HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix

** ALL NEW HDR TUTORIAL AVAILABLE HERE!! **

Photomatix discount coupon code

You can now use the discount coupon code “VanillaDays” when you buy Photomatix to get 15% off. Put it on when you buy it.

HDR Photography Guide Book

Its finally out. The book based on this guide is available to buy. Why buy it when this guide is free? Well firstly because this guide is nearly 3 years old. Secondly because this guide is around 3,000 words and the enhanced version in the book is 10,000. So its more indepth. Thirdly because the guide in the book is only 1 of 10 chapters. The book has 304 pages of HDR goodness. Lots to read. Landscapes, how to do black and white, panoramas, cross processing, toning, people, moving subjects. Its got it all. You can buy itfrom Amazon US and Amazon UK. Enjoy.

If you want to know how to take photos such as these, then read on.

The Liverbuilding pierheadhdr.jpg Liverpools Anglican CathedralFrom Princess Dock Inside York Minister condi-rice-liverpool-05.jpg

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Contents

What’s New?

Photomatix discount code

You can now use the discount code “VanillaDays” when you buy Photomatix to get 15% off. Put it on when you buy it to use it.

I’ve reorganised this guide to include more on Photoshop’s HDR feature and why I feel that Photomatix’s is better. The latest version of Photomatix will detect if your TIFF’s have the same EXIF info and it will ask you to confirm which images have which exposure settings. This means you don’t have to remove the EXIF from them anymore. A great feature.

This guide has also been featured in the November issue of Professional Photographer. I think that’s an official stamp of approval from the photography industry that HDR is indeed great for photographers world wide. It can produce nice balanced images on harsh sunny days, or it can create arty pictures of already stunning landscapes.

Professional Photographer on the stands in Borders Contents page featuring one of my images Close up of my name in print The first two pages of the article The second set of pages. 4 in total.

Aims of this tutorial

The main aim of this tutorial is to help people use HDR techniques to produce photos with a higher dynamic range than they normally get in a standard out of the camera photo. I will show you how to take a shot from the one on the left, to the one on the right.

Before After

What is HDR?

HDR means ‘High Dynamic Range’. Using software like Photomatix you can create images with a more detail in the highlights and shadows than you can with a normal photo from todays digital cameras. Its similar to the old technique of exposure blending. Taking one photo for the sky and one for the ground, then merging them both together in Photoshop. HDR takes it a step further by increase the amount of detail in the image and allows you to create some unique photos. You can use it carefully to create natural looking photos or you can use it creatively to create atmospheric and emotive photos. The choice is yours as to how you process the end result.

Tools Needed

A RAW editor such as Aperture, RawShooter, or Photoshop. Secondly, the HDR program. I use Photomatix.

Step 1: Source images

There are two main ways to create the source images needed for HDR. You can either use AEB, auto exposure bracketing, on your camera to take 3 images while you are out, or you can use RAW to take 1 image and then use a RAW editor to produce 3 shots back at your computer. I shall start with auto exposure bracketing.

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)

The main advantage with AEB is that you can get better source images with less noise. For example, a sunset. You would normally get really dark shadows and enhancing them later from 1 single RAW file would increase the noise. With AEB you can take a completely seperate image for the shadows and one for the highlights to preseve the detail and keep the noise to a minimum. The disadvantge to this approach is that anything moving in the image will become blurred and repeated as it moves across the 3 images. To start with you will need a camera that has the AEB mode and a tripod. You will also need a tripod so that the 3 shots you take can be perfectly aligned later. Go to the menu on your camera and set the AEB mode to -2 / +2 stops.

AEB Before AEB After

It should look like the right image after the changes. Compose your shot, and set the camera up as your normally would to take a picture. Now after you take a picture you will see the exposure compensation level drop down to -2. Take another picture and you will see it goes up to +2. You will notice the shutter speed or aperture changes too. This allows you to get the three shots for the shadows, a balanced image and for the highlights. You now have the 3 shots required to produce a HDR image.

Using a RAW Editor

The other way to produce the 3 shots needed is to take 1 photo and adjust in a RAW editor such as Aperture, Photoshop or RawShooter. The main advantage to this is that you can produce a HDR shot with moving subjects such as people or cars. The disadvantage is that if you use an image with very dark shadows and you’re trying to boost the exposure, the result will be quite noisey.

Load your photo into the editor, then set the exposure level to -2 and save the image as a 16bit TIFF without any metadata such as EXIF info. This is the important part. If you save it with EXIF info you will find that Photomatix relies on that info to produce the HDR shot. The problem with this is that the shutter speed and aperture values will be the same across the 3 images and Photomatix won’t know which image is -2, 0 and +2. Set the exposure level to 0, save that and then set it to +2 and save that image.

Aperture

This is how it looks in Aperture. You will now have the 3 images needed to produce a HDR image.

Step 2: Generating a HDR image

Open the 3 images into Photomatix. From the HDRI menu select Generate HDR. Photomatix will ask you if you want to use the 3 opened images or load in some. Make sure it has “Use opened images” selected and click ok. Now Photomatix will confirm the exposures for each image. 9 out of 10 times it will get it right, but just incase make sure that each image has the correct exposure settings. In the case of this guide they should be +2, 0, -2. Click ok, then check that “use standard response curve” is selected. If you are using 3 images taken at the scene tick the “Align LDR images before generating HDR image” option just so that Photomatix aligns the images for you. Click ok and after a few minutes you will see your HDR image. It won’t look exactly right just yet. Some areas will be slightly over-exposed and it’ll look odd.

Step 3: Tone Mapping

This is the magic part. Using the Tone Mapping feature in Photomatix will convert your HDR image into something usable. Goto the HDRI menu and select Tone Mapping. You will see how your photo looks more like a standard HDR image. The sky will be nicely exposed, as will the ground. The trick now is to adjust the settings to get a nice balanced image. You could be creative and go for something a little more fun if you feel like it. For the image in this guide I wanted something special and yet not too far from the real world. I’ll start with a quick run down of the various options.

Luminosity
Adjusts the brightness of the shadows. Moving the slider to the right has the effect of boosting shadow details and brightening the image. Moving it to the left gives a more natural look to the tone mapped image.
The optimal value depends on the image and the effect you want to achieve.

Strength
Controls the strength of local contrast enhancements. A value of 100% gives the maximum increase in local contrast.
The optimal value depends on the image and the effect you want to achieve.

Color Saturation
Controls the saturation of the RGB color channels. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color. The value affects each color channel equally.

White Clip – Black Clip
From watching the way the histogram changes, the white clip adjusts the highlight contrast and the black clip adjusts the shadow contrast.

