What are good methods to edit HDRs?

campeterz · Nov 27, 2011

I have been wondering where I would learn to process/create HDR images in Photomatix Pro, as currently I have only messed around with basic settings and I can't get the right look. As much as I love the extreme effects (i.e. Painterly and Grunge), they appear over the top and overused. I have tooled around with some of the effects, but I still don't get the amazing "POP" I see in images posted here, as well as elsewhere on the internet. For example, I am having trouble creating noiseless silhouettes, even at ISO-100. Photomatix seems like it always tries to brighten things up. I normally take 3 auto-bracketed shots (+1,0,-1 or +2,0,-2), though sometimes I do 5 when I have a tripod.

So anyways, I have searched but I have not seen any guides written about HDR here, so any tips would be helpful

2WheelPhoto · Nov 27, 2011

search youtube on photomatix pro

KmH · Nov 27, 2011

HDRsoft's web site has some good basic tutorials too, and be sure and read their user's manual.
At www.hdrsoft.com you should also click on the Resources and Support tabs.

You will also find it very useful to have Photoshop, or another comparable raster image editor to perform some of the editing tasks Photomatix is not capable of/designed to do.

molested_cow · Nov 27, 2011

HDR doesn't start at Photomatix, nor does it end there.

Try more brackets. I take a minimum of 5 with one stop in between. In photomatix, I try to get it as close to what I want as possible, then continue the editing in Photoshop.

On the other hand, there are times when I just can't get satisfactory result with photomatix. I think it's mostly due to certain weather or lighting conditions. For example, hazy sky is pretty hopeless no matter how many brackets you use.

campeterz · Nov 28, 2011

molested_cow said:
HDR doesn't start at Photomatix, nor does it end there.

Try more brackets. I take a minimum of 5 with one stop in between. In photomatix, I try to get it as close to what I want as possible, then continue the editing in Photoshop.

On the other hand, there are times when I just can't get satisfactory result with photomatix. I think it's mostly due to certain weather or lighting conditions. For example, hazy sky is pretty hopeless no matter how many brackets you use.

Is it possible to do more than 3 stop auto-bracketing on a Canon 20D? Many times I find myself without a tripod and remote trigger.

Rephargotohp · Nov 28, 2011

The HDR Image | HDR Photography – "As the eye sees"

RE:Silhouettes, They are actually a really bad candidate for HDR because the whole idea behind a silhouette is you expose for the background plunging your subjects into the shadow region. That's What you want to happen. So now if you use HDR to bring the shadow region up you've lost your Silhouette

You can't do more than 3 stops auto Bracketing with a 30D but you can use Auto Bracketing along with Exposure compensation to get 6 exposure one of which will be a duplicate

Shooting a lot of exposures in close bracketing (1 stop) is highly overrated and can actually lead to loss of detail. People overshoot the range that is present, and also aligning large numbers of images is harder on the software to get right. There is a "just right" amount for every scene and people tend to overshoot it thinking if 3 is good for sure 9 is better, It isn't

EchoingWhisper · Nov 28, 2011

Rephargotohp said:
The HDR Image | HDR Photography – "As the eye sees"

RE:Silhouettes, They are actually a really bad candidate for HDR because the whole idea behind a silhouette is you expose for the background plunging your subjects into the shadow region. That's What you want to happen. So now if you use HDR to bring the shadow region up you've lost your Silhouette

You can't do more than 3 stops auto Bracketing with a 30D but you can use Auto Bracketing along with Exposure compensation to get 6 exposure one of which will be a duplicate

Shooting a lot of exposures in close bracketing (1 stop) is highly overrated and can actually lead to loss of detail. People overshoot the range that is present, and also aligning large numbers of images is harder on the software to get right. There is a "just right" amount for every scene and people tend to overshoot it thinking if 3 is good for sure 9 is better, It isn't

Yep. Why do you need more dynamic range when you are trying to reduce dynamic range? If you want the pop in HDRs, increase the saturation and/or use unsharp mask.

KmH · Nov 28, 2011

One of the common failings in doing HDR is poor scene analysis to determine the number of exposures and the EV step values that will produce the desired result.

Auto-bracketing has limitations, like when a scene requires more exposures above or below zero.

But like so many functions of photography today, many rely on auto modes without understanding most auto modes are far from precise.