Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: HDR plug-in?  (Read 5605 times)

allegretto

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 660
HDR plug-in?
« on: August 21, 2014, 08:27:49 am »

Never done HDR (i know...what can I say?) Wou;d like to try it but be slick w/a LR -plug-in if possible

any suggestions...?

thanks in advance
Logged

bns

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 181
    • Boudewijn Swanenburg Photography
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2014, 09:23:31 am »

Try HDRSoft from Photomatix.

Cheers,
Boudewijn Swanenburg

Rhossydd

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3369
    • http://www.paulholman.com
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2014, 09:58:26 am »

Enfuse for Lightroom

Good results without any of the horrors of HDR
Logged

RikkFlohr

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 209
  • Adobe, Inc. - Photography Products
    • Rikk Flohr's Website
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2014, 11:11:36 am »

Any recent version of Photoshop
&
HDR EFX Pro from Nik (Google)
are also viable choices
Logged
Rikk Flohr
Quality Engineer Customer Advocate - Photography Products
Adobe

Misirlou

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 711
    • http://
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2014, 01:21:47 pm »

PhotomatX works pretty well too. They started out many years ago, and early users often used the s/w to generate the aggressively tonemapped images that bother a lot of people. Lately, they've come up with options that allow you to make natural looking products. Their ghosting routines work very well now too.

If cost is a big consideration, LREnfuse is very good return on investment. Just requires a little more study to handle the interface.
Logged

trevorjchapman

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13
    • Trevor J Chapman Photograpy
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2014, 01:45:04 pm »

Any recent version of Photoshop
&
HDR EFX Pro from Nik (Google)
are also viable choices


+1 for HDR EFX Pro.

Hans Kruse

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2106
    • Hans Kruse Photography
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2014, 02:03:54 pm »

Never done HDR (i know...what can I say?) Wou;d like to try it but be slick w/a LR -plug-in if possible

any suggestions...?

thanks in advance

Generally I find that the Photomatix 32 bit HDR plugin from Hdrsoft.com http://hdrsoft.com/download/merge_lrplugin.html is the best approach if you don't like to typical HDR look.
This plugin will just do the merging of multiple exposures to a 32 bit TIFF file with no tone mapping. Lightroom (starting with version 4.1) supports this format and you can edit the file like any other supported file in Lightroom.
Be aware that in order to see what the picture really contains you will typically need to adjust exposure, drag highlights down to -100 or close and shadows to +100 or close and adjust contrast and clarity (and set black and white point). Then you can ad local edits as needed.

The newest standalone HDR application from Hdrsoft also comes with a pluging for Lightroom, but it is not the same as the above. This will allow tone mapping to be done the HDR application and you can then in addition continue the edit in Lightroom, but it will be a (max) 16 bit TIFF file you will get from the HDR application.

There are also other HDR programs, but I would suggest to start with the 32 bit plugin as it allows you to do HDR like any RAW file (sort of).

digitaldog

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20630
  • Andrew Rodney
    • http://www.digitaldog.net/
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2014, 02:11:55 pm »

Enfuse for Lightroom
Good results without any of the horrors of HDR
That's been my experiences too. Not expensive and maybe not "technically" HDR but it does a darn nice job.
Logged
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Author "Color Management for Photographers".

Manoli

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2296
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2014, 02:56:38 pm »

Enfuse for Lightroom
+1

If you have Photoshop CS6 or >, there's also a built-in HDR.
From LR , right click ,  Edit In > Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop

Don't know how far you want to take it - but Photomatix also has an Exposure Fusion option.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2014, 03:04:59 pm by Manoli »
Logged

PhotoEcosse

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 712
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2014, 03:07:06 pm »

You don't need Photoshop to use Nik HDR EfexPro2 from within Lightroom.

Simply select the images you want to merge in the filmstrip, right-click on one of them and select "Export to... HDR EfexPro2". Once you have saved your HDR image, it will automatically be imported into Lightroom as a Tiff alongside your original images.
Logged
************************************
"Reality is an illusion caused by lack of alcohol."
Alternatively, "Life begins at the far end of your comfort zone."