Micro-smoothing:
Basically this setting should be called “How arty do you want your shot?” At 0 you can get the cool arty style HDR images with all the detail in everything from walls to clouds you didn’t know where there. However, if you want a nice simple blended exposure photo set it to 30. 95% of the image should be perfectly exposed as if you spent hours putting them together in Photoshop. This is a great new addition to Photomatix as it allows people to use the software as they see fit. If they want a nice photo that is perfectly exposed then they can get that just as if they used ND Gradient filters on their lens. However, if like me they want something a bit more unique they can drop the micro-smoothing down and get something dramatic.

Light smoothing:
Never set this below 0 as you will get horrible results.

Microcontrast
Controls the accentuation of local details. The default value (High) is the optimal value in most cases. However, this control may be useful in the case of a noisy image or when the accentuation of local details is not desirable (e.g. seams of a stitched pano in a uniform area may become visible when local details are too much enhanced).

Real World Examples

Natural Feel

Natural Exposure Feel

Settings used;

Luminosity +8, Strength 25%, Colour Saturation 65%, White Clip 0.220, Black Clip 0.075

Natural Feel 2

Natural Exposure 2

Luminosity -2, Strength 80%, Colour Saturation 65%, White Clip 2.230, Black Clip 0.490

Being Creative

Being Creative

Luminosity +5, Strength 75%, Colour Saturation 65%, White Clip 4.305, Black Clip 1.140

As you can see, when you increase the strength, luminosity and clipping you increase the visible detail in the image. You can see more detail in the building and the clouds.

Issues

Shooting on high ISO will increase the noise in the image. For example, using ISO100 can produce a noise image like ISO400. So if you use ISO400 it will be very noisy. Don’t even think about ISO800 or 1600 unless you are desperate and have a great noise reduction technique. I find that Noiseware doesn’t do a thing against the noise in a HDR shot, but Noise Ninja can. However using Noise Ninja will soften the image.

Halo effects around buildings and people can occur too. I’ve read that this can be due to lowering the luminosity below 0.

Extras

Generating a HDRI from a single RAW file

Using the latest version of Photomatix, 2.3.1, you can load a single RAW file and generate a HDR image. Simply goto File -> Open and then select the RAW file. Photomatix will load the image and generate a HDR from it. You will still need to tone map the image after. I tried it but I didn’t really like the results. The image was too noisy and had some corruption in certain areas. The best method is still to take 3 bracketed images on site.

HDR from a RAW file in Photomatix

1 RAW vs 3 RAW’s

There is a lot of talk on the Web about true HDR images. Lots of people argue that a HDRI from 1 RAW file isn’t a true HDRI. I personally believe that the end result is all that matters. If you sell a print in a gallery is the buyer really going to care if its a true HDR image or a “HDR” image? Are they really that bothered about how many bits of colour there are or just how much data there really is in the image? Probably not. They may ask how you created it out of a passing interest but are they really truely going to care? I doubt they will. They’ll take it home and hang it up and look at the end result. They will enjoy the end result. Its all about the end print in my opinion, not about how nerdy the process was. Out of interest I decided to produce a HDR image from 1 RAW and 3 RAW’s to compare the end result.

HDR from 1 RAW file

HDR from 1 RAW file

HDR from 3 RAW files

HDR from 3 RAW files

As you can see from the photos they are fairly close. There is more detail and better colour in the image produced from 3 RAW photos. The right hand side wall isn’t burnt out like on the 1 RAW image, and neither is the blue wall to a lesser extent. There is also more detail in the sky and the whites aren’t as grey. Things like this can corrected to a certain extent in Photoshop so I wouldn’t worry too much. I did find that reducing the “Colour Saturation” for this image in the “Tone Mapping” settings did produce a nicer shot. There was more detail in the blue sections and the wall on the far right wasn’t burnt out as much. For the most part the images are similar and it does show that a 1 RAW HDR image can produce a striking result. It may not be a true HDR shot and its not a Low Dynamic Range image but what it can be is a stunning photo with a little effort.

Photoshop vs Photomatix

With Photoshop you can create a HDR image from 3 RAW files very easily. Simply open them in PS, goto File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR. It’ll ask you where the source images are and then generate the HDR. It will then display the image on screen so you can adjust the histogram to make sure the image isn’t overly dark or too blown out. Once you have done that goto Image -> Mode -> 16 or 8 bit and it will bring up another dialog box. From the drop down select “Local Adaption.” Using this you can tweak the levels in the image. You have to be careful as it can cause the image to look horrible. The end result will be a well balanced image that you can further edit in Photoshop. The results are quite natural looking and don’t feature any of the extreme looks that a lot of HDR images do. For more information read this excellent guide on Photoshop’s HDR feature.

Photoshop HDR

You can achieve a similar result using Photomatix. Convert the RAW files to 16bit TIFF’s and generate a HDR image using this guide. Once in the Tone Mapping interface set the strength to 1, Micro-smoothing to 30, luminosity to 0, light smoothing to 0 and micro-contrast to 0. The image will then be similar to Photoshops. I found that Photomatix’s result was brighter in the shadows, but this was before playing with the “Local Adaption” feature in Photoshop. The benefit of Photomatix over Photoshop is that you have far more control over the end image. You have control over the luminosity, micro-contrast, light smoothing, micro-smoothing, etc. So you have the ability to tweak the image further than you can in Photoshop. How far is up to you.

Photomatix HDR

As you can see they are virtually the same. However, using the features in Photomatix you can create stunning pieces of art like the following;

HDR from 3 RAW files

HDR from JPGs

I’ve ran a test using my dancer image and it seems that you can get just as good a result using 3 JPGs instead of 3 TIFFs. Its probably better to use TIFF’s as they will store more detail, but if you want can use JPGs well enough. There is a definite difference in using JPGs and TIFFs. I prefer the TIFF look. JPGs seem more saturated and noisier.

From 3 JPGs Being Creative

Removing EXIF

This is now redundant as the latest version of Photomatix, 2.3.1, will now detect if the EXIF info is the same and will ask you for confirmation on the various exposures of each shot. However if you need to you can use these tips to remove the EXIF. If you’re having trouble removing the EXIF from a TIFF I’ve found a couple of things you can use. You can copy the TIFF into a new document as save it. Useful when you don’t want the lossiness of save for web [eg PSDs or TIFFs] and you can create an action to do it as a batch function. There is also a program called, IrfanView that can supposedly edit EXIF.

For Aperture users, when you export versions click on the export preset drop down, then edit presets. If you select the full size TIFF or JPG preset then click + it will duplicate that. Then make sure that “include metadata” is unticked and click ok.

