Blending software : Photomatix

[Hermie]

Gave it a try some time ago.
Didn't do HDR but exposure blending is nice.

Herman

[U_Grsl]

Does anybody be aware of this blending software : Photomatix ? (trial version is fully functionnal)
After a fast check I found that it actually produces high dynamic image,  however looking slightly artificial ; one could say "overblended"
Can be found at :     http://www.hdrsoft.com/

As an only very occasional participant, but regular reader, I appreciate the high level of Luminous Landscape and its Forum. Making it a major source of valuable knowledge.
Thanks to Michael and all writers.
UG

[ingie01]

How does photomatix compare to the filters and tools in Photoshop CS2? I get caught up sometimes in the "new toy" syndrome then find out that with a little effort and experimenting I already have that "new toy".  

[ranjans]

PS  HDR is a joke compared to photomatix, if you are serious hrd user then you will not be able to get PS hdr function working for you.

Photomatix requires good understanding of its tools & you will get excelent results. That overblend feeling is due to high value in local contrast , keep it below 20 & you will have good results.

[TimothyFarrar]

The un-natural look of Photomatix and Adobe HDR is a result of doing the development process backwards. Think about it this way, your single exposure development process starts with a low dynamic range exposure, which you then develop. The typical HDR process starts with some bracketed exposures which you develop (which would normally be the last step), then try to blend together, and finally an attempt is made to correct the blending problems, perhaps resulting in more development work.

But what if you started with a single high dynamic range exposure (blended before processing from a set of un-developed exposures), then developed that -- no blending artifacts, no local contrast enhancement artifacts, just a natural exposure with more "dynamic range". Here are some examples,

http://www.farrarfocus.com/wash.htm

This is what I do, take a set of (Linear) 12bit per channel raw bracketed exposures, use an automated tool (a Photoshop script) to blend them into a (ProPhotoRGB) 16bit per channel single exposure. This exposure is basically the same as what you would get if your camera could capture the full dynamic range single exposure. Then I do the development work in Photoshop using special actions to adjust brightness and contrast using Curve Adjustment Layers. This works similar to what you would do in CameraRaw to develop a single exposure, except when doing the work in Photoshop, you have the ability to use Layer Masks to fine tune the brightness and contrast for any area of the photo -- no need to dodge and burn as a 2nd step, also makes doing any type of digital graduated neutral density filters easy.

[bob mccarthy]

Timothy,

Any chance I could impose on you to expand the discussion on your blending procedure.

Script is yours?

Bob

[TimothyFarrar]

> Any chance I could impose on you to expand the discussion on your blending procedure.

Sure what would you like to know?

The basic concept is you expose one shot which is as bright as possible without having any right side histogram clipping, then bracket longer shutter times until you overexpose to the point where most of the image is white. The script fills in the noisy darks of the first exposure using the clean noise-free information from the overexposed frames. So the output is like you had one good high dynamic range exposure.

I also use this script for blending of tripod mounted shots in which there is motion between frames. The default blending works good for natural motion (water, clouds, etc), and it leaves each exposure in a single layer if you want to go in and make manual adjustments via layer masks.

Here are some more details, this link will take a minute to load (lots of images and the page is generated by javascript). Some of the examples might appear too dark depending on your display calibration...

http://www.farrarfocus.com/ffdd/ffdd.htm#bracket

The blending script is important, but it is the development afterwords that is key to getting a good photo. This script results in a left weighted exposure, somewhat like what you would expect if you were shooting into the sun and exposed for the sun rather than the rest of the scene. The difference is that after running the script, where you would expect to have dark noise, you now have useable clean information.

For development, the brightness actions produce a (user selectable) perceptual brightness adjustment that compresses the highlights and expands the midtones and darks -- allowing for natural exposure control without highlight clipping -- basically selecting what part of the dynamic range you want as your midtones. Then following this with similar contrast adjustments allows for something you don't tend to get with HDR, really good contrast -- one key for a good photograph.

It's a different and unconventional style of digital development... works great if you know what you are doing