KeithR

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 759
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2014, 05:22:36 pm »

Other way around. Photomatix from HDRSoft
Logged
The destination is our goal but it’s the journey we experience

Hans Kruse

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2106
    • Hans Kruse Photography
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2014, 07:18:54 pm »

+1

If you have Photoshop CS6 or >, there's also a built-in HDR.
From LR , right click ,  Edit In > Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop

Don't know how far you want to take it - but Photomatix also has an Exposure Fusion option.


The Photoshop 32 bit merge option is not as good as the 32 bit merge by the Photomatix plugin I mentioned from my experience. Photoshop has both a 32 bit merge option and a 16 bit merge option, but in the latter case you need to tone map in Photoshop which is not that great.

allegretto

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 660
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2014, 08:40:54 pm »

you guys are great...! Thanks

Tried Enfuse today and while a little short on documentation, with a little noodling around got it set up... very nice

Will try Photomatrix (I guess) next

I have a Photoshop Phobia. gotta admit. Once spent several good hours of my life trying to get it to do what i wanted. Made a hawk of it. Turned out LR did almost everything wanted to anyway... without destructive mods. I know. for you Pros with a lot of experience you ca nod things I haven't even dreamed of, much less wanted to do. But this will be good for me
Logged

Rhossydd

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3369
    • http://www.paulholman.com
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2014, 03:41:23 am »

Tried Enfuse today and while a little short on documentation, with a little noodling around got it set up... very nice
If you want natural results easily, I don't think it can be beaten. The default settings work well for this and every time I've changed from the defaults things just get worse.

All the other plug-ins I've tried over the years deliver horrible 'classic HDR' and need ages spent trying to tame the output to something vaguely tasteful.
Logged

brianrybolt

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 625
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2014, 04:34:00 am »

+1

Excellent bit of software.

kirkt

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 604
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #15 on: August 22, 2014, 04:26:07 pm »

If you use Lightroom, then you can use any plug-in or application that will generate a 32bit TIFF to produce HDR data that can be toned in Lightroom itself.  As of LR 4.1, Lightroom (and the corresponding version of ACR) will accept 32bit TIFFs and extend the exposure controls to +/- 10 stops.

Disregarding the "single shot HDR", there are basically two approaches to extending dynamic range by shooting a sequence of exposures - either your merge your exposures into a single LDR image (often called exposure blending, like Enfuse or manual techniques in PS) OR you merge your exposure sequence into a single HDR file that is true, HDR 32bit data.

In the latter approach, you need to compress the tonal range of the HDR data, often called "tone mapping."  With the former approach, the tonal range of the scene is compressed inherently by blending the well exposed pixels from each exposure in the sequence.

In either case, you can bring the result of your merge (the LDR enfused version or the HDR 32bit TIFF) back into Lightroom for toning, if that is the way you want to go.

Many of the above-mentioned HDR applications (Enfuse [via LREnfuse], Photomatix, HDREfex, etc.) have Lightroom plug-ins that will perform the merge and return the result to Lightroom.

One downside of using a Lightroom-based workflow to tone true HDR files is that you must use the 32bit TIFF file format, which is bloated and creates large files (as opposed to EXR).

kirk
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 04:28:35 pm by kirkt »
Logged

GarethC7

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #16 on: September 12, 2014, 06:35:30 pm »

If you go to Youtube Serge Ramelli has a tutorial on Enfuse. I've used CS5 and Nik for HDR and have detested it, Enfuse actually encourages me to shoot where I need a wider dynamic range rather than avoid it as I've done in the past.
Logged

wolfnowl

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5824
    • M&M's Musings
Re: HDR plug-in?
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2014, 10:06:50 pm »

I personally don't much like the UI for Photomatix itself. I've tried HDR EfexPro and it works pretty well, but I use Enfuse and also the Merge to 32-bit HDR plugin from HDRSoft. It uses the same engine as Photomatix to create the HDR image but allows me to do the tonemapping in LR's Develop module: http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/merge_lrplugin.html

Mike.
Logged
If your mind is attuned t
Pages: [1]   Go Up