CS3 HDR's?

Candid Arts · March 25, 2009

Anyone on here use CS3 for merging HDR's? If so, have you had anygood luck with it? I've tried a few different photos in HDR in CS3, and have been ENTIRELY unhappy with them. I understand it's not the best way to do HDR's, but it's all I got right now, and it's just something I've been playing with, not really into them yet. Oh and also, when I go to save them JPEG is not an option...so I've been using .tiff. But when I tried to upload one to my smugmug, it said I needed SmugVault to upload that file type?

I'd really like some feedback and maybe some sample's done with CS3? Thanks!

Scrubs · March 25, 2009

Assuming the exposures you have captured have the sufficient
amount of data required for the HDR process.. monitoring the
Histogram will tell you - Looking for slight specks of over exposure
on the 'normal' photo none on the -2 and plenty on the +2.

My workflow goes something like this...

I usually select the different exposures I want from bridge then select
TOOLS---->PHOTOSHOP

>MERGE TO HDR

Bit Depth = 16 Bit

In the 'Method' drop down menu - The one you want to be working from is 'Local Adaption'
The others offer very little control and you will be no doubt dissapointed.

In the 'Local adapation' window click on the 'Toning curve and histogram'
drop down. this is where you want to be working. Remember it is all
about 'selective' tone/contrast.

The histogram will be defaulted with the curve in a diagnol line from
bottom left to top right. First of all - pull the bottom (left) of the line
to the right - where the information for the photo in the histogram starts.
to increase your blacks.

do the opposite for the highlights using to top of the curve line
(pulling in to the left if nessascarry).

next, use the eye dropper tool on a specific area/tone of the image the sky
for example... As you hover the eye dropper tool over the sky and click
pay close attention to the histogram as you click - you will notice a little
dot appear as you do so.

Remember where that dot appeared on the tone curve and go click in that area of the histogram
a new adjustment dot will be added. Increase or decrease this to taste - till the sky or whatever is
how you like it.

Don't pay attention to what it is doing to the rest of the image (for instance the rest of the image
becomes over/ under exposed) just get that particular part of the image how you want it. the rest
will fall in place as you continue the process.

Repeat this process through out all the 'zones' of the image and you
should have something acceptable.

Save to 16bit Tiff

Here is a very crude 2 min example I have just done using only this method just to illustrate this process.
Please excuse the rubbish photo - I just stuck my head outside of the front door and snapped
as I had no shoes on.. but should give you some idea I hope

Bare in mind there are 'numerous' ways of achieving this effect in photoshop not limitied to CS3 this is just
one of many.

ORIGINAL

HDR

Candid Arts · March 25, 2009

Thank you so much. I'll try that technique.

My one question though is once you have the tif file, if I don't have SmugVault, how to I get it to my SmugMug act?

Scrubs · March 26, 2009

Save the tiff as your 'master' file.

Then open that tiff up and save some smaller manageable jpg's from that
to upload to Smugmug. the example I have posted is jpg and only a
small file size I just chose export to web option. Just make sure you
have a copy of the tiff for a master file if you wanna make any large prints etc..

canon400d · March 26, 2009

Scrubs wrote:

Assuming the exposures you have captured have the sufficient
amount of data required for the HDR process.. monitoring the
Histogram will tell you - Looking for slight specks of over exposure
on the 'normal' photo none on the -2 and plenty on the +2.

My workflow goes something like this...

I usually select the different exposures I want from bridge then select
TOOLS---->PHOTOSHOP
>MERGE TO HDR

Bit Depth = 16 Bit

In the 'Method' drop down menu - The one you want to be working from is 'Local Adaption'
The others offer very little control and you will be no doubt dissapointed.

In the 'Local adapation' window click on the 'Toning curve and histogram'
drop down. this is where you want to be working. Remember it is all
about 'selective' tone/contrast.

The histogram will be defaulted with the curve in a diagnol line from
bottom left to top right. First of all - pull the bottom (left) of the line
to the right - where the information for the photo in the histogram starts.
to increase your blacks.

do the opposite for the highlights using to top of the curve line
(pulling in to the left if nessascarry).

next, use the eye dropper tool on a specific area/tone of the image the sky
for example... As you hover the eye dropper tool over the sky and click
pay close attention to the histogram as you click - you will notice a little
dot appear as you do so.

Remember where that dot appeared on the tone curve and go click in that area of the histogram
a new adjustment dot will be added. Increase or decrease this to taste - till the sky or whatever is
how you like it.

