Downtown San Jose - Early 20th Century HDR

[Trever1t]

OK I have only goofed around with HDR but I can easily see where it can come in handy with high contrast scenarios. Here is an attempt at a realistic high dynamic range photo. Note the service station attendant inside and the signage on and around the gas-station. Composition lack in that I could have gotten a better angle but snapped off 5 quick frames while my wife was prepping.

5 frames 1-stop apart opened and adjusted slightly in ACR6 converted to tiff, opened in Photomatix converted and final adjustments in CS5.


Downtown San Jose 1930's by Trever1t, on Flickr

 

[vipgraphx]

Not bad. I like your processing. It is real but also not. Its one of those photos that makes you second look and guess. I agree a better angle would have done justice however still a cool shot.

Cheers!

 

[Trever1t]

Thanks! Yeah, more of a spur of the moment capture. I did want to try HDR again and I was focused on the tonal range of the scene and how I would contain it. Smalll steps Thanks again, next one will be better!

 

[Joel_W]

I really like it. It looked real till I got to the truck, but I love how it looks too.

The few times that I've tried HDR, I've left the images as .NEF files when I processed them in Photomatrix Pro. Then converted them to TIFF files, and finished processing in Capture NX 2.3. Why did you convert your images to TIFF files 1st? Am I missing something by doing the HDR processing with NEF files?

 

[Trever1t]

I've tried it both ways. I wanted to adjust (Sync'd) a few settings, WB, Curve, etc. Adjustments made to the 'nominal' exposure (ACR6) were then made to the +2/-2 exposures equally. At least this g'round it gave me the results I wanted. Thank you. I will have to get back and take some better frames.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Back in time!

 

[vipgraphx]

I really like it. It looked real till I got to the truck, but I love how it looks too.

The few times that I've tried HDR, I've left the images as .NEF files when I processed them in Photomatrix Pro. Then converted them to TIFF files, and finished processing in Capture NX 2.3. Why did you convert your images to TIFF files 1st? Am I missing something by doing the HDR processing with NEF files?

I took Trey Ratcliff's course a while back and what he recommends is converting all your images to jpegs prior to input them to photomatix. I thought this was odd but the the reasoning behind it is that photomatix converts the RAW files to jpegs as the first process anyways. Some people have said that Tiffs. yield better results in the end. I have tried Treys method and exported as jpeg. I also have exported as a 16 bit tiff and then processed in photoshop. You do have more control over the image with a 16 bit tif than a regular jpeg. I used to just import RAW into photomatix but after testing I did not see any difference between the two images.

To me it does not make sense to take pictures in RAW if photomatix is going to convert to jpeg anyway. The only thing I see is that if you need to change original exposures you still have your RAW files to adjust and use.

I have been in the process of contacting photomatix and ask them directly about this...

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I really like it. It looked real till I got to the truck, but I love how it looks too.

The few times that I've tried HDR, I've left the images as .NEF files when I processed them in Photomatrix Pro. Then converted them to TIFF files, and finished processing in Capture NX 2.3. Why did you convert your images to TIFF files 1st? Am I missing something by doing the HDR processing with NEF files?

I took Trey Ratcliff's course a while back and what he recommends is converting all your images to jpegs prior to input them to photomatix. I thought this was odd but the the reasoning behind it is that photomatix converts the RAW files to jpegs as the first process anyways. Some people have said that Tiffs. yield better results in the end. I have tried Treys method and exported as jpeg. I also have exported as a 16 bit tiff and then processed in photoshop. You do have more control over the image with a 16 bit tif than a regular jpeg. I used to just import RAW into photomatix but after testing I did not see any difference between the two images.

To me it does not make sense to take pictures in RAW if photomatix is going to convert to jpeg anyway. The only thing I see is that if you need to change original exposures you still have your RAW files to adjust and use.

I have been in the process of contacting photomatix and ask them directly about this...

What Trey does makes a lot of sense.

In RAW conversions, YOU are given full control over the conversion to JPEG. You have more control of the resulting image. You have tons more data for each pixel in RAW. You're controlling what your feeding into the Photomatix pipeline. You're not allowing photomatix to make the decisions and conversion for you. What's the point of shooting raw if you're not in full control of the raw conversion? You might as well shoot JPEG.

 

[vipgraphx]

I just checked photmatix's website and this is something I found

Is is true that Photomatix converts RAWs to JPEGs for internal processing?

No. Photomatix does not convert RAWs files to JPEG for internal processing, and never did it. It would not make sense to do this anyway, given that converting to JPEG would result in quality loss and moreover would add processing time. When you load RAW files in Photomatix, the files are converted in linear space into an uncompressed image with 16 bits per color channel, i.e. 48 bits per pixel. The only moment Photomatix converts to JPEG is when you want to save the image created by Photomatix and choose to save it as JPEG. This applies to a tonemapped or fused image created by Photomatix, and not to the original image you loaded