HDR without bracketing

[Eupholux]

Hey guys, I'm really impressed with your HDR works. I'm a fan of it but I don't know how to do it. I'm aware that you need to bracket different exposures and process them using photomatix. However, my question is; is there a way to produce HDR clarity and colors simply using CS5 with just one shot?

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[unpopular]

Take a look at Grandpa's treatment to my photo here:

Relic

with technical details here:

Relic

I haven't tried it yet, but local contrast adjustment can be made using various highpass filtering techniques.

[480sparky]

It's possible to create an HDR-looking image, but it's not truly HDR since you aren't gaining any more dynamic range by using one image. The dyanmic range of that one image is set in stone at the time it is taken.... you cannot create more data simply by adjusting a slider in post.

If the dynamic range of the scene is within the range of your camera sensor, then by all means.... go ahead. But it's not really HDR, it's just tonemapping.

[Rotanimod]

It's possible to create an HDR-looking image, but it's not truly HDR since you aren't gaining any more dynamic range by using one image. The dyanmic range of that one image is set in stone at the time it is taken.... you cannot create more data simply by adjusting a slider in post.

If the dynamic range of the scene is within the range of your camera sensor, then by all means.... go ahead. But it's not really HDR, it's just tonemapping.

This.

P.s. OP your avatar is distracting...

Not necessarily in a bad way

[Eupholux]

Thanks mates, I appreciate the responses.

[bigtwinky]

I have been testing the new Lightroom 4 (beta was out January 10th) and have been loving how I can control the details.

I'm not a huge blogger, but did make a blog entry on my findings in toying around with the software.

Pierre Bourgault - Photographer: Lightroom 4 beta - highlights and all that jazz

I had shot a 3 exposure image to do an HDR. I decided to take the -2 exposure image and process that via Lightroom 4 to see what I could come up with.
Check it out!

So it is possible to get HDR-ish results using one exposure.

[vipgraphx]

There are free HDR style downloadable actions you can get on the web that will give you the HDR look. I downloaded and tried myself.

here is a test


There is a lot of noise compared to the original file and I had to do more tweaking in addition to those actions. I just used photoshop and not any other plug-ins. If I was to use nik or topaz I could have removed most of the noise...

Search the web for free actions for photoshop or HDR actions for photoshop and you will come across them.

hope this helps!

[Bynx]

I love the street area but that sky is dog awful.

[vipgraphx]

Yes I know the sky sucks, I could have taken more time to paint in a new sky and what not but since I was just testing out the actions I thought it would be good not to do so much so the OP would get a sense of this action set can do 8)