HDR Photography

lilmomma

Is it any way possible at all to do hdr photography in photoshop elements? It looks like it's merging more than one photos with different exposures, but there's not an HDR function in there. Also, i have GIMP, which I haven't used a lot because i'm still learning, but I HAVE to learn how to do that HDR!!!

kdog

lilmomma wrote:

Is it any way possible at all to do hdr photography in photoshop elements? It looks like it's merging more than one photos with different exposures, but there's not an HDR function in there. Also, i have GIMP, which I haven't used a lot because i'm still learning, but I HAVE to learn how to do that HDR!!!

Doubtful. HDR generally takes two steps: merging and tone-mapping. I don't know about Elements, but CS3 can merge. However, it's terrible at tone-mapping, which is where all the magic takes place. You get to play with curves, and that's about it. I'm sure Elements is just as bad or worse at it.

theNOIZ

lilmomma wrote:

Is it any way possible at all to do hdr photography in photoshop elements? It looks like it's merging more than one photos with different exposures, but there's not an HDR function in there. Also, i have GIMP, which I haven't used a lot because i'm still learning, but I HAVE to learn how to do that HDR!!!

lilmomma,

Here are some HDR freebies worth a try:

Qtpfsgui - An open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

Picturenaut - Born in the German photo community. It has been in the works for almost two years, with consistent improvements according to user feedback. That's why the first official release is already Version 2.1, marking a new milestone in making high quality HDR Imaging accessible and easy.

lilmomma

theNOIZ wrote:

lilmomma,

Here are some HDR freebies worth a try:

Qtpfsgui - An open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

Picturenaut - Born in the German photo community. It has been in the works for almost two years, with consistent improvements according to user feedback. That's why the first official release is already Version 2.1, marking a new milestone in making high quality HDR Imaging accessible and easy.

Is picturenaut pretty simple to use? Also, what does bracketed mean? I saw this question in the faq's- "If you want to create an HDRI out of bracketed RAW files, you need to develop them in a RAW converter first."

thanks!

catspaw

lilmomma wrote:

Is picturenaut pretty simple to use? Also, what does bracketed mean? I saw this question in the faq's- "If you want to create an HDRI out of bracketed RAW files, you need to develop them in a RAW converter first."

thanks!

Bracketed files are images taken one after another with exposure set low, normal, high (or some combination thereof). Check the manual on your camera to see if there's a bracketing option for taking photos.

Kyle D

If you're really serious about getting into HDR photography, then you should pick up the book "The Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography" by Ferrell McCollough. Also, you may want look into the standalone Photomatix Pro software. I believe that they have a free trial. Also, the software is kind of confusing to begin with but it is very powerful. Once you've read McCollough's book, he takes all the confusion out of using Photomatix.

Ohiohiker

Try the Stuck in Customs tutorial
Trey Ratcliff has an excellent HDR tutorial on his Stuck in Customs. He covers capturing your images and tone mapping them in Photomatix. I use Qtpfsgui and like it quite well and the price is right.

jhelms

For me, HDR didn't really start coming together until I started using Photomatix, it was the easiest one with the best results, IMHO.

ziggy53

theNOIZ wrote:

... Here are some HDR freebies worth a try:

Qtpfsgui - An open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

...

Just a note that "Qtpfsgui" is now "Luminance HDR" and the beta version is out and many users say it is stable. (It is still located at the above link however.)

If you use the Windows version be sure to completely uninstall any previous versions and note that there are 2 files you need to download and install to make it work. (That may change in the final version.)

MarkR

ziggy53 wrote:

Just a note that "Qtpfsgui" is now "Luminance HDR" and the beta version is out and many users say it is stable.

And more pronounceable! (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Marc Muench

lilmomma wrote:

Is it any way possible at all to do hdr photography in photoshop elements? It looks like it's merging more than one photos with different exposures, but there's not an HDR function in there. Also, i have GIMP, which I haven't used a lot because i'm still learning, but I HAVE to learn how to do that HDR!!!

Yes! In version 9, there is a way to merge multiple exposures. Just tried it the other day and was AMAZED It is not called HDR. A few too many steps to go over now but I found it intuitive to use. I have used Photomatix Pro, Photoshop and a few others for years and find the level of quality in the Elements version quite acceptable. Because of the lack of "slider mania" like in Photomaix it is not possible to create the zany looking HDRs but I could be wrong about that

Bsimon

Fwiw I was able to get Photomatix pro with my wife's .edu student email address. The price came down from 99 to 38!

