HDR?

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Kiefer on April 25, 2008 at 5:08pm

Thank you! Is Photomatix used by itself or is it an add on?

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Permalink Reply by Reza on April 26, 2008 at 7:07am

If I'm not mistaken, CS2 also has a HDRI built-in. You can try it by clicking "file" -> "Automate" and choose "Merge to HDR" on Photoshop CS 2. Upload the same image with different exposures, like Calla Wolf said, minimum of 3 different exposures and there's no limit to it. Some people even put 7-9 different exposures.

After merging the images you can play around with the tonal mapping by clicking "image" -> "mode" -> "16 Bits/Channel". The Tonal Mapping toolbar should appear and you can play around with it =). I think Calla Wolf has already posted a link contains explanation about this Tonal Mapping tool on CS2, you should check it out. Happy experimenting =)

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Permalink Reply by Reza on April 26, 2008 at 7:13am

If you decided to use Photomatix, click here to see the tutorial! Photomatix also allows a single file (jpeg and RAW) HDR conversion.

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel on April 28, 2008 at 6:43am

http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

Check out this tutorial. I use Photomatix Pro to merge my images and for the tone mapping. You can use Photoshop CS2 as well and some people even prefer it to Photomatix (I don't) but you should try both and see what you like. Good luck! If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers,
Nathaniel
www.safariearth.com

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Permalink Reply by Jake Ripley on May 3, 2008 at 7:34pm

you can do it in photoshop, but the results are far from satisfying... for me atleast. plus they take about 9-10X longer to process in photoshop. Also, some people try HDR's when they are learning the program by shooting in Raw, then over/under exposing through your RAW editor. it doesn't come out quite as good, but it's a lot easier to learn the programs with 3 of the exact photos than 3 that you will have to tediously tweak to make them work right. my 2 cents.

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Permalink Reply by Rina Kupfer on May 9, 2008 at 8:52pm

here you can read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging

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Permalink Reply by Rory Mole on June 28, 2008 at 9:22am

I fully agree with the guys about Photomatix. It is far superior than anything else out there, including Photoshop CS2 and CS3. Photoshop CS2 & CS3 both have the ability to work with HDR, but the results are not half as good as what you can get using Photomatix. Photomatix also does have the basic version and the Pro version. The basic would be for those who don't want to spend the $99 to buy it. Also the basic version is built into the Pro version. The Pro version will work as well indefinitelty but will put a watermark on your images until you buy the licence from them. I do believe that if you are wanting to get into HDR in a serious way, it is useful to buy Photomatix. As I said before, in my humble opinion there is no other program that even comes close to it.

You will need to do a lot of experimentation. If your camera has AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) then you are in business. You will need to set your camera on a tripod to use this feature. You normally set this up before you take the shot you want to process through HDR. Then you take the shot on your tripod using the timer setting so that you don't get any camera shake and the camera will automatically take 3 different exposures of the same scene automatically. This is the best way to go when it comes to HDR, because Photomatix and Photoshop will look for the Exif infomation of each exposure to do the best job. If you take one RAW image and set up 3 different exposures and process them all through Photomatix, it is not the ideal thing, but you will get a satisfactory result, but if you want the best result, then use AEB in your camera. Also, once the HDR image has been generated, just play around with the tone mapping section of sliders and so forth and you should get something that you like.

Hope it works for you.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Dobbs on May 12, 2008 at 10:20pm

High Dynamic Range has been the holy grail of photography for a long, long, time. Since the sensor or film doesn't have the same ability as our eyes to capture a wide range of light intensities we often end up with blown out highlights or muddy detail-poor shadows. I believe Calla's advice is almost correct. You need enough photos to capture the entire range of light; usually two shots will do. One should be properly exposed for the bright aspects of the shot (sky, sand, snow, etc) and the other should be exposed for usually everything else. Since most sensors have a range of 4 or maybe 5 f/stops this procedure will give you about an 8 f/stop range with a little overlap in the middle. In photoshop paste one photo onto the other and use the eraser to remove improperly exposed portions of one layer, then merge both layers to form the final photograph. Tutorials will provide all the details for this procedure, but generally that's it.

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Permalink Reply by Rina Kupfer on June 28, 2008 at 12:03am

well I was using Photomatix but lately I found out the you can creat HD with adobe photoshop lightroom, here's a site that will give you a start http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2008/video-hdr-and-lightroom/

Enjoy
R

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Kiefer on June 30, 2008 at 6:45pm

Thanks everyone. Great advice. I'm now playing around with it in CS2 and trying to get some good results. I downloaded a trial version of Photomatix and will mess around with that too. As soon as I get some halfway decent shots, I'll post.

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