Conclusion

So that just about wraps up my HDR guide. I hope you found it interesting and a starting point for your own HDR images. Some people see HDR as just another fad but I really believe that it could have plenty of real world applications. I’m already exhibiting a couple of my shots in Liverpool. It definitely has its uses, but as with everything too much of a good thing can be bad for you. Feel free to check out my other HDR photos.

Credits and Links

Thanks to stollerdos for directing me to this great tutorial on HDR that explained the single RAW file trick.

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  • Tony
    Tutorial;
    On "Photoshop vs Photomatix
    With Photoshop you can create a HDR image from 3 RAW files very easily. Simply open them in PS, goto File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR. It’ll ask you where the source images are and then generate the HDR. "

    I have used Photomatix with great success for some time but thought i might have ago at photoshop HDR useing PS CS2,
    I don't seem to be able to load the image as suggested " File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR" I can browse the image which is a NEF but cannot get futher than OK.

    Any ideas please. Is the NEF file i'm using the same as RAW or do i have to convert?.

    Also mentioned; "Using the latest version of Photomatix, 2.3.1", Yet a visit to the link given there is no mention of this version. I am using Photomatix Pro 3.0, is this not the latest version ?
    I also notice no mention of Gamma in the tutorials ????.

    I have found the tutorial to be very helpful in fine arting my work.

    Thanks
  • One thing that I find interesting in all tutorials is that they never provide the sources of the things they are tutoring on. I have never found a tutorial on HDR photography that would provide the images with different exposure and then provide enough details to get a decent HDR out of them. Good tutorial, but could be improved by just adding a link to download the 3 images with different exposure. Thanks for the tutorial.
  • A valid point but I'd rather not give out my work in this way. Its not really that hard to go and take your own to play with after all.
  • Jon
    Great tut. Many thanks.
  • Nemecio
    gracias a la comunidad de desarrolladores
  • Ken
    Thank you for sharing! The dancer photo is stunning!
  • HUGO PEREZ RAMOS
    Espectacular una gran ayuda para los fotografos

    Cordialmente,

    HUGO PEREZ
  • Hi

    Thanks for the good information. Now I start to try the tutorial.


    Markus
  • Thanks for the great tutorial. Looks like a lot of other people really appreciated it as well.
  • nikhil
    Thanks bro
    nice tutorial
  • fenuaboy
    I am beginner and I have found your tutorial very usefull and well explained. So Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and keep on!!
  • Thanks for this information! I found the exposure settings in PS, and now I can make some great shots look so much better!
  • Jim
    Thanks so much for the tutorial! I've just discovered HDRs and am fascinated by them. Your tutorial was excellent!
  • Really good tutorial. I love the details given at the settings.
    Thanks!
  • Hi Pete,

    thanks for nice tutorial. I work with HDR (Photomatix 3.0) for some time, and still I have one problem, maybe you can help me. Everytime I work with pictures taken with a high dynamic pictures (e.g., 5 or more pictures and range for 10EV or more), I have a problem with noise. I see Photomatix the shadows from under-exposed pictures and light them, instead of taking overexposed pictures. As the results I have a HDR with INCREDIBLE noise! I havent found this problem on any forum. Please, could you tell me where I do a mistake???

    Thanks!

    Petr (CZ)
  • Your capture was brilliant! Processing even more so!
  • you can accomplish something very similar with the new topaz adjust plugin.

    see the digitalapplejuice tutorial and review
  • very extensive pictorial you have written .many thanks .

    I will give this a shot and see how it goes .
  • frank
    Great tutorial! Thanks.
  • Awesome tutorial! Bookmarked for later :D
  • Great tutorial and great work. I agree, wholeheartedly, that it is the end result that matters and that no potential buyer is going to care about the details of how much information is stored in the digital file.
    Now to go out and try this.
  • Jim Simon
    Thanks for the help. I think you should think about the advice you give on the 3 exposure process. Most recommend that the camera be set on aperture priority as the depth of field and distortion of the lens will change if the iris changes. I think that only allowing the shutter speeds to change is a better way to go.
  • I don't have Photoshop, but Google's Picasa can open RAW files. Can i use Picasa as tje RAW Editor?
  • Daniel
    Superb tutorial and I love the examples here. I came across a couple of excellent tutorials from sandmania. You can check his tutorials over on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandmania
  • Robin
    its very nice to see the tutorial of the hdr photography which i jst seen over here to upgrade my skills. actually i am doing my diploma leading to degree in printiing and graphics (pre-press) from holmesglen institutre of tafe and i want to make this stream as my future as i am very much interested in this field and wanted to crteate somethign new and attractive to throw light on the people about the imagination works.so, jst wanted to know that how can i make my future bright ny doing this
    hoping for your respective rply...
    thnx
    robin
  • Thanks for the Tutorial pete. The work looks great. Ive produced a few HDR images recently and find it very interesting. Everyone seems to be looking for a shortcut. If you produce 3 or more images and create a true HDR, the results are very clean and very sharp. It is not always possible (moving objects) but i try to do it the correct way as much as possible.

    Also, some people seem to be genuinely offended by HDR photography, which i completely dont understand. This is the future of photography. It is a lot closer to what our eyes see then standard exposure photography. This im sure will be used in consumer grade point and shoot cameras in the near future to make up for amateur photo mistakes (taking a photo of a subject with the sun behind them, or a room with an open window with sun glaring through). HDR can be done in 2 ways, one to create realistic looking images, or to create artistic looking images, it all depends on the tone maping.

    Keep up the great work!
  • Photomatix & Lightroom.

    I have just purchased Photomatix, I wondered if anyone can give me advice on this subject.
    If I take a photograph at the correct exposure then make an additional two copies totalling 3 images. Then take them into Lightroom and adjust one photos exposure to +2 and the next one at -2 the third at the correct exposure then transfer them to Photomatix is this the same as actually taking 3 separate photos with the camera at -2 +2 and 0. Will it give me the same effect.
    If so this seems to be much easier than doing it on the camera.
    www.daveuptonphotography.co.uk
  • Wow, great tutorial. Just started getting into hdr photography and this was a super help. Keep up the great work!
  • Hello,
    great tutorials, I did some myself for photomatix and then how I continue in photoshops, if it can help :

    http://photoserge.com/category/english-tutorials/
  • Hey!
    Iam having the same problem as yurisend. The saved file differs from the correction i have made i Photomatix. I have tried both TIF and JPG, but it seems like the tonemapping changes are not been saved.

    Help !
  • I've always looked at my photography as an end result for a Photoshop product to be manipulated. Your tutorial has really opened my eyes and changed the way I think about photography all together. I've since bought Photomatix and plan to try your tutorial. Thank you so much for your time and I would love to buy your book when it comes out. Take care and best wishes.
  • Anguskirk
    A few points:
    Some cameras like my Olympus E330 only have a +1 to -1 aeb. I get round this by setting the manual exposure to -2ev and then altering the shutter speed with a thumbwheel.

