Photomatix work flow?

[dmunsie]

My post processing skills are fairly limited currently, but I want to learn what I should perhaps be doing after (or before?) the hdr process. Currently I'm just loading my raw brackets into Photomatix, play around, tweak, and I'm done. It would be useful to learn what others do (and what software you use) , both before Photomatix and after. Thanks.

 

[dmunsie]

Cue the crickets please.

 

[groovieknave]

I wish I could give you more info, but I approach each picture differently And it depends on the lighting and exposure, where the colors and contrast is... It isn't that simple to just say here is what I do. Every picture is different!

 

[CaboWabo]

There are some good articles here HDR One - The Internet's No 1 HDR Photography Magazine and the show workflows of others in the online mag here Download HDR One Magazine | HDR One - Online Photography Magazine

Also this guy here shows his work flow in videos farbspiel photography - View. Learn. Connect.

There are also many books out there that give tips and workflow like this one The HDR Book: Unlocking the Pros' Hottest Post-Processing Techniques: Rafael Concepcion: 9780321776891: Amazon.com: Books

 

[dmunsie]

Thanks. I realize every picture is different. I was just curious what the basic work flow is for some of the users here. Thanks for the links, will check em out.

 

[groovieknave]

I guess I wanted to get across that there isn't much of a basic workflow. But something I always do is bring up the shadows, and level out the highlights before anything else. But sometimes images don't need it because it may be fine the way it is.

With photomatix it's just a slider program which is nice for beginners, it doesn't give you much control. So no matter what you do in there it is just moving the sliders.

Hdrefexpro is a much more robust program to me. Photomatix sort of turns everything into surreal and far too processed... Although definitely fun. I still use it for that reason. I like the fusion more than the other settings...

Anyway, with that said, I will move my effect sliders to the desired position and once I have that I will set the temp and then adjust the noise.

Then I open other programs to remove or add things.

 

[dmunsie]

Thx, but I think my question should have been worded differently and I apologize. I'm not interested in low level details, I was just curious what the general high level work flow might look like. For example, my personal work flow is just: Photomatix. But I've seen on other blogs, etc, where peeps are doing some editing in camera raw first, so the flow is: Camera Raw->Photomatix. I've also seen some posts where people are running some kind of noise removal software on the brackets before running Photomatix so the flow is: Noise Removal->Photomatix. What about post editing? What are you doing after Photomatix? Lightroom or Photoshop? etc, etc.

 

[groovieknave]

Okay, I am starting to understand what kind of answer you are looking for. Still, I don't use the same program every time. Sometimes Lightroom is enough, or Lightroom and HDR efex or no Lightroom I just open in photoshop.

But I do have my own priorities. First thing I check is my histogram. If it is too dark or bright then I open in Lightroom, I just like the convenience of Lightroom tools. I usually bring my shadows way up to bring out the details in the shadows, a lot of times an image will look HDR yet be a single image and I won't even need to run an HDR program. That just happens by bringing out darks and dependent on your cameras dynamic range. Anyway I try to make sure my histogram contents are centered and level in most images before going into HDR.

I use Lightroom for color correcting but also camera raw from photoshop works the same... It just isn't convenient like Lightroom. If I know my colors are going to get blown out then I correct them, if I don't know I wait until after.

At this point I decide upon photomatix or hdrefexpro? Then I process my HDR which is fairly simple.

Noise reduction is the last thing I do, since noise usually doesn't show until you have boosted colors and shadows. For this I use Lightroom also...some like topaz but I never have much luck. Once I am satisfied then I open in photoshop to do retouching or removing or adding things I want. Once that is done then I watermark and complete.

I don't know if that's what everyone does... But that's just what seems logical to me. Of course, there are no rules to photography. Anything goes, whether we like it or not! Hopefully you find your own workflow in there.

I highly recommend Lightroom, photoshop, and nick software in addition to photomatix. Which is now just an expensive novelty program.

Enjoy!

 

[dmunsie]

Thanks, that's some good info. But...this has me perplexed: "Anyway I try to make sure my histogram contents are centered and level in most images before going into HDR." If you have multiple brackets are you just fine tuning the normal exposure? Otherwise wouldn't that defeat the HDR process? Thx.

http://www.hdrone.com/beginners-hdr-photography-course-art-of-hdr/

The above link is pretty much what I was looking for. It's a paid (30.00) series of videos but it shows the entire process from start to finish on a variety of projects. For me personally it was worth it, just to get awareness on typical work flow when working with HDR images. I really like the fact that he is big on using photomatix minimally and focuses on using photoshop for all post hdr editing. I've viewed 3 of the 10 videos and so far it's been well worth it.