Jonathan Ryan:

Ooooo - who can catch me up with a Noddy guide to HDR? I've tried HDR blends in CS3 but they look rubbish either because I'm shooting the wrong stuff or because I need a tone mapper. What do I need (bearing in mind I'm Mac only) and where do I start?

You aren’t shooting wrong, its just CS3 is complete bollocks, 'scuse my french, when it comes to HDR merging, it uses the same engine as CS2 which was terrible. Its prone to leaving big over saturated parts which look like flare at random parts of the image.

You can download a Photomatix Pro plugin for CS2/CS3 which lets you do the tone mapping in photoshop, but its much easier to just do it in Photomatix’ standalone version, its merging technique is much smoother.

You can get Photomatix for PC & Mac from their website, or if you’re into piracy, theres plenty of free copies floating around.

Plus, if you’re looking to buy it, google “HDR tutorials” and on some of the websites, they have discount coupons for Photomatix, like 15% off.

blandfordp:

Matt, Thanks for your advice in "post your best here". I'm going to gicve HDR another go. Like Jonathan, I have tried it in photoshop but it looked rubbish!

You’re very welcome mate, just tryin’ to help. Like I said to Jonathan above, Photoshops HDR system is useless, its okay for basic, quick results, but it gives you no control what so ever.

Imho, Photomatix is the best software for it. Its much smoother and you have a lot more control over the merge and final results, from WB, Movement ghosting reduction, to a really indepth tonemapping system.

KeithT:

Just had a look at your gallery, Matt, and was impressed by your HDR stuff. I think it might be nice if you could post some simple tutorials on how to get the best from it. Look forward to catching up with this thread later.

Thank you very much mate. I might look into doing a few if I get a spare moment. I’ve read enough online to have a pretty good idea of what to do.

Is there anything you guys want to know specifically about the HDR process or tonemapping or editing?

pjackson:

I am totally new to this concept – I only really found out what HDR was by reading the thread on Post Your Best – and I’m fascinated by the stunning results you guys are getting.

I would love to give it a try but have very little experience with manipulating images at all let alone this kind of thing.

So what would be my easiest / cheapest route to have a go? Is Photomatrix a stand alone product or do you need Photoshop as well?

At the moment I use a Canon 20D (which I believe can do exposure bracketing) but I only have Elements 2 and a basic RAW processing package that came with the camera.

Great thread BTW.

Thank you.

HDR’s pretty easy to get started in. Like I’ve said, I think Photomatix is the best software for it on the market at the moment.

You can get it as a standalone version, or as a plugin for Photoshop CS2 and CS3, which lets you tonemap the HDR or EXR file, but you need to rely on Photoshop to merge it, which can be a bad idea in most cases.

My suggestion would be look into Photomatix Pro’s standalone version. It’s a easy piece of software to use after you figure out what the sliders and settings do, and you get the best results from it compared to other software that do the same thing.

And like I said above, theres a lot of free copies floating around if you know the places to find them.

Being a dedicated Nikon shooter, I’m not familiar with the system of the Canon’s. In the manual it should tell you the amount of shots you can take with the bracketing sequence, its normally around 3, with some cameras, upto 9.

You want to aim to have a minimum gap of 1ev, 2ev if possible, and for as many shots as you can, cause the wider the band of exposures, the more detail the HDR software can pull back from the files.

If not, in the settings menu, tell the camera to jump EV values by 1ev, its normally set to 1/3ev, then in manual mode, change the setting twice, then you’ll have a jump of 2ev between exposures.

Hope that helps a bit.

And cheers for the interest in the thread so far everyone.

I’m workin’ on a few tips and tricks that I’ve developed/found since I started shooting, so I’ll add them later on today probably.

Cheers,
Matt.

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Some quick tips that can help:

• Turn the long exposure noise reduction off in camera. It normally takes a few frames out of your buffers capacity, so you’ll be able to shoot faster.

• Set the camera to continuous shooting mode, at the fastest settings possible for the best fps rate as it will reduce ghosting. Normally the FPS is between 3-5.
The D200, which I use, has 5 fps, same as the EOS 20D. The lesser models are normally around 3fps, which can still work.

• If you can, don’t use Photomatix’s ghosting reduction, as the traces from where it tried to reduce it will be more pronounced. If they’re obvious, you can easily zoom in at 200% in Photoshop and clone them out.
Although in my personal opinion, some motion blur can make images look more lifelike, some shots look too still and lifeless, so motion blur can help, but that’s just my opinion.

• If you keep getting motion blur, try shooting at a higher ISO, say 200-400, so you have the faster shutter speeds, but the noise still stays tolerable.

• Also try to use an aperture of around f/8-f/11, as softness and diffraction [loss of critically sharp detail at smaller apertures e.g. f/16-f/22] is pronounced by the HDR merge.

