Just for thread posterity, I found this recent article on Uwe Steinmueller's DOP site. Uwe is a friend of mine and somewhat of a pioneer in the digital blending field and teaches workshops on this technique. I have had this same discussion with him and we don't agree either, so perhaps it is me -- I'll post his images here and let you decide
Here are the three example images he used in photomatix for a final blend. To be perfectly frank, I do not see a significant enough improvement over the lone proper exposure in the blend trio -- at least not a difference I think couldn't be had from working the single proper frame a bit more -- other than lower exposure and perhaps some increased saturation the mid-tones. Moreover, I don't see where the over-exposed frame added any data to the blend... But maybe folks find this easier than working on a single image. Anyway, I thought it was a good example of the process including the images that get to the final product, and I'll let you be the judge of the overall benefit for your needs.
Here is the trio of originals for the blend:
Here is his final color result:
Interestingly, he ended up converting the color final to B&W anyway, which seems to me an even stronger argument for having just stuck with one image to begin with:
For those wanting more detail, Uwe's full article can be found on his site here:
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=1646
Offered FWIW,
Here are the three example images he used in photomatix for a final blend. To be perfectly frank, I do not see a significant enough improvement over the lone proper exposure in the blend trio -- at least not a difference I think couldn't be had from working the single proper frame a bit more -- other than lower exposure and perhaps some increased saturation the mid-tones. Moreover, I don't see where the over-exposed frame added any data to the blend... But maybe folks find this easier than working on a single image. Anyway, I thought it was a good example of the process including the images that get to the final product, and I'll let you be the judge of the overall benefit for your needs.
Here is the trio of originals for the blend:
Here is his final color result:
Interestingly, he ended up converting the color final to B&W anyway, which seems to me an even stronger argument for having just stuck with one image to begin with:
For those wanting more detail, Uwe's full article can be found on his site here:
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=1646
Offered FWIW,