Auto Merged HDR + Flash Frames: How Does it Stack Up?

This video is a follow up to my last video about a HDR/Flambient hybrid for real estate photography that I've been experimenting with lately. In that video I hand blended the HDR image and then blended in the flash frames and I got a lot of comments about how it would look if you auto merged the HDR image instead of hand blending it and then blend it with the flash frames. That is what we will look at in this video.

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#realestatephotography #hdr #flambient

THANKS FOR WATCHING!

[JonHauge]

Ive been combining the flash shots in the automatic HDR merge for the quest of one click results. I’ve been playing around with Aurora HDR and just merging all the shots I would use in the layer blends. It’s surprising how well it does and usually takes care of window glares. If the image looks flat you can use one of the photos to give it pop or color correct. Sometimes just taking a desaturated brush can color correct problems.

[dataventurer]

This week I have been looking into upping my HDR pics but realized that I need to incorporate a flash to do that. I put 96 YouTube videos on my playlist so far, addressing flambient and window pulls in Photoshop (which I have put off learning until now). I have watched a couple dozen videos so far and THIS ONE here is the very best strategy that I have seen. Get the base pic with an HDR set, then use the flash for the windows and colorcast. Thanks for describing the steps as you go so your process is repeatable. Got a small flash coming in today from Amazon and will be playing with this method to compare. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips with the community!

[Mark-qlni]

Both look great, feel like it's a win-win either way. So great to see this, thank you Mike!

[dougcooper]

Awesome Video Mike!! Amazing Technique!! Thank you for sharing it with us!!

[christiporter]

I’ve watched a few of your videos along with others and had the same thought to combine the HDR with the flash composites. I think the Hybrid is the best option due to saving time and achieving almost the same result. Like you said, you could have pulled out the whites a little more in your final image on the hybrid. If you did, it would have been very comparable.

Very helpful!

[YuvakTuladhar]

I prefer the auto-merged HDR because it's really good and takes a lot less time than using a hybrid. Time is money. You can charge only so much!

[scottmoore]

Here's what my eyes see. Hybrid looks better IMO for colors. Details look better with the HDR and flash. Great video for an inspiring photographer!!!

[santiagovillegas]

Hi . I just think the shadows are o high in the HDR auto merge . I also think you can use LR brush and basically pain over the cabinets and you will have a really really close picture to the manually merge . Thanks for the video . 👍

[garysanchezphotography]

I think the auto merged image is a little more natural. I use Lightroom to auto merge the HDR, then I edit that image in Lightroom, then composite my flash images as layers in Photoshop. Then a little touch up of the composite image back in Lightroom.

[duaneflowers]

Keep up the great work Mike. I have learned a great deal watching your videos, content is always wonderful and seeing your presentation skill improvement has been the final touch which you have delivered. Thank you!

[triplewinlin]

For the purpose of showing the features inside of a home for sale, I prefer the flambient. The hybrid is also very good for that. Alternatively, for creating an image of the room and preserving it's ambience I prefer the auto-merged HDR because of the more natural light and shadows.

[TinyRedFlags]

Hey Mike! I just started watching your channel. Thanks for the great content! I’m realizing that having only beginner knowledge of cameras is making me feel kind of lost when you get into technical talk about equipment. Do you have any tips on where a professional camera newbie like me can learn all the 101 basics? Seems like a more advanced knowledge of equipment here would be really helpful to follow your videos. How did you learn how to use cameras? Thanks 🙏

[aaronsilver]

your videos are awesome!!! since over a year now i have been following you and you have helped me a ton. i wanna say though that, and i have yet to try this but i need to soon...ambient just causes so much drama imo. i think its about shooting 1 under exposure for windows and make the rest as needed, maybe 3-4 more shots all flash, then we know what the color is. maybe even all of them auto merged. i have seen others do it on youtube a while back, of course to get rid of the color temp mix. bleach it all i say!

[marcvloeberghs]

hi thanks again for sharing your know how. I could be wrong but I have in me that if you bounced the flash in your back to the left on the cabinet you could have avoided the color cast in the middle of the kitchen.

[shawnhansen]

I like your content and I’m utilizing it.. you do a great job of explaining things.

Your basics video allowed me to do my first shoot, thank you.

Until this video I didn’t know flash burning was a thing. So I’m pretty new to this.

My question is.. why not just merge all the photos in Lightroom? Would that not work?

[kyleschwartz.]

Hand merge looked better bug auto merge saves alot of time for someone who doesn't know as much as you. Watching step by step and editing can take awhile.

[smcarmel]

Epic video, gonna be testing out that HDR auto merge + Flash. Thanks for the tutorials! Is there any way we could get in contact, and I could get your camera settings you use for the custom save slots?! Thanks man!

[kyleschwartz.]

Some reason I'm trying use the black mask and nothing is happening when i use paint brush even with your settings

[location]

I tried to use my Sony a7iii with TTL CONTINUOUS flash exposure bracketing for Real Estate photography.

Set the flash to TTL mode, press the shutter button and three pictures are shot with flash output at 0/-1/+1 EV?

With my Godox V860iiis flash system, even if I set bracketing to continuous or single, when I press and hold the shutter, the first shot with flash goes but nothing follows. Is there any settings I have to change?

[net]

I've been trying to find a way to do continuous bracketing on Sony and then be able to go back to single manual for flashing in a quick way (not having to hit the function button and change it every time). It would be nice to be able to bind continuous bracketing to a custom button