    If it doesn't involve long exposures, you can take perfectly good handheld HDR shots.

    Lightroom 2 has a handy feature whereby you can export photos directly from Lightroom to Photomatix.
  • michael deluca
    This tutorial has peaked my interest and now I'm going to CHDK my Canon SD790IS and attempt and doing some sports themed HDR images. Thanks for all your work in putting this stuff together. I've read a few other "tutorials" that only end up becoming arguments in the comments section over true HDR or simulated/saturated pseduo-HDR. Personally, I find this more interesting, if not, more artistic.
  • Impressive! Thank you for your generosity of sharing this
    artistic information. I will make use of it to step up my
    new style in photography. Very creative indeed.
  • Just posted on my blog HDR tutorial: Create HDR photos with free software. Qtpfsgui and GIMP can give you more impressive results than commercial HDR apps.
  • Thanks for the very useful tutorial. It's got me hooked and well on my way in the world of HDR.
  • Great tutorial of which I will be referring to a lot I feel.

    Have to comment on the excellent picture just under the heading 'Generating a HDRI from a single RAW file'. It made my day seeing the old stadium as an HDR.

    :)
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  • garf moreton
    Hi Pete,
    Im having problems getting RAW images ready for Photomatix. Ive managed very successfully to create some pleasing HDR photos from JPEGS,but like your photo of the girls dancing I wanted to follow that process of one RAW. First problem,Photoshop CS2 wont let me open the RAW file,it tells me it cannot complete the command because it is the wrong kind of document. So then I right click the thumbnail of a photo in my Canon Zoom Browser where I get an option of `Processing RAW images`. I click it and get a dialogue box up which allows me to change the exposure compensation,so far so good. I do so and save as 16bit TIFF. If I save the next one but it tells me the file already exists. Can I get round this by chnaging the name of it? It asks if I want to save it at 180 dpi? Is this enough or do I change it?
    If I try to use my Canon Digital photo professional software things are worse. I cant even find an option there to adjust the exposure in a measured fashion,only a brightness slider. So maybe you could give me some help on this. Incidentally,youre photos are quite brilliant and I love the HDR effect. It can make for a truly stunning photo.Are you able to tell me how you get your skies such a deep blue at the edges of the photos? Are you using a polarizing filter or are you using Photoshop for this? Or neither?!
    Many thanks
    Garfield
  • check out more HDR photos on http://sites.google.com/site/aashish59/HDR
  • Austin Graves
    I live in South Africa from Merseyside and I enjoyed your pics of Liverpool. Leave the pics alone!! I'm new to HDR and have just done a couple inside my house with a view outside with lighting differences. Not bad really, done in cs3. Thanks for the instruction.
  • haha :D I'm not actually an Evertonian. They were some examples I had to hand. I should really fix that :)
  • Austin Graves
    Wonderful tutorial especially that the author is an Evertonian
  • B MacSweeeee
    Great tutorial, thanks! I've been wondering (like many others apparently) about how to get HDR images of people/moving objects. Thanks for clearing that up about the single RAW approach!
  • Rafael
    Thank You very much!
  • Ross
    Hey all, just looking for some help....
    done the tutorial and after generating it gives a lovely high contrast result.
    Now saving this or going into tone mapping it goes back to being bland, saturated and lacking contrast, so i have to manually try adjust tones to try and get the same result back.

    any idea why this is?
    should i not use the beta version, or is it cause iam just using the free trial?
  • Awesome information and pics.

    I'll be bookmarking this page.

    Thx ^_^
  • A friend recently turned me onto HDR photography, and gave me this link to your tutorial.
    Very very helpful, thanks a bunch Pete.
    Your images are stunning! Been back to the site almost daily now!

    I've tried a couple HDR's of my own, not quite there yet.
    But I'll get it.
  • GREAT tutorial on HDR, I will have to try it out and see how it works
  • thank you soooo much, i was so lost with HDR before this tutorial... also i would like to know what to do with the last tab, the shadow clipping and saturation settings, the optimal settings for those would be great!
  • steve W
    Great HGR guide it covered all the unknowns that has stopped using HGR Many thanks
  • joe
    Great tutorial from a fellow scouser. Keep up the good work.
  • Bertrand
    Hi,

    First of all thanks for this great tutorial. I've learned more with this one than wit other one.

    However, I still have one doubt ragarding the way HDR has to be used with 1 or 3 RAW. One great thing with RAW images is that you can adjust the white balance later. So I was wondering at what stage the white balance has to be adjusted ? You said in your tutorial that you need to export your RAW images to TIFF images before playing with photomatix. Do we have to adjust the white balance before exportig RAW to TIFF, or is it still possible after Photomatix ? Or maybe I'm out of the subject !!!

    Thanks for your answer.
  • D Leatherbarrow
    Hi Pete. im a little stuck on photomatix, im using version 3 pro on the mac (is this the newest version?) and it wont let me copy your tutorial bit by bit - when i open all 3 tiffs into photomatix and say merge too - it wont give me the option of using the already opened images like you state, only browse and then open?
    Another question is do you pre edit the Raw negs before converting them, or do you just open and save them straight to tiffs?

    The finished master pieces you show at the top of the page - (excluding the demonstration image) did you shoot them with one RAW like the dancers in southport or did you use three RAWs (AEB)
    Cheers Pete and keep em coming!
  • yurisend
    This was a great tutorial. I have one concern though:

    When I save the image after tone mapping (using the default settings on photomatix), the image looks much different after I save it, and view it. Its hard to describe exactly how different, almost like there is a severe loss of detail, and lighting depth.

    Saving it as a 16-bit TIFF, or JPEG (no difference)
    Shooting it at ISO 100, so no noise
  • Binh
    Thank you very much!
    I have tried to use HDR for some weeks but the result is so bad. Your tutoral help me in using photomatix very much.
  • Anders
    Great tutorial.

