover information from RAW)
3. Taking multiple exposures and using automated plugins or programs to blend (limited creatively by automated process giving images their own 'branded' look)
4. Taking multiple exposures and hand blending using luminosity masks (limited by areas of the darks and brights affected which can make an image look flat and midtoned heavy)
5. Taking multiple exposures and blending using other masks (eg contrast masks, channel masks, 'refine edge' tool, 'blend if' modes)
6. complete manual blending (limited by time and accuracy)
7. Reprocessing a single RAW for multiple simulated exposures and reblending. (limited by the fact that is still a single RAW which may or may not handle the whole dynamic range of the scene)

The discussion on facebook is here if people are interested : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater
There are lots of good ideas there but I have been spammed by lots of messages stating why I should have done one technique over another........