NevadaJack

Okay wimmer....you got my attention. I downloaded the program and tried a shot out the front door. Three exposures 2 stops apart...AEB setting and Auto shoot three exposures on the Canon. Went through the tutorial and came up with my first HDR effort. The yellow is the low sun and leaves turning. I am pretty pleased with the result...did some tweaking in PS before saving this.

The sky was blown out and deep shade in the original...WOW I am going to love playing with this. Did you buy the program?

I re-did this one and think the redo is better...less sharpening and a little better understanding of the software.

NevadaJack

I think this is a good comparison why HDR is such a great tool for high contrast, deep shadow scenes with wide dynamic range. The first shot is the normal exposure (slightly under I guess) and the second is three shots (-2, 0,+2) and merged in Photoshop HDR option. The impact is pretty obvious. I find the PS does a better job than Photomatix blending the images and PS provides full adjustments once the HDR file is produced.

cawimmer430

NevadaJack

Did you do this with Photomatix or Photoshop Merge HDR? I find the color seems un-natural when using Photomatix. Perhaps it is over-saturation or in the processing but that is why I thought I would try it on Photoshop. I also noted the Photomatix produced noise and not a good blend of images with a lot of fine detail.

In my images above which I did in Photoshop, I think the color is natural (could use a little more contrast and brightness perhaps). But the scene looks natural and the HDR process has allowed for the shadow/high-light detail to be reproduced with good resolution and blending of the images.

A very interesting shot Christian but I would like to tone the colors down and soften the image somewhat (less sharpening.) Do you see where I am coming from? The purpose of HDR is to increase dynamic range of the image, not create super sharp, unnaturally colored images. I am a novice in this process and trying to get to the point of realizing when HDR is appropriate (high contrast subject matter) and how to best produce a natural looking image.

Like your comments...:-)

NevadaJack

I took your shot and reduced the saturation a bit and tweaked the contrast/brightness a bit. The image now appears much more natural (in my opinion.) It may be the monitors also reflecting a lack of calibration between yours and mine.

I have not tried any single shot HDR...all have been with 3 exposures.

bmer

I found these two free HDRI programs and previously posted links to them in the "Spotted today" thread. Now I decided to download them and try them on Christian's E-Class pictures (taken in three different exposures) from this post.

Here's Christian's result with the Photomatix software:




And here's what I got as a result when I played with the settings of these two programs:








I did many more but these were at this point the best ones.


Here are links to the software:
(Note: I couldn't decide which one is better so I suggest you try both )

FDRTools: - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Qtpfsgui (nice name, eh?): - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
(After downloading and installing the software Windows users need to unzip this file ( - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER) into the same folder (includes the necessary dlls )

Tutorials:

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

NevadaJack

This was processed with FDRTools demo (note the grid lines.) I really like this program since the interface is better than Photomatix. Very simple to use. This same pic is posted above with results using Photomatix. Both look very similar in results but I still have a problem with the workflow to get good results. With FDRTools you can open directly in PS when saving the file, which makes for a smooth flow to a finished image.

NevadaJack

Took these to see how using HDR techniques works at night. I again used FDRTools with three exposures, handheld. It was just after the sun had set so the sky was still blue. I am going to buy this software. Out of the three workflows, FDRTools is the most logical and the fact that the HDR image can be saved in a variety of formats and opened directly in PS after the save is completed.

NevadaJack

Just bought the FDRTools software. The blend of the handheld images is excellent and was done with the Tripod setting. They are working on a tab for handheld which will deal with the many movements while handholding. The process is so easy and as I stated when you save the tone mapping to TIFF or another format, it opens in PS to continue the tweaks and get your final result.

Thanks Bmer

cawimmer430

Photomatix. I don't have a Photoshop program that can handle HDR. I noticed that the colors are a bit extreme, but that's the way I actually like it. These extreme contrasts make for an interesting picture if you ask me.


I saw your version of mine and it's great! Also, thanks for the tips. But like I said, I like extreme HDR. The extreme colors make the picture a little more "lively" if you know what I mean.