This was approx 3 weeks ago. Worth a shot.

CaiusMartius

I found it infinitely easier to produce great looking images with Picturenaut than Photomatix. I am sure if I understood half of the options in Photomatix that it may be more powerful, but Picturenaut is much friendlier for the inexperienced.

pathfinder

While Photomatix has lots of sliders that seem to require sophisticated adjustments everywhere, I hardly ever move any of the sliders very much at all, as my goal is a low contrast, full range tiff that I can them do levels and curves and selections in Photoshop.

I will offer another vote for Ferrell McCollough's High Dynamic Range Photography to clarify use of Photomatix Pro.

David Nightingale's "Practical HDR" is helpful also and has some neat shots of graffiti I like also.

angevin1

lilmomma wrote:

Is it any way possible at all to do hdr photography in photoshop elements? It looks like it's merging more than one photos with different exposures, but there's not an HDR function in there. Also, i have GIMP, which I haven't used a lot because i'm still learning, but I HAVE to learn how to do that HDR!!!

GIMP plug-in: http://registry.gimp.org/node/24310

kdog

pathfinder wrote:

While Photomatix has lots of sliders that seem to require sophisticated adjustments everywhere, I hardly ever move any of the sliders very much at all, as my goal is a low contrast, full range tiff that I can them do levels and curves and selections in Photoshop.

Don't forget it also has the Fusion and Tone Compressor modes that have much simpler user interfaces as well. My only knock against Photomatix is that it isn't easy to coax surreal effects out of it. I used to use DynamicPhoto HDR and it was better at surreal (and I would have stuck with them, but they never sent me the software after I paid for it, and ignored my followup emails.)

pathfinder

kdog wrote:

Don't forget it also has the Fusion and Tone Compressor modes that have much simpler user interfaces as well. My only knock against Photomatix is that it isn't easy to coax surreal effects out of it. I used to use DynamicPhoto HDR and it was better at surreal (and I would have stuck with them, but they never sent me the software after I paid for it, and ignored my followup emails.)

Right, but I rarely( actually never ) use Tone compressor. As I said, all I want is a nice even histogram from light to dark in my rendered tiff, that will then be dropped into CS4 for final editing.

If I dial down the Smoothing function in the Detail Enhancer dialogue box in Photomatix Pro - whether as a push button in the Light mode, or just slide the smoothing slider to the left, it is quite easy to get surreal halos in my images. I tend to keep my smoothing function on the high or max setting to avoid the surreal look. If you use the Min or Low smoothing settings surrealism WILL make its debut. I have very little experience with the Tone Compresser dialogue box.

I have not used DynamicPhoto HDR. I have created created hdr files in Photoshop CS4, but I strongly prefer the user interface in PhotoMatix Pro.

I have a number of recent hdr images in my Landscape galleries here - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Landscapes I do not identify all my images as to post processing technique, but I am sure you can easily identify them by sight.

My hdrs are not surreal, but are obviously not straight single frame images either. I do a fair number of Fusions of two images with Photomatix as well, not needing the over exposed frame as much as the under exposed frame to capture a sky. I do a number of faux hdrs as well like this one as well - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/The-Shoot-Out-in-Glacier-Fall/Keelboat-Missouri-RIver/781916788_fdwxX-L.jpg

angevin1

pathfinder wrote:

My hdrs are not surreal, but are obviously not straight single frame images either. I do a fair number of Fusions of two images with Photomatix as well, not needing the over exposed frame as much as the under exposed frame to capture a sky. I do a number of faux hdrs as well like this one as well - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/The-Shoot-Out-in-Glacier-Fall/Keelboat-Missouri-RIver/781916788_fdwxX-L.jpg

That image is a doozy! Love it! I've tried HDR very little, and what I find is, they do little for me aesthetically. But perhaps I am shooting the wrong things...I like the wooden structure in this photo of yours. Very pleasing to view.

pathfinder

Thanks Tom. That was shot in the middle of the day with a flat white sky as a travel snapshot, but I found the wooden grain compelling as did you. It is always nice when someone else can appreciate what I thought I was seeing, as well.