    Have you tried using Hydra and Aperture together?
    If yes, will you write about it?
  • Hi , thank for the tutorial , i manage to snap couple of raw picture during my visit ,now are trying out to see how it look in HDR ..
  • Carol
    Thank you for your great tutorial. I have understand every single one of them even if I am just a beginner in HDR. Love artistic photos specially the fantasy effects. More power!
  • Thanks for this informative lesson... i am new in photography and nor formal lesson or courses but with this lessons i have learned a lot... Thanks and more power!
  • Very nicely done, thanks for making this available. You just flattened my HDR learning curve, can't wait to get into it! Thanks again!
  • Marc
    thanks for taking the time to write the guide. Its simple and motivational. I will definitely be taking HDR images ASAP
  • Nick Beddingfield
    after reading this guide to HDR i hav found facinateing..

    i will be trying out HDR for my self soon.
    i hav found that this guide has been made really easy with no awkward tetchno garbage.

    truely remarcable:)
  • You've just opened my eyes to a whole new world. Thank you.
  • Jim
    I am just getting started in HDR and am most appreciative to the time and effort that you must have put into this tutorial.
  • @petar - Thanks. At the end of the day I'm not hugely interested in the physics. Theres lots of basic stuff about my camera that I should know but I don't feel I need to. I get results I'm happy with.
  • petar
    Your article is nice and useful from a practical point of view, however reading it makes me suspect that you don't know what the mathematical/physical process behind HDR is. I warmly recommend you read the original paper (linked to in Wikipedia). Then you will be able to write a much less vague comparison between 1 RAW vs 3 AEB. All the best.
  • DEC
    Any chance you could post a couple more details on your images you took? I am especially interested in the wedding one: camera used, settings, number of photos taken for the composite hdr, tripod or hand held etc? It's beyond me how you could catch the dresses in motion and then combine for the hdr without blur.

    regards,
  • Craig
    "Keep your words soft and sweet, in case you have to eat them."

    Please consider my asshat response to be temporary insanity and accept my apologies.

    I did not notice the B/W on the top navigation bar and my knee-jerk reaction was that of a jerk.

    --> eats words from previous post <--
  • @Craig. You can change the theme using the "B/W" at the top.
  • Craig
    I'd love to go thru this tutorial, the but the tiny white text on the black background is chuffin silly.

    What a bad presentation for what I have heard to be a first-class tutorial.

    Off to find another tutorial I can actually read and follow along with...
  • cristina
    i am so confused my images are not turning out the way it should i need guidance :) i was wondering how you took the pics with people in it i have a nikon d40 and i have to set the exposure each time i take a picture... maybe someone can help .. thnk you cristina
  • ah great! your tutorial works!
    thanks :D
  • K
    Where (how) did you do the dancer photo if 3 images are required to do it right? Or is that one from a single file?
  • Stuart
    Fantastic Photos, I was wondering if there is ANY way to do an HDR from 1 file in Photoshop.... Hope so.
  • mario (Genova - Italia)
    Grazie. Ottimo sito e grande tutorial. Complimenti per le tue foto.
  • Eric Higgins
    Hi brilliant photos was wondering how you got that shot of the 3 graces from the albert dock shame i cannot read any of the text with it being white on black is there anyway io can change this so i can read what is being said in your tutorial & article.Shame it is not like this black on white
  • CARLOS
    I have a problem, i use pentax photo lab. to process images and when trying to open tiff files in photomatix (FOR MAC) apears a message saying "Multiple-strip TIFF files not supported" so it cannot open the file..... is it cause i'm using mac software or my pentax photo lab. is exporting some extra files????? can anyone help? has somebody had this problem???
  • Bong Errazo
    Hi,

    Greetings from New Zealand.

    I have to say your tutorial was a big help for me. Thanks very much.
  • Thanks for the great tutorial.
  • Stu
    Good enough tutorial but there seems to be a fair amount of noise in my images - even if I'm taking them at f/5.6 @ ISO 200 on a bright sunny day.
  • Martin Palm
    Heya Pete,

    Thanks for a great tutorial, it has enabled me to get into HDR without much work. I've always thought it to be a much harder process!

    Sorry if the upcoming question is silly.. I can't seem to find the AEB function on my Nikon D80. Does such a function exist or is it called something else in Nikonlanguage?

    Regards,
    /Martin
  • denisugandi
    tks. superb, tks for sharing
  • yarp
    hye pete..nice tutorial u got there..just a quest..for the AEB,do u use RAW or JPG format?just wanna know...
  • Great! Well done!
  • Raisorsharp
    Ignore my last question. Should have paid more attention. Once again great tutorial.
  • Raisorsharp
    Great tutorial. Question. In the case with the 3 photos of the dancers, how did you take 3 shots 2 ev appart all at the same time (I noticed the dancers had not moved)?
  • ryankenn
    I'm having trouble getting Photoshop to recognize the raw format pictures my E20D is giving me. I have no problems with the process of AEB itself, but selecting raw in the cameras menu gives a CR2 file format which from what I've found is Canon's own Raw file format. How can I get a raw file Photoshop can read?
  • Very impressive
  • AngryScrewdriver
    Liverpools anglican cathederal B+W photo - absolutely stunning. I am putting the wife out on to the streets right now to get enough money together to buy a print. Well done !!!
  • AngryScrewdriver
    Great extensive tutorial, while reading I felt the urge to visit the loo, was it it the goodison pics ?
  • Great extensive tutorial, while reading I felt the urge to make some HDRs again!
  • Mitchell
    This has been of much much help! :) Thanks!
  • thanks,it was very useful
  • Elis Lasop
    A very well constructed tutorial, I can't wait to buy photomatrix and try shooting some great photos to use, thanks for that tutorial mate!
  • Ron
    Do you know of any time-lapse work being done in HDR?
  • Thank you, your guide has helped me a lot, although I don't use Photomatix anymore, but Dynamic Photo HDR.

    The only problem that occurs to me is when I process a photo that has a lot of clouds in it; much grain/noise appears in it and I have to reduce it with the blur tool. The results aren't as good as one would've expected.

    What do you do when you get noise in the clouds?
  • Howard Winwood
    Must say some of your photos look absolutely stunning (all look good!) Some comments above say they look too processed, normally I would agree, most HDR shots look far too processed and very sombre, but you have acheived an almost watercolour effect in some of the shots which I think look fabulous. I would think you stand more chance of selling like this than the original. Super tutorial, you have shown me what HDR can really do, thanks - I nearly gave up!!
  • Albert
    How do you remove the EXIF from TIFFs in Photoshop?
  • wow
    That's sweet. Thanks for tips.
  • Michael
    Hi Pete...
    how did you do your condi-rice-liverpool-05 shot? I think it´s a true HDR but how did you get the people so sharp if it´s 3 or more shots? or did you fake it somehow?
  • Hi,

    I just feel like with all these 'HDR-ing' tutorials coming to light, the actual usage of this process and the images produced should be highlighted.

    High Dynamic Range images are used by 3D artists to add information to the scene that would not be available in a standard skybox or reflect map - the high range includes blacks and whites that react to the subject of the scene being rendered, whereas the result would be very flat if only a standard image is used.

    This is because a 16-bit image (such as captured on a DSLR) will contain only so much information, and outputting a render at 16-bit will thus only be able to draw upon that much information. It's similar in a way to a good speaker and amp system - where the amp has a lot more capacity than will be required thus will not distort at high levels. So an HDR image (before it is flattened in the process mentioned above back to an 8- or 16-bit image) will contain 48-bits of colour per pixel, which allows the 3D program to pull out more than enough information to produce a dynamic-lit scene.

