Whites are gray, not white.

[JTHphoto]

Sandblasting Red Brick Building HDR 3xp by ACME POWERWASH, on Flickr

I enjoy HDR photography, and I think it works well for some of our pressure washing project photos. I think the gritty, graininess works well for the subject matter. Does anyone have any pointers on keeping the whites white and not gray? Our truck in this photo looks gray and dirty, not white. Can that be prevented or minimized, or is that just a limitation of HDR? Any pointers welcome. Thx in advance. 3xp HDR using photomatix pro. +/- 1 2/3

 

[Bynx]

Its highlight smoothing you have to address. Move the slider towards 100 from 0. If that doesnt do it then Micro Smoothing. You should see the gray disappear and your image look more lifelike and less grungy.

 

[janok]

Another way - that I use a lot, is to take the HDR-picture into Photoshop together with the original pictures as layers – and mask in the white from some of the other exposures.
Remember to use “align layers” if you have not used a tripod shooting the pictures.

 

[Rephargotohp]

The higher you push your Lighting adjustments ( From Natural + to surreal +) the more it tries to make any tone a midtone. What happens when you make White a midtone? Right, it becomes gray. So try lowering your Lighting adjustment to Natural Or Natural +

Strength, adjusts the contrast within that tone range so vary that back and forth until you get a smooth gradation in the white and no Burnt Edges or Halos
Of course this will make the image look more natural and less grungy and that may or may not be your artistic intent

 

[JTHphoto]

Thanks for the input, I will apply some of these suggestions to my processing.