Do you get the same Dynamic Range when....

[Ronza]

Clipped sky, underexposed foreground, cant quite capture them both on a single image - you know the feeling when you want to try out that latest HDR tutorial you found on the web the other night. Anyhow - been bugging me but I'm just curious if anyone here has a technical answer or a link with an answer to the problem...

Do you get the same dynamic range when you create a blended image from multiple exposures of the same RAW file as when you blend an image from 2/3/4 physically different files shot at different exposures?

How much difference is there doing it the lazy way?

(talking like +/- 4 stops, nothing crazy)

[Yi-P]

Depending how you captured the scene, and how powerful your RAW converter can recover those highlight/shadow details.

Having bracketing several shots saves you a little more for the range than saving up from one single exposure.

In one single exposure, I was able to recover 1.5-2 stops of shadow details while exposing for highlights.

With 3 bracketed shots at 1.0EV apart, you're pretty much able to recover 3 stops of details from shadow/highlight.

This was recovered from 3 bracketed shots, you will have guessed how much detail you will need from the horizon, sky and foreground shadows.

[Big V]

Ronza, one of the problems with using the one file is that often there will be noise in the shadows as a result of the technique. It is far better to use a few files if possible.