    Of course, this process causes a lot more detail in the image to be exposed, whereas in a single image some would be lost by the uniform exposure. Therefore this technique CAN be used by photographers to bring out more detail in a single photograph (print) than would be available in the single image technique more easily (nothing beats a good understanding of photography for producing great photographs).

    Lastly, the images produced by the Tonal Mapping process (beyond the standard usage of HDRi) can look fantastical or painted or somehow 'drawn'. This is because our eyes naturally see the dynamic nature of a scene, thus as we view it or imagine it, as we paint we will put an emphasis on details in a dynamic way. Because HDRi includes more information, and we can manipulate the flattening process, we can achieve a result that amazingly looks as though it was somehow not a photograph.

    Thanks for explaining the process so well, I just feel people should not follow these tutorials blindly without understanding what they are doing.

    Regards,
    David
  • Larissa
    This was VERY helpful. As I am a trainee under a professional photographer, I was keen to understand a little more about different aspects of photography. Very well written and surprizingly easy to understand.
  • thanks a thousand for this tutorial. I have visited many times already to consult your manual.
  • Matt
    Hi, I enjoyed reading your tutorial. By the way I also checked out Ryan McGinnis's tutorial through the link you provided and I have to say I thought some of his comments in regard to results achieved in Photomatix were pretty juvenile. It seems like you weren't too insulted by them, but I think Ryan's opinion of himself is a little bit inflated. I speak as somebody who has decades of working in the New York City graphics industry. I've worked on some of best-known publications in the world and I think Ryan needs to get a grip. He may very well be the hottest Photoshop guy in Lincoln, Nebraska, but judging by the images he's posted his talent isn't really scary enough to justify the opnion he seems to have of his own abilities. The same goes for a few of the people who have been rude in this comments thread. I appreciate the effort you put into providing this tutorial and people should either utilize your advice or don't, but it's incredibly immature to insult your efforts. Anyway, the real reason I'm commenting is that although I'm fairly familiar with Photomatix and have produced some images that I think are quite good there are a couple of things that bother me about the program and it's lack of documentation. I was hoping I would find some answers in your tutorial, but it's also a little vague in the areas I'm talking about. I'd be interested if you could give more information on what you think the control sliders in Photomatix are actually DOING. I have a very good understanding of what white and black clipping points are, but the way Photomatix uses the term doesn't seem to correspond directly to the way clipping points are used in Photoshop for example. In Photoshop setting a white clipping point means that pixels at a value above that point will be "clipped" or white. It doesn't seem to be the same in Photomatix and when you say in your tutorial "the white clip adjusts the highlight contrast and the black clip adjusts the shadow contrast" it doesn't really provide the information I'm looking for. What do you mean by "highlight contrast"? (I'm not trying to be a wise-ass here I'm sincerely curious and would appreciate your thoughts) By definition contrast is one thing "compared to or contrasted" to another so I don't really see what the heck "highlight contrast" is. If it means highlight brightness or something like that–that's a very different thing. I'm not trying to split hairs I'm genuinely confused by the vagueness. I'd be very interested in reading an expanded explanation of what you think the control sliders are really "doing" in Photomatix. For instance you mentioned not setting light smoothing below 0, but could you give your opinion of what light smoothing is actually trying to do when the image is being tone mapped. Like I said–I appreciate your effort and I'd REALLY appreciate you giving us the benefit of your experience with the software in some detail. thanks
  • hi pete, i downloaded the pro version of photomatix a few weeks ago having seen tonemapped images on different sites. i have been enjoying playing around with it. then i grabbed a version of dslr user (nov issue) and saw your article. congratulations on an excellent and inspiring article and cracking images. this led me to your site. great tutorial and i will be using it to hopefully improve my shots.

    cheers, gary.
  • PS: previous post looks weird :P The codes didn't really worked out I guess haha.

    Anyway, after 'could' should be "check it out?" ;)
  • Hi!

    Great info/tutorial on HDR and the whole process. I used your info and some other websites on the side to make my first serious attempt at HDR photography.

    If you have some time, maybe you could

    It's not yet perfect and I'm not satisfied with the result, but it looks like HDR allready :P haha.

    Greetz, Wibo
  • HDR
    I have just updated my HDR photo essay showing the amazing ungami festival in northern okinawa. This amazing festival was quite and honor to attend.
  • Juan Pinalez II
    This tutorial is exceptional and incredibly helpful; I appreciate your hard work and praise you for the recent recognition.
    The salient works of HDR art you produce are inspiring.
    I hope the images continue to send coruscating ripples through the photographic community.
  • GaB
    I've discovered a new wonderful world of photography, thanks for your hdr guide.
  • oca_9i
    Hi, tks for yr explaination...i'm a newbie to HDR. i've found ur website through a member of HDR group on Flickr.
    Again, tks.
  • eldirector
    спасибо мастер) Gracias Maestro
  • Kiko
    Really thx for your guide Pete !!
    I'm just introducing to the HDR world and now I have found your guide that help me like a GPS in a stranger city !!
    And really compliments for your shots !
    C'ya
    - Kiko -
  • Great article and a really great website too - I dig the black design.
  • samxxx
    hi

    this tutorial is really good and helpful for me..

    thank you
  • Also, I've found that when I have created an HDR image that has elements within it that don't line up , I can clone them in using one of the bracketed shots that most closely resembles the HDR image. I recently took an 11-exposure HDR image of a marina. The scene featured boats which were bobbing up and down in the water and also people who were moving on the docks. After merging the images, I noticed that some of the boats were very blurry and the people on the docks that appeared in one image but not in the rest looked like ghosts. I went back over these trouble areas with the clone tool using single select images that featured these details and painted them in, then dodged and burned them in to some form of realism. Not the best method, I'm sure, but it did improve the image a great deal.
  • Someone mentioned using Vibration Reduction while bracketing for HDR, and I would have to discourage that. The VR function (on the Nikon 18-200mm lens, at least) can cause the frame to jump a little bit, resulting in images that won't line up precisely when they are merged (you can use the function that allows you to align them, but that doesn't always work, and it makes the process take much longer.) Great tutorial, by the way. I had always wondered exactly how HDR images were produced that featured moving subjects, but now I see that they are created from a single file. Thanks. Keep it up.
  • Jim
    Hi Pete, Really enjoyed the changes you made in your tutorial.

    Here are 2 more hdr links: HDR for the love of light, the art of HDR featuring photographers from Flickr.

    http://www.apogeephoto.com/feb2007/jaustin22007...

    http://www.apogeephoto.com/march2007/jaustin032...
  • Hello

    Really good! Nice Tutorial!

