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HDR from multiple Raw, where to start?

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kapoon

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Hi all,

I just start looking into the use of HDR, and this weekend I took some sunrise shots with RAW using my D300. Now the question is, should I convert all the RAWs into TIFF with no exposure change, and combine them using Photomatix/PS? Or should I do layers with the RAW in PS?

Thank you for your advise!

Peter
 
Assuming you have Photomatix installed...you can work directly with RAW files in Photomatix... go to Process > Generate HDR, then click the Browse button to point Photomatix at the folder containing your RAW files. You can then generate the HDR image and do the tonemapping then output as a 8 or 16-bit TIFF file for further processing in Photoshop.
kapoon said:
Hi all,

I just start looking into the use of HDR, and this weekend I took
some sunrise shots with RAW using my D300. Now the question is,
should I convert all the RAWs into TIFF with no exposure change, and
combine them using Photomatix/PS? Or should I do layers with the RAW
in PS?

Thank you for your advise!

Peter
Click to expand...
 
Thanks!

I just found out Photomatix isn't free! Can I get the same effect with Photoshop (which I do have)? Is there good tutorial around?

Thanks
 
Here is a link to step by step video tutorials doing HDR with photomatix:
http://photocamel.com/forum/local_links.php?catid=33

You will have to create an account to view the videos but it's free and is very quick. This site has a forum specifically for HDR, and the members are very helpful. It is the best site I have found so far specifically for HDR (that's really the only forum I check out consistantly). I believe two of the videos focus on setting up photoshop and preferences, you can skip over those if you like but I found them helpful.
 
As long as you have PhotoShop CS2 or higher. Just go to the File menu, Automate, Merge to HDR. The you can select your RAW files (or you can open/convert them before hand). There are many adjustments you can/need to make. Try searching for PhotoShop HDR and you should find some other threads with links to sites that give good directions of what you can do.
 
MUCH less expensive, and less involved than Photomatix. I don't know about the Windows front end, but I like the Mac f/e (Bracketeer). I'm not putting down Photomatix, just relating an easier workflow that so far is quite satisfying.

http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse

I might adjust the WB on a series, but that's about all I'd touch before the merge is done and brought into PS.

--
...Bob, NYC

Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/btullis

 
Thats correct, Photomatix is not free but they do have a full fletch trial edition on there site. The only difference is that it adds a watermark. I suggest you try that or even use PS as mentioned above. But the key to really make the images pop is to Tone Map them. You can use various PS techniques or even try it in Photomatix or they even have a plugin for PS. You can download that from there site as well. Good Luck. HDR is great. You'll be wanting to take pics for HDR all of the time once you see the quality of your images.
 
Shash703 said:
Thats correct, Photomatix is not free but they do have a full fletch
trial edition on there site. The only difference is that it adds a
watermark. I suggest you try that or even use PS as mentioned above.
But the key to really make the images pop is to Tone Map them. You
can use various PS techniques or even try it in Photomatix or they
even have a plugin for PS. You can download that from there site as
well. Good Luck. HDR is great. You'll be wanting to take pics for
HDR all of the time once you see the quality of your images.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, can any briefly detail some techniques for doing HDR in Photoshop (without the "merge to HDR" function) Just using layers and whatnot. Or link to a guide dealing with this?
 
Thanks the great advices guys!!

I tried out the the PS merge to HDR option, it seems to work fine, until I hit tone mapping. I seem to not be able to hold the highlight detail when I downsize to 16bit. Is there any tricks to it? Anywhere I can find a good tutorial on it?

Thanks,
Peter
 
MindBrain said:
Shash703 said:
Thats correct, Photomatix is not free but they do have a full fletch
trial edition on there site. The only difference is that it adds a
watermark. I suggest you try that or even use PS as mentioned above.
But the key to really make the images pop is to Tone Map them. You
can use various PS techniques or even try it in Photomatix or they
even have a plugin for PS. You can download that from there site as
well. Good Luck. HDR is great. You'll be wanting to take pics for
HDR all of the time once you see the quality of your images.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, can any briefly detail some techniques for doing
HDR in Photoshop (without the "merge to HDR" function) Just using
layers and whatnot. Or link to a guide dealing with this?
Click to expand...
Nevermind I found a couple that shows the general idea.
Tried it out in this pic:
--

 
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