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Opinions about an HDR and sharpening please.

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Eric Palmer

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Richmond, VA, US
This is the first floor of the Richmond Train Station. In the afternoon the sunlight comes streaming in and mixed with the soft glow of the old time tungsten lights it feels like stepping into the past. Even better, the traffic though the lobby is lite so it is possible to get a set of shots off pretty easily without movement.

This HDR was done with Photomatrix Pro and a little Photoshop PP. 9 exposures with a 1 ev difference between each. Raw, D300s, 18-35mm ED Nikkor lens at 18mm.

I'm struggling with how to make this image sharper. Should I sharpen them in capture NX2 and save as TIFF before merging them or should I more aggressively sharpen the image in Photoshop (I use unsharp mask most of the time).

More Richmond HDR images can be seen in this set (warning, some are hyper realism style an may not appeal to everyone).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daddyoh/sets/72157622979600679/



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Eric P
 
Nice processing!!!
Don't think it needs any sharpening-- looks just fine the way it is!!!
No one bothered you about shooting in the Train Station??

A friend of mine was shooting at Penn Station, in Baltimore, and was pulled aside and interrogated, as to why he was photographing in the train station. Actually, he was hauled into an office and questioned by security.
Buzz
 
I like your rendition but I wish there is a bit more light on the ceiling... I did a bit of dodging and lighting adjustment as well as a little color deepening and sharpening of the overall... Let me know please if it looks better on your monitor because i am on my work laptop and not sure if the screen is calibrated to the best it can be... Happy New Year...



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:D Grazie, Thank you, - Sal

 
Thanks

I think with in public places that are transportation oriented (or power plants, etc.) that is a big risk. This train station is a bit light on traffic. The nice people that work there, gave me a brief notice and then went about their business.

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I need new equipment. Between my ears that is.
Eric P
 
... can be improved, the image looks a little overdone (too 'fat') in my opinion. I also met this problem myself in early Photomatix use. My first suggestion would be to reduce saturation, (knowing that finetuning Phtomatix sliders is not easy).

I tried to adjust a bit in CS2:

1) Reduced saturation a bit
2) Made a layer (Ctrl J) with blend mode screen
3) Erased back everything but the ceiling parts
4) Made a layer (Ctrl J) with Smart sharpen 120-1,2
5) Erased back the parts with noise (not complete, because of (bed)time ;-)

Hope this will be seen as a further improvement to this very nice HDR-image.



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Regards, Mario.
http://www.mario.zenfolio.com

 
Eric Palmer said:
This is the first floor of the Richmond Train Station. In the afternoon the sunlight comes streaming in and mixed with the soft glow of the old time tungsten lights it feels like stepping into the past. Even better, the traffic though the lobby is lite so it is possible to get a set of shots off pretty easily without movement.

This HDR was done with Photomatrix Pro and a little Photoshop PP. 9 exposures with a 1 ev difference between each. Raw, D300s, 18-35mm ED Nikkor lens at 18mm.

I'm struggling with how to make this image sharper. Should I sharpen them in capture NX2 and save as TIFF before merging them or should I more aggressively sharpen the image in Photoshop (I use unsharp mask most of the time).

More Richmond HDR images can be seen in this set (warning, some are hyper realism style an may not appeal to everyone).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daddyoh/sets/72157622979600679/



--

Eric P
Click to expand...
Not what you asked about but (in my opinion) the greatest improvement would be to "Straighten" the Perspective Distortion -- especially on the left side of the image. I also agree that it may look better with a lighter ceiling.
I would apply USM set at around 30-20-0.
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Vernon...
 
In my opinion, The above rendition is way oversharpened, showing artifacts---, and desaturating it ,THAT MUCH-, just takes all of the punch out of the image---, makes it quite uninteresting.

I would also like to add, that I don't care for extremely overprocessed HDR images either, but usually-- i do like them to have some punch.
Buzz
 
I personally think it's lacking a bit of sharpness/microdetail. Pleasing colours.
 
Thanks but the original image looks more like the actual scene. It really is that color and the light is dramatic and beatiful (fat?) in the lobby. thanks for trying...
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I need new equipment. Between my ears that is.
Eric P
 
Thanks all. I will go back and shoot some more shots when I get a chance. Will post again when I do...

I do appreciate the feedback.
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I need new equipment. Between my ears that is.
Eric P
 
Eric Palmer said:
Thanks all. I will go back and shoot some more shots when I get a chance. Will post again when I do...

I do appreciate the feedback.
--
I need new equipment. Between my ears that is.
Eric P
Click to expand...
slight colour correction, sharpening and a bit highlight correction.

 
Thanks - of all the corections but OP this one is the one that grabs me the most. May go back and adjust the original....
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I need new equipment. Between my ears that is.
Eric P
 
I know you didn't ask but.. I would change the perspective a bit to remove the warp in the walls. I like the colors and sharpness as it is.
 
here's my quick fix:



hny
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Greg
 
Eric Palmer said:
This HDR was done with Photomatrix Pro
Click to expand...
I suspect this is part of your problem. Photomatix always produces soft images for me. It comes from the less than stellar alignment.

You might try pre-aligning the images with one of the following programs (turn off the alignment in Photomatix):

1. CS4, if you have it (expensive if not)

2. Align_Image_Stack.exe. Free, distributed as part of:

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/download.php

I think you'll find that either produces much sharper HDR's; handheld and tripod supported shots.

You might also find that align_image_stack is conjunction with Enfuse or SNS-HDR produces an even nicer result. Enfuse is free and excellent. SNS-HDR is available in a free trial but with limited image resolution. The full version is expected later this year.
 
I'll have to look into those programs. I have cs3 and will upgrade to cs4. I did a little experiment yesterday with a large tree and no wind and photomatix pro did have trouble aligning the smaller branches. It was very noticeable.

I will be testing these other programs in the comming weeks.

thanks again.

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Eric P
 
Eric Palmer said:
I will be testing these other programs in the comming weeks.
Click to expand...
It's very easy to try align_image_stack. That's the one I use now. CS4 works well but does run out of RAM processing more than 3 or 4 full size tiffs from my D200 on a 3GB/32-bit Win XP machine. align_image_stack is much kinder on the memory but does take a while. However, the results are easily worth it.

SNS-HDR is still in development but it's most impressive and I will definitely purchase a copy assuming the price is reasonable:

http://www.mmj.pl/~snibisz/SNS-HDR/

It does have its own alignment algorithm but it's not as good as align_image_stack IMO.

By the way, I also recommend converting your RAW images to 16-bit tiff before feeding them into any of these HDR/blending programs. Although quite a few of them will handle RAW conversions internally, I get much better results using Capture NX or ACR which allow me full control over the white balance. And, generally speaking, the better the colors you put in, the better the colors you'll get out ;-)

Expect to do a little more post processing on the output too; NR if necessary, curves, color, and sharpening. I do find that LAB mode adjustments work well on these images.
 
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