Don't pay attention to what it is doing to the rest of the image (for instance the rest of the image
becomes over/ under exposed) just get that particular part of the image how you want it. the rest
will fall in place as you continue the process.

Repeat this process through out all the 'zones' of the image and you
should have something acceptable.

Save to 16bit Tiff

Here is a very crude 2 min example I have just done using only this method just to illustrate this process.
Please excuse the rubbish photo - I just stuck my head outside of the front door and snapped
as I had no shoes on.. but should give you some idea I hope

Bare in mind there are 'numerous' ways of achieving this effect in photoshop not limitied to CS3 this is just
one of many.

ORIGINAL

HDR
[/quot

With all due respects and I appreciate the tutorial but I am somewhat not happy with the final result. To me it looks quite false. ( everyones taste of course ) I might be right or wrong but to do a good HDR shot I think you need a shot to start with which is slghtly under or over exposed. Please correct me if I am wrong as I am learning too. HDR is so facsinating I love it.
Regards
Bob

Scrubs · March 26, 2009

canon400d wrote:

With all due respects and I appreciate the tutorial but I am somewhat not happy with the final result. To me it looks quite false. ( everyones taste of course ) I might be right or wrong but to do a good HDR shot I think you need a shot to start with which is slghtly under or over exposed. Please correct me if I am wrong as I am learning too. HDR is so facsinating I love it.
Regards
Bob

Don't be put off - give it a go it will be you making the adjustments it doesent have to look anything like this..

Like I said....

"Here is a very crude 2 min example I have just done using only this method just to illustrate this process.
Please excuse the rubbish photo - I just stuck my head outside of the front door and snapped as I had no shoes on..
but should give you some idea I hope "

There is no right or wrong way. it's like painting a picture and someone saying that is wrong - it's completely subjective. I agree its not a great shot or result by any stretch (nor was it intended to be) but I offered help under the best time constraints I had. It would be impossible to give step by step instructions to somebody to achieve a specific result. Each image demands different adjustments all to taste - there is no right and there is no wrong. I dident post the photo to boast a great example I just wanted to outline the process. If you were to follow the same steps outlined with your own image, intuition and taste - they would come out completely different; more natural,
Dare I say better!

This wasent a tutorial on how to create great HDRs just one way to go about it in CS3.

To be honest.. I actually quite dislike the shots that you can tell (such as my example) that HDR has been blatantly used and prefer
a more subtle look also.

Canon400d wrote:

to do a good HDR shot I think you need a shot to start with which is slghtly under or over exposed

You actually need more than one shot - unless you want to create a pseudo HDR. But I find the -0- exposure shot works best a little over exposed as mentioned in my previous post.

canon400d · March 27, 2009

Scrubs wrote:

Don't be put off - give it a go it will be you making the adjustments it doesent have to look anything like this..

Like I said....

"Here is a very crude 2 min example I have just done using only this method just to illustrate this process.
Please excuse the rubbish photo - I just stuck my head outside of the front door and snapped as I had no shoes on..
but should give you some idea I hope "

There is no right or wrong way. it's like painting a picture and someone saying that is wrong - it's completely subjective. I agree its not a great shot or result by any stretch (nor was it intended to be) but I offered help under the best time constraints I had. It would be impossible to give step by step instructions to somebody to achieve a specific result. Each image demands different adjustments all to taste - there is no right and there is no wrong. I dident post the photo to boast a great example I just wanted to outline the process. If you were to follow the same steps outlined with your own image, intuition and taste - they would come out completely different; more natural,
Dare I say better!

This wasent a tutorial on how to create great HDRs just one way to go about it in CS3.

To be honest.. I actually quite dislike the shots that you can tell (such as my example) that HDR has been blatantly used and prefer
a more subtle look also.

You actually need more than one shot - unless you want to create a pseudo HDR. But I find the -0- exposure shot works best a little over exposed as mentioned in my previous post.

Yeah I totally agree with you. I wasn't making reference to your photo as I knew exactly what you were doing. In actual fact I was referring to my shots and results and I have used CS3 and failed completely. I then obtained Photomatix and believe me I am struggling with that too. I often think my original shots are better. However, if I get a shot slightly under or over exposed it tends to turn out better. As I say I am learning this game and am open to any advice I can get. I sincerely apologise if I misled you about your photo explanation I should have made myself more clear.
Regards
Bob

CS3 HDR's?

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