Digital blending: what plugin do you use?

[Luigi Trevisi]

Hi everyone!
I'm really new to the forum, even if I've already other content from the website in the past.
I'm an amateur landscape photographer. In these last few months I've been learning how to obtain realistic HDR photos. I've used the builtin feature in Lightroom, that permits to blend several exposure automatically. It works fine, but sometimes results are not as good as expected. That's why I'd like to learn more about digital blending in Photoshop using luminosity masks. I did some try but the results were pretty ugly. So I've discovered some 3rd party plugins that are supposed to simplify a lot the workflow. I'm talking about Raya PRO, Lumenzia and TK Actions. They are not free and there isn't any trial, so before buying one of them, I'd like to know what you think about them and which one is the best for digital blending. I know they have also other features for processing, but I use already Nik collection and I'm pretty happy with it.
Thank you

[Hans Kruse]

Hi everyone!
I'm really new to the forum, even if I've already other content from the website in the past.
I'm an amateur landscape photographer. In these last few months I've been learning how to obtain realistic HDR photos. I've used the builtin feature in Lightroom, that permits to blend several exposure automatically. It works fine, but sometimes results are not as good as expected. That's why I'd like to learn more about digital blending in Photoshop using luminosity masks. I did some try but the results were pretty ugly. So I've discovered some 3rd party plugins that are supposed to simplify a lot the workflow. I'm talking about Raya PRO, Lumenzia and TK Actions. They are not free and there isn't any trial, so before buying one of them, I'd like to know what you think about them and which one is the best for digital blending. I know they have also other features for processing, but I use already Nik collection and I'm pretty happy with it.
Thank you

I use the HDR blending in Lightroom and I find it really good and better than any plugin I have used in the past. Manual blending in Photoshop is something I only do if really needed and so far very seldom in my opinion. IN any case it is seldom that I blend anyway.

[rdonson]

I've used PS, Lr, Nik HDR, and several others for HDR work.  I haven't found anything that's better than HDRSoft's Photomatix.  The selective de-ghosting and Exposure Fusion are my favorite "features".

[Paul2660]

LR works best for me. Don't let the initial dng fool you. It still has a huge amount of range. Just use some adjustment brushes.

LR does a great job of alignment and de ghosting.

Only issue I see at times is on older Canon 5d MKII OR 1ds MKII brackets where I one bracket has the shadow noise. For some reason the de ghosting she set to max will pull out too much of the noise.

The LR HDR tool has allowed me to go back and work through thousands of older files and get great results that in the past where hit or miss with other tools.

Paul C



 

[sniper]

I'm another who found anything to beat Photomatix yet, and I've pretty much tried them all. There is a small learning curve. but once you get it sorted your good to go.

[Pictus]

There are free ones:
-TK-Mini Panel https://creative.adobe.com/addons/products/12130
-Interactive Luminosity Mask https://creative.adobe.com/addons/products/12307

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I'm another who found anything to beat Photomatix yet, and I've pretty much tried them all. There is a small learning curve. but once you get it sorted your good to go.

Hi,

While the Exposure fusion modes do allow to achieve a natural looking result, it's not as good as SNS-HDR. The latter is a Windows program, but it's so good that some Mac users run it under Parallels to be able and use it.

There is currently an early new SNS-HDR version (2.0 alpha) in the makes, but the upgrade from version 1 will be free. There is also a Mac version planned, but that may take a while.

Cheers,
Bart

[Redcrown]

I have fairly extensive experience with luminosity masks and with using them to blend images vs. using HDR programs. Based on that experience I would discourage you from using the luminosity mask blending approach and suggest you focus on HDR programs instead.

I have not tried any of the 3 commercial plugins you mentioned, but I've watched several of their Youtube tutorials. They provide a nice interface to what is relatively easy to do by hand.

Actions to generate the base luminosity masks are easy to build. Tony K sells some, and there are free ones available. Build, buy, or find for free, the results are very similar because they all use the same base techniques to make the masks. The only difference is the number of masks generated.

Once you have the masks (channels), adding them to your bracketed image layers is simple. Adjusting layer opacity or mask density is also simple. All those commercial plugins do is automate these simple tasks with a user interface.

But the base results of a luminosity mask blend is most often a dull, flat image that is hard to interpret and requires a lot of further manipulation -  like adding clarity and contrast or even masking out the luminosity mask by hand. Plus, the luminosity blending plugins don't handle deghosting.

HDR programs, in my opinion, do a much better job with less effort and provide a far better starting point for further adjustments.

HDR programs are like religions. Each has an ardent group of loyal followers. And each has a learning curve, but once learned their use is not that difficult. I prefer SNS-HDR, but recommend you look at Photomatix and Oloneo PhotoEngine too. SNS-HDR produces the best "default" results, requiring little or no adjustments. I counted the adjustment options in Photomatix once and came up with 48 variables! I would spend forever, per image, deciding which combination was best.

A couple things to consider... Photomatix apears to be a dependable, "going concern", that is most likely to stick around and offer updates. Oloneo appears to be dead in the water. No updates in a long time and their own user forum has seen no activity in 2 years.

SNS-HDR is a one-man show from a Polish programmer. It's amazing what he has produced all by himself, but he disappears for months at a time, and could likely disappear forever. His current V2.0 "Alpha" has been in testing for 10 months now. I would not be surprised if he sells out to some company like Topaz. That would be the smart thing for him to do.

[texshooter]

I find HDR Expose 3 better than Photomatix.   Photomatix gives my images a fake milky look (even when using its advanced tools), whilst HDR Expose 3 does not. When I say "milky" I don't mean that electric HDR look, I mean exactly that--milky. It's a weird look. I don't understand the hype for Photomatix.

