Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: HDR: Natural looking, tutorial  (Read 9615 times)

walter.sk

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1433
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« on: July 17, 2009, 12:03:02 pm »

I have been reluctant to get Photomatix, as very little I have seen in the way of HDR images looks "real."  Most have halos, or color that is "off," or in other ways looks artificially processed.  While that is OK for a surrealistic effect, I wanted HDR for, say, a landscape scene that is just beyond the dynamic range of my 1DII.  

I tried the "Tone Compression" option and found that it really did not do the job for me, despite what most Photomatix users recommend.  I found a tutorial from 6/25/09 by Mat Kozlowski on the NAPP website that uses the Detail Enhancer settings but leaves most of them at the defaults.  He then imports the resultant tiff into Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust the contrast, saturation, etc.

I tried his method on an image using exposure compensation of +/- 3 stops, and the results were better than anything I could get using the Tone Compression method.

Unfortunately, the tutorial requires logging on to the NAPP site, so those who do not belong are out of luck here.  But for those who can log on, follow his logic and method.

« Last Edit: July 17, 2009, 12:07:54 pm by walter.sk »
Logged

francois

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13769
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2009, 12:07:11 pm »

Quote from: walter.sk

I tried the "Tone Compression" option and found that it really did not do the job for me, despite what most Photomatix users recommend.  I found a tutorial from 6/25/09 by Mat Kozlowski on the NAPP website that uses the Detail Enhancer settings but leaves most of them at the defaults.  He then imports the resultant tiff into Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust the contrast, saturation, etc.

I tried his method on an image using exposure compensation of +/- 3 stops, and the results were better than anything I could get using the Tone Compression method.

Unfortunately, the tutorial requires logging on to the NAPP site, so those who do not belong are out of luck here.  But for those who can log on, follow his logic and method.

NAPP user's area

Are those tutorials the same as those on YouTube?

HDR Part One
HDR Part Two
« Last Edit: July 17, 2009, 12:07:47 pm by francois »
Logged
Francois

jbrembat

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 177
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2009, 02:04:28 pm »

Quote from: walter.sk
I have been reluctant to get Photomatix, as very little I have seen in the way of HDR images looks "real."  Most have halos, or color that is "off," or in other ways looks artificially processed.  While that is OK for a surrealistic effect, I wanted HDR for, say, a landscape scene that is just beyond the dynamic range of my 1DII.  

I tried the "Tone Compression" option and found that it really did not do the job for me, despite what most Photomatix users recommend.  I found a tutorial from 6/25/09 by Mat Kozlowski on the NAPP website that uses the Detail Enhancer settings but leaves most of them at the defaults.  He then imports the resultant tiff into Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust the contrast, saturation, etc.

I tried his method on an image using exposure compensation of +/- 3 stops, and the results were better than anything I could get using the Tone Compression method.

Unfortunately, the tutorial requires logging on to the NAPP site, so those who do not belong are out of luck here.  But for those who can log on, follow his logic and method.
For a natural HDR, try PhotoResampling.

jacopo
Logged

walter.sk

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1433
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2009, 04:23:24 pm »

Quote from: francois
Are those tutorials the same as those on YouTube?

HDR Part One
HDR Part Two
The second link is similar to the tutorial on the NAPP website, although not as clear and refined.
Logged

walter.sk

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1433
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2009, 04:24:35 pm »

Quote from: jbrembat
For a natural HDR, try PhotoResampling.

jacopo
Too late!  I already bought Photomatix.  I will check out  PhotoResampling anyway.
Logged

KeithR

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 759
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2009, 05:12:16 pm »

I've recently been playing with Photomatix and find that it takes awhile to get used to what the controls do. I find that that you can get quite nice results along with over the top effects, which I don't care to much for. There's a place for those effects, just not that many IMHO.
I recently came across a Russel Brown tutorial on a faux HDR effect form a single shot, and it looked interesting.
http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/FauxHDR_SM.mov
It's a 10mb quicktime video so give it some time to load. He goes through one pic to show what he does(it's all in ACR and PS), than shows a before and after on a few more images.
Logged
The destination is our goal but it’s the journey we experience

Rhossydd

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3369
    • http://www.paulholman.com
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2009, 06:34:56 am »

Quote from: KeithR
I recently came across a Russel Brown tutorial on a faux HDR effect form a single shot, and it looked interesting.
That's very funny. The use of the word "enhanced" without any irony was brilliant ;-)

The worry is that some people might actually take it all seriously.
Logged

Hoang

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 83
    • http://www.hxpham.com
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2009, 12:35:32 pm »

I find that Picturenaut (http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/) along with Photoshop and a film-emulation filter such as Alien Skin Exposure 2 worked great together to give a high dynamic range, yet non cartoonish image.
I wrote a short blog entry on my usual workflow for HDR a while back http://hxpham.xanga.com/691624851/uci-student-services-ii/
Logged

thierrylegros396

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1947
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2009, 12:10:18 pm »

Tried Picturenaut !

Seems promising after only 3 trials !

Thierry
Logged

walter.sk

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1433
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2009, 03:50:42 pm »

Quote from: Hoang
I find that Picturenaut (http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/) along with Photoshop and a film-emulation filter such as Alien Skin Exposure 2 worked great together to give a high dynamic range, yet non cartoonish image.
I wrote a short blog entry on my usual workflow for HDR a while back http://hxpham.xanga.com/691624851/uci-student-services-ii/
Well, I tried Picturenaut and found it superior to Photomatix in terms of speed, real-time monitoring of changes, and ease of use.  So far, the few trial images I tried really worked nicely, but I have been able to get more control in PHotomatix.  The downside is that Picturenaut  does not work with RAW images.  

The attitude of the developers reminds me of the Panorama Tools folks, with Helmut Dersch (I think that was his name) where the interest was to provide excellent software as an onlgoing project.
Logged

Jeremy Roussak

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8961
    • site
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2009, 06:36:51 pm »

Quote from: walter.sk
Well, I tried Picturenaut and found it superior to Photomatix in terms of speed, real-time monitoring of changes, and ease of use.  So far, the few trial images I tried really worked nicely, but I have been able to get more control in PHotomatix.  The downside is that Picturenaut  does not work with RAW images.
It has another, more pressing, downside for those of us who use Macs, of course.

Jeremy
Logged

gardenvalley

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7
HDR: Natural looking, tutorial
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2009, 08:05:59 pm »

Quote from: kikashi
It has another, more pressing, downside for those of us who use Macs, of course.

Jeremy

I downloaded both Photomatix Basic and the trial of the full version, tried them and preferred the Basic one. My issue with Photomatix Pro is that there are too many options and therefore too many ways to get it wrong. I like to keep things simple and my way is to create the hdr from RAW images(as few as possible to reduce noise), take the pic to Tonemapping but do nothing to it, save it as a 16bit TIFF and then do the usual contrast, saturation, sharpen etc in Elements. The tonemapping part is a joke anyway as it only allows contrast and brightness adjustments. I`ve been quite happy with the results but I do accept that Hdr software is not always the best way to handle high contrast. I like the Basic version because I am unable to get my head round all this layers and masks stuff.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up