Tone Adjustment for HDR in P'shop

[GeorgeUK]

I've seen some really great examples of HDR on the forum (v impressed). :thumbup:

Can anyone give me any pointers about the critical stage of 'tonal adjustment' for creating HDR images in photoshop.
- How to do it
- What kind of things should I be changing
- What's best to do
- What to avoid

Sorry to sound like an uber-n00b...:blushing::blushing::blushing:

TIA :thumbup:

 

[Sideburns]

You just do everything default
then you go to "image> mode> 8 bit
Then you can adjust the curve until it looks how you want. I think it's the last option in the listbox that lets you do it.

you'll see what I mean.

 

[Neuner]

From what I've used of Photoshop's HDR's it doesn't appear to give you as much freedom of control as Photomatix: http://www.hdrsoft.com/.

I prefer Photoshop HDR for more natural looking images and Photomatix when I want something more surreal.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

How to do it

Depends on what you want done.

What kind of things should I be changing

Well, what would you want done?

What's best to do

It's your image, your choice.

What to avoid

doing everything in JPEG.

 

[Garbz]

You just do everything default
then you go to "image> mode> 8 bit
Then you can adjust the curve until it looks how you want. I think it's the last option in the listbox that lets you do it.

you'll see what I mean.

NO! I highly suggest going to 16bit to tonemap, and dropping down to 8bit AFTER you have done your adjustments.

There's no real answer to this. One method I use for tone control is duplicate the layer and change blending mode to overlay, curves, levels, contrast/brightness, channel mixer, all work too. There's countless other ways too.

 

[GeorgeUK]

Following on from this thread, for anyone interested in P'shop curves, this tutorial is quite useful :thumbup:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/photoshop-curves.htm