[Luigi Trevisi]

Thank you all for your answers. I admit I don't know very well HDR softwares, the only one that I know is Photomatix and reading other photographer's opinions I decided not to give it a try, because it looks the final effect given by this software (and) similar is not a realistic one. On the other hand you can achieve this with digital blending, but it needs much more work. What do you think about it?

Of course Lightroom works great with merging, but as it's happening in my case now with some pictures, sometimes I obtain really ugly results and I don't have too much options in order to customize them.

[Hans Kruse]

Thank you all for your answers. I admit I don't know very well HDR softwares, the only one that I know is Photomatix and reading other photographer's opinions I decided not to give it a try, because it looks the final effect given by this software (and) similar is not a realistic one. On the other hand you can achieve this with digital blending, but it needs much more work. What do you think about it?

Of course Lightroom works great with merging, but as it's happening in my case now with some pictures, sometimes I obtain really ugly results and I don't have too much options in order to customize them.

What you get out of the Lightroom HDR is like a super RAW file and you need to edit this like any other RAW file. In many cases more since the dynamic range is larger. Use the Auto Tone when merging to see what Lightroom my suggest of settings. Then you can continue from there.

[Hening Bettermann]

I have earlier used ImageFuser, now using Lumariver, and I'm happy with it, but I have not explored its more advanced features, nor systematically compared it to others. Mac only.

Good light!

[HCS]

Thank you all for your answers. I admit I don't know very well HDR softwares, the only one that I know is Photomatix and reading other photographer's opinions I decided not to give it a try,

Allow me to offer some feedback, i'm a bit surprised you would or wouldn't do anything because someone else talks or writes about it. Of course you need to taste the pudding yourself, otherwise you will never know whether it will work for your images, situation and skill level.

... because it looks the final effect given by this software (and) similar is not a realistic one. On the other hand you can achieve this with digital blending, but it needs much more work. What do you think about it?

If this is the case, you've only seen its results from people who never came out of preset mode. Photomatix (and many others by the way are) is a special tool, so it takes time to get to know it. Once you do, it is capable of giving results ranging from bland to nuclear and anything in between. Also, it requires some knowledge how to best shoot for HDR.

Of course Lightroom works great with merging, but as it's happening in my case now with some pictures, sometimes I obtain really ugly results and I don't have too much options in order to customize them.

If Lr works for you, then obviously that is fine. When you need more control, there are roughly 3 topics you need to pay attention to:
1. image alignment --> not many tools offer this, but typically the specialized HDR tools do. Very often based on Enfuse.
2. HDR stacking --> this can be done in a number or ways, like explained aptly above. Many HDR tools offer a number of options in this area, i know Photomatix does.
3. tone mapping --> dedicated HDR tools generally offer this, but many other blending tools don't. You'd then need to do the tone mapping manually in an image editor like PS (choose your favourite). Will that give better results, quite probably, but then you'd really have to know what you're doing. This is also the step that yields the look of the image, so all "HDR" pictures look that way because people either wanted it, or didn't take enough care during tone mapping.

I've learned over the years with Photomatix that very small differences in the slider values during tone mapping make a huge difference. Also, the way you shoot your pictures, rather the bracketing and exposure evenness, is of equal importance.

YMMV.

[sniper]

Hi,

While the Exposure fusion modes do allow to achieve a natural looking result, it's not as good as SNS-HDR. The latter is a Windows program, but it's so good that some Mac users run it under Parallels to be able and use it.

There is currently an early new SNS-HDR version (2.0 alpha) in the makes, but the upgrade from version 1 will be free. There is also a Mac version planned, but that may take a while.

Cheers,
Bart

Thanks Bart, when I get some time I'll have a proper look.
Regards Wayne

[Luigi Trevisi]

Allow me to offer some feedback, i'm a bit surprised you would or wouldn't do anything because someone else talks or writes about it. Of course you need to taste the pudding yourself, otherwise you will never know whether it will work for your images, situation and skill level.

If this is the case, you've only seen its results from people who never came out of preset mode. Photomatix (and many others by the way are) is a special tool, so it takes time to get to know it. Once you do, it is capable of giving results ranging from bland to nuclear and anything in between. Also, it requires some knowledge how to best shoot for HDR.

If Lr works for you, then obviously that is fine. When you need more control, there are roughly 3 topics you need to pay attention to:
1. image alignment --> not many tools offer this, but typically the specialized HDR tools do. Very often based on Enfuse.
2. HDR stacking --> this can be done in a number or ways, like explained aptly above. Many HDR tools offer a number of options in this area, i know Photomatix does.
3. tone mapping --> dedicated HDR tools generally offer this, but many other blending tools don't. You'd then need to do the tone mapping manually in an image editor like PS (choose your favourite). Will that give better results, quite probably, but then you'd really have to know what you're doing. This is also the step that yields the look of the image, so all "HDR" pictures look that way because people either wanted it, or didn't take enough care during tone mapping.

I've learned over the years with Photomatix that very small differences in the slider values during tone mapping make a huge difference. Also, the way you shoot your pictures, rather the bracketing and exposure evenness, is of equal importance.

YMMV.

Thank you for the suggestions. You're right, before choosing you need to test in person. But I like shortcuts :-) I remember I did some test with the HDR feature of Photoshop and the result were quiet terrible (to my tastes) so I didn't want to "waste" time on similar software. But if you say it's a matter of manipulating properly sliders I'll have a try for sure.
I'll have a look and see some results