LR/Enfuse plug in for Lightroom 2 – Exposure Fusion

A new work flow that is emerging in popular programs like Lightroom, PtGui and Photomatix Pro is the enfusing of images with different exposure values. Sure we have all done this in Photoshop with masks but these programs are now doing it for us with promising results. The above shot from the Skillion was taken with a standard +1, 0, -1 bracket and then run through Lightroom 2 using the LR/Enfuse plugin. The blend wasn’t as dramatic as I had expected but it certainly pulling in the highlights and opened up the shadow area and it kept the image looking natural which is a far cry from shooting HDR images.

When out shooting this one I bumped into Ken Duncan who was also shooting the same sunrise with his well used Linhof and doing a bit of a promo shoot for Lumix cameras. It was good to see Ken was wearing the same high quality footwear as myself… thongs.

The above image has been made into a video tutorial from the Lightroom workflow into Photoshop CS4 for final development and is available on the Rubbing Pixels website. For those interested in reading about using the same method with Photomatix Pro check out our articles and read the one written by Kevin McNeal.