1 composition, 3 post processing techniques..

Last night I tried comparing different post processing techniques I have used in the past with the same composition. Manually blending each portion of the image, HDR processing, and editing a single middle of the road exposure.

I happened to notice out our front window that there was a gorgeous sunset outside and decided I would try to quickly compose a fast and dirty suburbia sunset. By the time I grabbed my camera and tripod the sunset had faded drastically and I decided I could probably pull a half dozen different exposures and see if I could compile something interesting.

I sat down with 6 exposures and originally decided to stitch this together in Photoshop by creating 6 layers (one for each exposure) then, masking and blending what I wanted from each photo into my final image. After an hour of masking and blending different parts of the image I came out with a product I could settle with then brought it into Lightroom and did a little fine tweaking and made some white balance adjustments and came out the the image below. After everything was said and done I probably spent a little more than an hour on this one method.

The next thing I tried was adding each exposure to the HDR processing tool in Lightroom and then making tweaks and adjustments within Lightroom. I did have probably about a dozen adjustment brushes that did everything from adjusting the white balance on the snow to adjusting the exposure in different areas of the photo. I probably spend about 20 mins total making adjustments before I came out with a final image that I was happy with below.

The final method I used was taking the exposure that was right in the middle of the 6 different images and then making all the adjustments in Lightroom. All in all it took maybe 10 min to come out with the final image below.

Reflecting on the 3 images and the different methods that I used that are in my post processing toolbox I personally like the the first image the most. I think that creating interesting details in the driveway by blending in the higher exposures creates somewhat of a foreground element that leads you to look to the sunset. The sunset is not overly saturated or processed. The truck that is off to the side of the drive way is almost put into a shadow so it is not so distracting from where the driveway leads you to look within the photo. Even the light on the house across the street pulls your eyes to the sunset very subtly.

For a quick and dirty suburbia photo I am satisfied with the results with almost no thought on the composition other then setting the tripod low to create somewhat of a foreground element.

Which method do you like the best?