Humor me please..

bullshark · Sep 23, 2008

I've been hired to do a website, and the owner of the website LOVES HDR and tone mapped images and wants me to incoporate it into his website. I mess around with HDR but the stuff he wants to do, I'm not good at. Can anyone shed some light on the creation of images like these?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dorlino/2882454754/sizes/o/in/pool-407790@N24/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foo_foo/2874456551/in/pool-hhdr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiddocone/2879542193/sizes/l/in/pool-64271800@N00/

You get the idea. He likes the raelly sureal stuff. And I would love to be able to add this to my resume. I understand many photographers feel HDR cheapens the art and arent too fond of it. This isnt the thread to get that message out. I need this knowledge for a job..

chrisburke · Sep 23, 2008

its just a heavily edited tone mapped image.. once you've created your HDR (by merging 2 or more differently exposed images), mess with the saturation and lumination...

toofpaste · Sep 23, 2008

http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html

This link brought to you by Toofpaste. I'm a jerk.

bullshark · Sep 23, 2008

nah, I got the basics. I got the theory, its the REAL sureal look I cant seem to accomplish. I use Photomax and Media Chance Dynamic HDR (which is great). Are these artists adjusting these photos after the tone mapping? Changing lighting in lightroom? Anything in Photoshop? I'm stumped.. Thanks..

ann · Sep 23, 2008

the photos shown in the links you provide also have a lucisart sense about them which is more than just over the top HDR.

http://www.lucisart.com/

bullshark · Sep 23, 2008

ya know its funny I was lookin through that site today and I even downloaded the plug-in for photoshop elements and i was totally disappointed with it. The effects IMO are garbage.. I could just be using it wrong, cause I have seen some other peoples results. To me though, seems like junk.. Do you have any experience with Lucisarts product?

Mike_E · Sep 24, 2008

Google cross processing with PhotoShop. I would start with one or more of the photos before merging.

This may not be the answer but try it and see.

bullshark · Sep 24, 2008

I googled cross processing and although its a nice effect, its not what I was looking for. It did however lead me to a link to YOUTUBE in which I did more searching and came up with a few promising videos. I found [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYxiWnqcTE0"]THIS[/ame] video but there is no sound and it goes SO damn fast that I'm having a hard time telling what he is doing in Photoshop. The Photomatix stuff and the Neat Image stuff I got, but the Photoshop is going to fast. He makes some adjustments in the beginning, and then does some High Pass sharpening. Maybe some of you Photoshop pro's can view it and shed some light.. The end photo is getting much closer to my goal than any other tutorial I have found so far.. Thanks!

chrisburke · Sep 24, 2008

you can get the sureal look just using photomatix.. you just have to mess with the settings... heres one I did.. its made using 1 picture (i changed the exposure in lightroom) thus creating 3 images (orignal, -3exp and +3exp) then popped it into photomatix, and messed around with the settings and came up with this:

bullshark · Sep 24, 2008

chrisburke said:
you can get the sureal look just using photomatix.. you just have to mess with the settings... heres one I did.. its made using 1 picture (i changed the exposure in lightroom) thus creating 3 images (orignal, -3exp and +3exp) then popped it into photomatix, and messed around with the settings and came up with this:

Well then ****, I'm toss my computer into the middle of the local highway here and take up knitting. I cant combine tone-mapping with "real" smoothness in the image. Great job though. You dont happen to have the saved .hdr file that you would be willing to let me take a peak at/mess with would ya? The picture will not be used for anything other than my own personal learning.. Thanks!

chrisburke · Sep 24, 2008

bullshark said:
Well then ****, I'm toss my computer into the middle of the local highway here and take up knitting. I cant combine tone-mapping with "real" smoothness in the image. Great job though. You dont happen to have the saved .hdr file that you would be willing to let me take a peak at/mess with would ya? The picture will not be used for anything other than my own personal learning.. Thanks!

i didnt no.. i grab another image and see what I can come up with for you though.

ok heres an orignal:

Heres the edited one:

And heres the tone map settings..

The key is to play with the settings... this image took me 2 minutes to edit... and it looks pretty good to me.. the key in getting that "surreal" look (i call it a cartoony look) is the strength and the black point..

bullshark · Sep 24, 2008

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

chrisburke · Sep 24, 2008

no prob

Garbz · Sep 24, 2008

A complete tutorial for an immensely surreal look is on www.stuckincustoms.com

That guy is really into this stuff.

RONDAL · Sep 24, 2008

its really one of those "CRANK THE KNOB TO 11!!!" moments to get some of those style shots. You end up maxxing out some of the settings and get the "artistic" look.
Photomatix annoys me that it makes it that easy to do for the masses, and has all of a sudden become the new "thing" to do if you can't take half decent shots. I like the effects of HDR in some places, and the odd one here or there is okay, but lately it seems its getting out of hand.

I made one for the HDR thread after snapping some shots this morning when I woke up...i think it gave some seizures haha.