HDR What Am I Doing Wrong?

[chrisburke]

ok, I love HDR Images, I think they are amazing. I've been reading about how to do it, but my pictures just doesnt seem to be coming out how I hoped.

shutter 1/125
Aperture F5.3
ISO 400
Heres my process.

Camera on P Mode.... shoot 1 pic, exposer at 0.0 shoot on at +3.0 and one at -3.0

Then I open Photomatix... and click on HDR and Generate, I select the 3 pictures, and let it do its thing.. but this is the result I get.

I'm looking for something more like this:

 

[Sim]

Did you try applying Tone Mapping? It's under the HDR menu.

 

[chrisburke]

that made quite the difference... this is just clicking on tone mapping, and hitting OK.. making no changes...

are there other things I can do to make it even more animated looking???

 

[Sim]

Cool, so far so good. I'd suggest playing around with the tone mapping settings...

 

[Dubious Drewski]

Good start!

Although one thing I hate seeing in HDR images is the glow around objects - it looks so cheap. That's the undesirable effect I got when I used to sloppily do it manually with photoshop layers and oversized, soft brushes years ago. Nothing beats going in and hand-painting your HDR images with some accuracy.

 

[chrisburke]

Good start!

Although one thing I hate seeing in HDR images is the glow around objects - it looks so cheap. That's the undesirable effect I got when I used to sloppily do it manually with photoshop layers and oversized, soft brushes years ago. Nothing beats going in and hand-painting your HDR images with some accuracy.

I'm new to HDR.. can you explain what you mean by hand painting ... what would I hand paint exactley?

 

[Arch]

yes, continue to adjust the settings in photomatix, increase the strength etc, if you want to go the more cartoon look.

If you want really good looking HDR images tho, you will have to spend alot of time learning how to balence the effects in Photomatix and how to edit it in Photoshop afterwards to make it look better.

As you can see with the one you have above, telephone lines look awful, so its a case of trying to balence the image and maybe use layer masks where you dont want the effect to be too strong.

 

[Dubious Drewski]

Well, it's just like I described. I'll describe it once more: You take your 2, 3 or 4 images(however many you have) and open them up in photoshop. Put them each on their own layer and apply a layer mask to each. Then paint out anything blown out.

This is of course, the very oldschool and arduous way of doing it. Some modern programs can do it pretty nicely automatically.

 

[chrisburke]

yes, continue to adjust the settings in photomatix, increase the strength etc, if you want to go the more cartoon look.

If you want really good looking HDR images tho, you will have to spend alot of time learning how to balence the effects in Photomatix and how to edit it in Photoshop afterwards to make it look better.

As you can see with the one you have above, telephone lines look awful, so its a case of trying to balence the image and maybe use layer masks where you dont want the effect to be too strong.

thanks for your help and suggestions.. I totally see what you mean about the power lines..not worried about it at this point, I just stepped outside my house and took the shots so I'd have something to learn with.

I'm all for learning!! i love to learn!! explain to me what kinds of things you would do in photoshop afterwards to make it look better)

 

[Leprakawn]

Chris:

Instead of wasting time taking more pictures to get all the exposure settings, set your camera's picture format to RAW mode.

I know Nikon can do that, but I have no idea what other brands can do RAW mode, so keep that in mind. Also, RAW will take up much more space on your memory card(s), so make sure to get a couple extras as well!

Then with Photoshop, get the Camera RAW 5.5 update, load your single-frame imgs into PS, and there you can do some amazing editing with the RAW img... and then save it as a JPG with whatever settings, toss the collection into Photomatix, and voilà, easier to get some amazing work!

I hope this helps!

 

[TJ K]

Chris:

Instead of wasting time taking more pictures to get all the exposure settings, set your camera's picture format to RAW mode.

I know Nikon can do that, but I have no idea what other brands can do RAW mode, so keep that in mind. Also, RAW will take up much more space on your memory card(s), so make sure to get a couple extras as well!

Then with Photoshop, get the Camera RAW 5.5 update, load your single-frame imgs into PS, and there you can do some amazing editing with the RAW img... and then save it as a JPG with whatever settings, toss the collection into Photomatix, and voilà, easier to get some amazing work!

I hope this helps!

was it needed to open up a 8 month old thread for a banned account??

 

[Leprakawn]

Okay, I looked again, and I see that he is banned.

I googled the cartoon effect, saw this thread, and I felt like sharing that bit of info. Is that not okay?

 

[bigtwinky]

Chris:

Instead of wasting time taking more pictures to get all the exposure settings, set your camera's picture format to RAW mode.

I know Nikon can do that, but I have no idea what other brands can do RAW mode, so keep that in mind. Also, RAW will take up much more space on your memory card(s), so make sure to get a couple extras as well!

Then with Photoshop, get the Camera RAW 5.5 update, load your single-frame imgs into PS, and there you can do some amazing editing with the RAW img... and then save it as a JPG with whatever settings, toss the collection into Photomatix, and voilà, easier to get some amazing work!

I hope this helps!

was it needed to open up a 8 month old thread for a banned account??

I guess it was needed as much as your reply to thread, bumping it up again. And yes, same can be said for mine

 

[ann]

first of all, creating a tonemapped effect from one file is not HDR. HDR is used in situtations that have extreme contrast ranges.

secondly, the software can do lots of things, but you have to learn to use the tools within the program to create a specific vision. there really isn't a one click fix, it is praticing and studying , etc.

keep working and experiment with your images, oh, and + and -2 stops will be more than enough

 

[TJ K]

then use the search feature