• Try using hyperfocal focussing, as more of the scene will be viewable with the expanded dynamic range, more of the scene will stay sharp.

I hope these can be of some help.
If anyone wants to add their own tips, go ahead; let’s try to get a good collection of hints for HDR success in here.
I’ll add more as I think of them.

Cheers,
Matt.

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I like the effect the software does sometimes...I'll have to try it some time. Though it does have a certain look of it's own. It generally looks like an effect has been added and they all seem to have a glow. This really seems to work with only certain shots for me. I like blending exposures....sometimes from bracketing...sometimes if working in RAW (which I do) I find you can pull a stop or mores worth of shots from one photo. For a shot of the lakes in black and white I got 3 exposures from one RAW file...one for the sky, one for the lake and another for the foreground. I then saved these as photoshop 16bit psd's. Brought them into 1 file then gave each of the 3 layers a mask. Then useing soft brushes on each layer mask I revealed the correct areas of exposure. I've done similar things before to reveal bright skys....This hardly has the maths behind it that the software has but can have the benefit of full control. Does this count as HDR or does it have to be software.

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i agree David, and its that "look" that attracted me to the software. Here is one of my first :

as i said to Matt in a pm it's very early days for me with this, and results have been varied. Early morning or late evening tend to give the best results in my opinion due to the light. I have tried the technique at other times but if the light is harsh then results are not as good

Just looked at your pics Matt and "oi know those railings", you live near me and they are of the foreshore down at Titchfield Haven, I think I've taken some similar shots (non HDR) :-)

David Constable - love the colours in this shot and general composition, but would have got rid of the flag pole, as it looks like a fault in this size.

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OldBoy:

David Constable - love the colours in this shot and general composition, but would have got rid of the flag pole, as it looks like a fault in this size.

Oldboy thanks for the comment, i agree with what you say about the flagpole, however due to the subtle colours of the background it proved to be a nightmare to clone out so i had to leave it in.

David C, I love the look of this shot and wouldn't mind getting this look on my forthcoming coastal project.  Nice one, mate.

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Stinkyfinger:

Just looked at your pics Matt and "oi know those railings", you live near me and they are of the foreshore down at Titchfield Haven, I think I've taken some similar shots (non HDR) :-)

They are indeed. Lovely little place. I go down there whenever I can to shoot, especially down the cliff path towards the caravan site, my new shots were taken down there.
I'm assuming you live inthe Titchfield, Stubbington area then?

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I haven't got any images worth posting but this article might be helpful to those who are looking to learn more.  There are several other useful links at the end of the article.

Great thread here is my first attempt, I only have one image that I took three shot of  anyway here it is.

Three images, CS3 curves, sharpen.

By the way Mat thanks for all the info and I like your gallery very much superb images

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Be4ch:

I haven't got any images worth posting but this article might be helpful to those who are looking to learn more.  There are several other useful links at the end of the article.

Cheers mate.
I've read most of the articles on the web on HDR, well, the ones that looked on good on Google anyways, and most of them are okay, but they look at it from a software perspective.
I'm hopin' with this thread, we can shed some light on it from more of a photographers point of view, and just share our tips and hints from our own experimentation.
But there is one tutorial that you really should read, especially if confused between Photomatix and Photoshop. You can find it here or download the pdf version here.
It explains the main benefits of each package, and the general basics of HDR shooting.

Matt.

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Steve12:

Great thread here is my first attempt, I only have one image that I took three shot of  anyway here it is.

Three images, CS3 curves, sharpen.

By the way Mat thanks for all the info and I like your gallery very much superb images

You're very welcome mate.
Thats one stunnin' shot there. Did you do it in Photomatix?

Matt.

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mattharrisuk:

Stinkyfinger:

Just looked at your pics Matt and "oi know those railings", you live near me and they are of the foreshore down at Titchfield Haven, I think I've taken some similar shots (non HDR) :-)

They are indeed. Lovely little place. I go down there whenever I can to shoot, especially down the cliff path towards the caravan site, my new shots were taken down there.
I'm assuming you live inthe Titchfield, Stubbington area then?

No, down the cheaper end of Rowner road in Hardway, Gosport, but that's only 3- 4 miles away and I often go down there looking for a bit of photographic inspiration, I also do a bit of the causeway between Warsash and Hamble (reccomended for summer evening with tripod and wide), I've been thinking about getting around to Hythe to try and get the refinery from a better angle, wouldn't mind using HDR for that to attempt a post apocalyptic sort of look, I've got some nice night time pics of Holy Rood in Stubbington too, I must get a gallery sorted on here.

Matt yes used Photmatix I borrowed a copy from a guy at work, will buy my own copy shortly if all goes well, you said earlier in the thread about movement in the full size version you can see movement in the bushes top right and the rock formation looks a little, well how can I describe it a little stepped so to speak.

 

For a first attempt I am quite pleased, thanks again for your info on this thread and thanks for the compliment.

 

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