    If you need a tutorial in german, visit my homepage:
  • I've done a few HDR's with Photomatix Pro and the results are nothing short of spectacular. The only trouble I have is figuring out where to meter. I bracket at +-2 and I usually try to meter on a neutral area, but that doesn't always work out. When I shoot for HDR, it's usually in low light, so my grey card isn't much help in the metering either. any pointers?

    Before Photomatix my method was exposing for the foreground (or subject) and darkening the sky post-processing in CS2. Photomatix seems to get better results and with a more creative range.
  • Very good! Thanks alot!
  • Reef
    Gail, I experienced that problem once. I think it occurred when I processed 3 JPGs, however it has never happened when processing TIFFs, etc. I think it's something to do with the outer row of pixels having insufficient information (as they have less neighbouring pixels) when [compressed] JPGs are used, thus they cannot be calculated and are removed. RAW images do not have this problem as each pixel contains enough information by itself, at least that's my theory - hope it helps...
  • Hi Gail. I did a pano HDR once and I didn't have that issue. You could try doing it the other way round. Maybe make the panorama from each bracketed image so you have 3 pano's and then load them into Photomatix. It might be quite memory intensive. Or you could crop each one to a specific size.
  • Gail
    Wonderfully informative tutorial!! Thanks!
    My question is this: After I bring in my images to Photomatix the size of the image changes ever so slightly.

    This is a problem because I use Stitcher for my panos and it will not accept images of different sizes. Can you help with this? Is there a setting I'm missing?

    When I first bring in the images off the digital camera ALL are the same size. It's just after bringing them into Photomatix.

    Thanks.
    Gail
  • ian stuart
    to remove data in photoshop select all, copy, file, new, ( make it the same size as the clipboard ! ) paste, then flatten. The new canvas has no data on it at all as it was generated in photoshop !
  • This is a real tutorial, and has been published AND I linked to the Naturescapes.net tutorial months ago. So ner :p
  • Francesco
  • Martin Zeile
    @kate: by bying it you get rid of the text ;)
  • in using photomatix is there anyway to get rid of that photomatix text?
  • Follow up to my previous post: It looks like I wasn't paying attention to the fact that my ISO was set at 800.
  • I have a question about my camera and high dynamic range; I've been shooting HDR regularly for six months, and I am noticing that over time my tone-mapped images are becoming more noisy, looking less sharp. I don't notice this in non-HDR photos, but it is really messing up my pics that are in HDR. Can digital cameras succumb to wearing out? Or can I take the camera in for service?
  • Ann
    Thank you for sharing your expertise. I am trying to convert a single image and for some reason cannot import my jpeg photo into Photomatix, the text grey's out so I can't select it. What the heck? I've been trying to figure this out for hours, any advice would sure be appreciated. Thanks!
  • I just made my first HDR image last night after reading Pete's wonderful tutorial. I created a 16bit TIFF from Photomatix but noticed it was darker than what I saw on the tonemapping screen. Is that normal? I ended up lightening it a little in PSP.

    Here's the end result:

    www.flickr.com/photos/rockymtns99/

    Look for the Longmont Farm Scene shot. Any comments would be appreciated.

    Thanks!
  • I learned alot from this, thank you for teaching me how to HDR effectively. I love it.

    martin
  • Martin Zeile
    Hi!
    Thank you for this tutorial, very inspiring! Despite some other authors I regard HDRs from 1 RAW very creative and a supprisingly strong technique.

    I was reading a lot about HDRI lately, but one question is still not being answered:
    I am using Photomatix to create the HDR with one RAW or a series of RAW files. Still, my results are looking too "realistic". I have two suggestions what is the source of the problem, but even trying to avoid the I don't get the desired result.
    1) Could it be that I'm afraid of clipping (according to Histogram)?
    2) I'm not post-processing the image sufficiently. A lot of authors describe using "some Photoshop adjustments" after processing the image in Photomatix. Is it possible that reality is that there is "a lot of" Photoshop postprocessing needed?
    Am I right in my suggestions or totally wrong. I would appreciate if you would share your experience.
    By the I am shooting with a Canon 10D in RAW format. Histogram of RAW-Images is balanced if using one RAW.

    Thanks in advance
  • Jimmy
    My camera has a min iso of 200 and I have been getting pictures that are ultra grainy and full of noise. Is there any way to get a crystal clear shot with a D70 and still retain all the cool details of HDR?
  • A very nice exposition for HDR photography. I like a lot.
    Regards
  • spud
    All I get is that there isn't enough info to make an HDR image. What am I doing wrong?
  • nim
    what the heck are you doing? do you have any idea of what HDRI is good for or are you just monkeying around and confusing people with your so called tutorials??
  • Thanks a lot for this tutorial. It helped me to start with HDR. I have 3 questions for you:

    1. Among all the parameters, what is the parameter you normally play with first?

    2. The only problem I found is that, with ISO200 your HDR pic will be like ISO800. I have a dslr with min iso is 200. What is your suggestion to get around this?

    3. BTW, if my goal is just to get nice exposure blending (not arty picture) what is the general setting for this?

    Thanks.
  • I can't begin to describe how much this tutorial helped me. Thank you so much for all the preciuss informations that you gave here: concise, clear, very well-written and described, making it easy to understand for everybody. HDR is certainly a great way to make your photos look great and arty like. Thank you again for your help.
  • Why would you want to remove the EXIF? Is it that the processing steps invalidate the info there?
  • Virtual Dark Priest
    i reaaaaaalllly appreciate this tutorial because now, besides i get it from one jpeg photo, i have made some awesome pictures. Thanks a lot for your tutorial.
  • Hello! I think this was really helpfull.

    thanks!
  • I wouldn't spend the extra for the Photoshop Plugin. I can't say I've ever though about needing it. The standalone application works well enough.
  • Tyler Wind
    Pete--This article was nothing short of SPECTACULAR! I have been posting questions on photo.net and reading other sources for literally MONTHS and just learned more in 5 minutes from your page than the rest of these sources combined. My goal as I begin HDR/DRI/TTHDR (whatever it is...I'm with you--it's all about end result!) my goal is not something "over the top" or "cartoonish" but rather a photography that is CLOSER to what my eye really saw and the camera failed to capture. I'm trying to make decisions on what software to buy. I already have Photoshop CS2 and have experimented with a trial version of Photomatix, which I like a lot. I was thinking about buying Photomatix but was unsure if I should spend the extra $10 and also get the Photoshop plug-in. Is there any point in having Photomatix and the Photomatix plug-in for Photoshop? As I said, they give you a steep discount price for adding in the plug-in (it's normally $59 but you only pay $10 if you buy it with the Photomatix program). If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for putting together this article--I'll be directing many more people over to read it!
  • Very, very cool! Thanks!!!
  • clem
    Hi Pete,

