HDR...what am I missing?

All things Alpine

So I've tried my hand at a number of HDR scenes. I use Photomatix. I'm not going for the over the top HDR, but I feel like I'm not really taking full advantage of what it can do.

Instead of asking for suggestions- for any HDR junkies out there, you mind trying what you can do with my exposures? Maybe I'm not attempting it with a scene that lends itself to HDR? Maybe I need the -2,+2 as well? In any event, I'd love to see if anyone else can do something much better with these:

Here are my three (-1,0,+1):










and this what I came up with. First is just "fused" using Photmatix H/S control. The second is a legitimate HDR.

BinaryFx

I had a quick go using Enfuse to blend the 3 exposures, then I used the Dan Margulis Picture Postcard Workflow to finish things off, finally I also added some smart sharpening moves too.

I will compare using a default HDR render later tonight.

(Note for later - Save for Web 90% quality JPEG, 136kb)


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

BinaryFx

Here is a version created with SNS-HDR-Lite (freeware), which is MS Win only and has no interface, it is basically a "black box" that accepts your bracketed exposures and outputs a HDR image with no control over the look and feel. There is a Pro (commercial) version that offers full control (the site is in Polish, so use Google Translate!).

The author (Pebal) of SNS-HDR posts in these topic threads (and others) over at DPReview:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=33683786
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=34602959
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=34825819


Best,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

BinaryFx

Two great posts on taking exposures for HDR can be found here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=34683651

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=34066420


Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

malch

I don't like Photomatix but I do like two of the other options mentioned here.

1. Enfuse followed by Margulis-style "Picture Postcard" processing works well.

2. More recently, SNS-HDR is my program of choice.

Which ever method you use, good alignment is critical. In my tests, align_image_stack does the very best job. It helps even on HDR's shot from a tripod (big time if they're shot handheld). Pre-aligning the images with align_image_stack will produce better results than any of the HDR programs I've tried on their own.

Also, I recommend blending TIF's. You'll get better RAW conversions from ACR, Capture NX etc. than you will from any of the HDR programs.

All things Alpine

very cool- thanks. I really like the tones in the trunk in your version. I've used enfuse's LR plugin, but hadn't yet ponied up for the full resolution version. Guess I will!

When folks here say they used the postcard workflow, do you mean a particular set of adjustments in PS, or just following along applicable methods highlighted on that page? (Thanks for the link btw, looks like I have a lot to watch there too)

thanks!
Erik

BinaryFx wrote: »

I had a quick go using Enfuse to blend the 3 exposures, then I used the Dan Margulis Picture Postcard Workflow to finish things off, finally I also added some smart sharpening moves too.

I will compare using a default HDR render later tonight.

(Note for later - Save for Web 90% quality JPEG, 136kb)


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

BinaryFx

All things Alpine wrote: »

When folks here say they used the postcard workflow, do you mean a particular set of adjustments in PS, or just following along applicable methods highlighted on that page? (Thanks for the link btw, looks like I have a lot to watch there too)thanks!
Erik

The Picture Postcard Workflow uses Photoshop moves, the idea being that if one has many images and only has 2-3 minutes to process each image then to use this workflow.

The workflow is not set in stone, the same user will get different results each time they use the workflow. The workflow is a little bit like a "buffet", one selects the moves that one wishes for the image at hand. The great thing is that one can quickly try many different looks without investing too much time with each edit. It can often be better to select from 5 different edited pictures done in 15 minutes than only 1 picture done in 15 minutes.

The overview of the PPW is that it is a three stage process, with many steps that could be applied in each stage. Stage 1 is for correcting gross colour flaws. Stage 2 is for luminosity. Stage 3 is to refine the colour.

There are free sample videos, however you will need to subscribe and view the entire series more than once and take notes! The good thing about the Kelby site is that you can view all the videos from the other authors while subscribed.


Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

TrigPhotography

In my opinion, you didn't capture enough of the dynamic range in the scene with just -1,0,+1 to get you an HDR that shows the full detail. What I would typically do in a case like this is spot meter for the stump and let the bracketing be based on the stump rather than the whole scene. The sky really needs to be way over exposed to capture the detail in the stump and sand. You could try and salvage it by taking the +1 image and developing it to a +2 or more and re-do the HDR and tonemapping. You may get noise though because it is fairly dark in the stump in you +1 exposure.

Hope that helps.