HDR help

[neogfx]

Can someone please explain to me how to create a HDR image. I have my 8 exposures, I've tried following a few tutorials such as http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html but something keeps going wrong. Any help would be gratefully received.

 

[ann]

what software are you using to merge these together?

 

[kidchill]

I would suggest using Photomatix Pro. I prefer it to PS3. It comes with a step by step tutorial on the way to combine them. You may want to use less than 8 exposures, depending on the EV steps involved.

 

[AspiringArchitect]

8 exposures?!?! Awesome!

When I run 3 raw images together photomatix takes about a minute and thats with 2g ram and a fast processor.
What are your comp. specs?

 

[Garbz]

AspiringArchitect try more exposures. You'll see it doesn't take much extra ram it just takes longer to process the photos. The final image is the same 32bits.

I don't know much about HDR but 8 exposures are too many.

 

[neogfx]

I was told the more the better, the computer will just choose not to use the data it doesn't need so apparently you don't lose anything by including extra, whereas it could kill your image if you haven't got the data there that you need.
I started using CS2 and could not get my adjustments right, the final image never resembled what I saw.
I have downloaded a copy of Photomatix Pro, but I get a similar problem. When I come to edit the tones I can't get it to look like the scene I saw and it looks kind of surreal.

 

[D-50]

HDR will make thing look surreal unless you tone down the adjustment, Photomatix imo is the best progam, CS2 has a terrible HDR function. When you are adjusting the image in Photomatix use a value of 50 to 70 for the overall stregth of the HDR image (I forget the name of the slider but its the top one, I havent used HDR in a while) This will lessen the surreal look, also as for the other adjustments do not push them to their limits, subtle adjustments are needed to create real looking images.

 

[neogfx]

Thanks D-50, I'll give that a go.

 

[KenCo]

I was asked to do a tutorial with photomatix sometime ago....if it's any help it can be found here http://www.takingthepic.co.uk/Hdr%20Tutorial%20Page%201.html