    I've got a few related questions... I'm thinking of purchasing the Nikon D40 camera which does not have auto exposure bracketing. Will I still be able to get away with taking 3 images that superimpose perfectly if i use a tripod? Or will fiddling with the buttons stop me from doing this? I will probably purchase the nice 18-200 VR lens which features image stabilising. Will that help? Should I get the D50 instead?
  • stelis
    Hi Pete,

    Thanks for your awesome tutorial, I was wondering if its possible to create HDRIs from 3 RAW files taken in brackets (-2, 0, +2) instead of JPEGs with photomatrix.
  • Thanks for the great tutorial, Been wanting to try this for the first time
  • Dan
    Hey Pete,

    Cracking work - so professional mate! Keep it up Dan
    (aka DirtyMonkey)
  • Alan
    Thanks Pete,

    I am relatively new to Photography and gone from knowing nothing to being quite excited about HDR in one day. Great job, a very informative and easy to follow tutorial. To all those people on other sites who complain about HDR, isn't Photography also about about imaginative image creation not just exact replication of a scene?

    Alan
  • This seems to be the best tutorial I read about HDR!

    Maybe I can add a suggestion? Lately I have been experimenting in making RAWs to Black/White and I found the superior method is using photomatix Details Enhancer with Saturation set to zero. I have used all kinds of plugins, actions and scripts, and while comparing results I liked the Photomatix way the best! Please try it out yourself.

    Lawrence
  • Geoffrey
    Interesting . I have seen some pics on the RPS Digit folio recently and decided to have a go.

    Geoffrey
  • @ Brain: Yet paintings are allowed to be anything they want? Why can't photography? These are closer to what the eye sees than most photos. Imagine if you're shooting a sunset. You point the camera at the sun and it exposes for the sun putting everything else into shadow. You don't see things like that with your eyes but that makes a perfectly good photograph. Why? Is it because we're used to it? Is it because its the norm? If you read my guide before judging my work you'll see that I'm trying to teach people the software so they can produce anything from a normal image to something extreme. My images are just to show people one way of doing things. Take a look at my other HDR shots and you'll see the various results you can get. I've got a lot of positive feedback from people I really respect. So if they think its ok, I'm happy with the route I'm taking. People buy the end result. They buy what they see and what they like. If they like it, does it matter whether it was a photograph or a painting? Its all art.
  • Hi.
    Here is another great tutorial with photomatix screenshots:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/amery/100264396/

    and

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/amery/100264209/

    (click for zoom in)

    rgds,

    Luis
  • Brian
    To me, these HDR images look too processed or fake. I mean, my eyes don't normally see things this way so why would I want pictures to look like this? I know HDR has its uses but these examples are pretty over the top to me.

    E.g. the HDR-ified picture of the dancers looks like a painting, not a photo.

    My $0.02
  • @ Michael - I used the 1 shot RAW method to create 3 TIFF's from 1 single RAW file.
  • Michael
    Hi there - question: what camera did you use in order to shoot those three shots of the dancers in rapid succession? I've got a Canon D30 and was wondering what type of equipment or lens is fast enough. I assume you need a combination of LOT of light and a very fast lens to pull off a shot like this in mid-motion.
  • Telmo
    very nice
  • reezeh
    A nice tutorial Pete. Any more coming soon?
  • @ Rezwan: You'll see in the guide that I mention producing a HDR image from 1 single RAW file. You alter the exposure of that file to produce the 3 TIFF's needed.
  • Rezwan
    Hi, just a quick question. How did you take the example pictures that you used (the one with women dancing)? Because obviously the people were moving in between you took three pictures with different exposures. Is there something I am missing?
  • Sanem
    Hi Pete,
    just to let you know: your tutorials are highly appreciated!
  • @ johnvid: Its quite possible that the more exposure you have the more detail you'll get, but I'm happy enough with 3.
  • Hi There, I thought for a true HDR images, six exposures would cover the range better, without tweaking the levels, though tweaking the levels gives more dramatic images. I was under the impression that 6 exposures was the norm for HDR which I use panoramics for 3D environments.
  • linux/mac osx guy
    I prefer Linux tools that are free and much more powerful than Photomatix. These tools also work on Mac OSX.

    Non GUI (command line "core" of all Linux HDR tools with incredible power). Great for batch processing:
    http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/resources/pfstools/

    GUI:
    http://theplaceofdeadroads.blogspot.com/2006/07...
  • sno
    great stuff! some recog :D
  • many thanks!!!

    Jan Kratochvil
  • PhotoDrama
    That's a great tutorial and all, but the tiff/jpg thing, is a photographer myth.
  • romeral
    Hi Pete, I'm new to HDR, and downloaded several tutorials to start learning. I've found yours the most instructive and useful. Thanks a lot.
  • Hi Pete,

    This is a nice HDR tutorial! It compares normal HDR processing to RAW, which is interesting to me because I havent used raw format before.

    Just wanted to let you know that HDRs can also be made from 1 jpg.

    For more info, read my tutorial

    Kind regards,
    Christiaan
  • Marty
    Thanks for pointing me to your HDR guide! This is going to help me out alot!
  • If you'd use the HDR plugin from hdrsoft (photomatix) you can do this directly by setting your RAW in ACR to 16 bits, and then do the tonemapping, results are a lot better, i use it a lot (look at my gallery for examples :))
  • Chase
    this tutorial really helped me alot. I wondered how people got shots of subjects moving around. Now I know I can just use 1 RAW image and change the settings on the image to create a good HDRI.
  • Dave
    How do you remove the EXIF from TIFFs in Photoshop?
  • Anybody uses capture one? i have no idea how to remove EXIF data for TIFF in CAPTURE ONE?
  • D Ellison
    Well thanks for this tutorial, I'm surprised no one else has left a response. Normally I HDR with dodge and burn but I'll definately give this a crack, thanks muchly.
  • Hi

    I just found the answer to my question. It might be useful to inc;ude this in your tutorial.

    To remove EXIF data for TIFF (16bit) exports ensure that the 'Include metadata' checkbox is not ticked.
    This setting can be found by going to Aperture->Preferences->Edit and highlighting the TIFF (16bit) option.

    Cheers
    Dave
  • Hi

    Nice tutorial.

    I have 1 question; How do you strip the EXIF data in Aperture when exported the RAW as a TIFF?

    Cheers
    Dave
  • Awesome! Thanks so much!
  • stever
    apprently tonemapping the raw file in photomatix (once converted into a useable format) gets the same result as splitting it into 3 and merging them - the information is all in the original raw.

    nice tutorial though. thanks.
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