Take the HDR challenge!

Ls3D · Jan 1, 2008

Anyone want to try their HDR chops on this shoot? :thumbup:Hopefully there is enough DR in these shots to get an interesting result. My results in CS3 were not that good, and I would like to see what other technicians and software can do.

The nearly 37 Mb zip file (Full size Cannon RAW) REMOVED, contest over.

And these are the exposures:

I may have blown it by not setting AEB to 2/3 in 1/3 steps?

At any rate here is my first go results, not that different than the middle exposure:

Hopefully I will not have to kill the link due to bandwidth issues. So even if you are drunk have a GO! And happy 2008!

-Shea :mrgreen:

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

here is my entry

I didn't do much "refining" if you will. But this is the general gist of what I would have processed.

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

cool pic by the way

Ls3D · Jan 1, 2008

Very interesting! What application did you use? Did you cheat the exposures any? I'm guessing this is Photomatix, or at least not PS.

And thanks for playing! Great way to start the new year IMO :thumbup:

-Shea :mrgreen:

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

I use Capture One (http://www.phaseone.com/), Photoshop and Photomatix for my editing.

GwagDesigns · Jan 1, 2008

ranmyaku said:
I use Capture One (http://www.phaseone.com/), Photoshop and Photomatrix for my editing.

Care to explain your workflow a bit more, i tried messing about a bit, but your results are amazing compared to mine.

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

Capture One is the RAW workflow:
1. custom WB
2. tweaked exposure and contrast
3. tweaked the shadows and highlights
4. sharpening (180,0.8,1.0)
5. noise reduction (luminance 25, color 37)
6. output to a 300 px/in jpg

Photomatix:
Generate HDR image using batch processing
Tone mapping: strength 100, color sat 95, light smoothing 0, luminosity 10, micro contrast +2, micro smoothing 0, white clip @ 2.290%, black clip @ 5.000%
saved as a jpeg and opened in Photoshop

I can't remember the exact details in PS b/c i didn't save as a photoshop document which saved all my actions...so im going from memory.

Photoshop:
Unsharp mask
bumped down the cyan/blue saturation to remove a blue cast on the metal and increased the lightness
levels
contrast
noise reduction (can't remember if i did this or not, i think i did but it really didn't look any different) I don't have any plugin for noise reduction like Noise Ninja, which i need to buy

Probably took around 10 to 15 minutes. If it was my own image i might have spent more like an hour getting things the way I liked, using layer masks and such to maybe bring out some better detail.

I think was the general outline

Ls3D · Jan 1, 2008

i tried messing about a bit

In the interest of learning, what did you try?

Also are there two HDR programs with similar names (photomatix & photomatrix)? Which is better...

I also wonder how much the 'tone mapping' part of the process is critical to getting good results, and if PS's HDR is really for synthetic rendering, such as reflection maps & image based lighting VS interesting photography.

Funny that after visiting the WIKI it turns out I briefly worked with the creator of HDR - Greg Ward. The work was related to his Radiance rendering system.

Any more playas?

-Shea

EDIT: Thanks for that workflow update!

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

Ls3D said:
In the interest of learning, what did you try?

Also are there two HDR programs with similar names (photomatix & photomatrix)? Which is better...

I also wonder how much the 'tone mapping' part of the process is critical to getting good results, and if PS's HDR is really for synthetic rendering, such as reflection maps & image based lighting VS interesting photography.

Funny that after visiting the WIKI it turns out I briefly worked with the creator of HDR - Greg Ward. The work was related to his Radiance rendering system.

Any more playas?

-Shea

EDIT: Thanks for that workflow update!

No, I'm just retarded. its called Photomatix http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Ls3D · Jan 1, 2008

No, I'm just retarded. its called Photomatix

Odd because goog returned sites for both. Thanks again.

-S

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

Yeah you are right. I could have sworn the name was Photomatrix but my software says 'Photomatix'. However if you google 'Photomatrix' it takes you to the HDRsoft website like you said.

ranmyaku · Jan 1, 2008

Not to belabor the point but I thought it was funny. At the bottom of the websites homepage it has a disclaimer.

Note: the name of our dynamic range increase software is Photomatix not Photomatrix.

lol

stittly · Jan 1, 2008

I don't have Photoshop, so this is straight out of Photomatix (also I used the small files because I didn't want to download Canon's RAW software):

Ls3D · Jan 1, 2008

Also cool, I like those deep blues. Pretty good results from JPGz. So I may have to D-load that software if I'm going to do much of these. Tnx for playin playaa.

-Shea :mrgreen: