HDR Masterclass

Chris H · February 8, 2011

I wrote an article for Digital Photographer Magazine in the UK recently on High Dynamic Range Imaging, so thought I'd share it here.

I've written a further 3 articles for the magazine since this one, including interior shooting tips in the current issue. I'll post future articles in due course. To keep up to date you can follow me on Facebook.

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Cheers

Chris

pathfinder · February 8, 2011

Lovely article and images well rendered, Chris.

I love working with HDR images for landscapes, waterfalls, night scenes, urban grit, and more too.

Chris H · February 9, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

Lovely article and images well rendered, Chris.

I love working with HDR images for landscapes, waterfalls, night scenes, urban grit, and more too.

Many thanks!

TUeltzen · February 10, 2011

Nice article. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Chris H · February 11, 2011

TUeltzen wrote: »

Nice article. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Pleasure Tim, be sure to look out for further articles in the coming weeks.

Lesley Bray · February 11, 2011

Thank you - I enjoyed reading the tutorial and I am going to try it
Lesley

Chris H · February 13, 2011

Lesley Bray wrote: »

Thank you - I enjoyed reading the tutorial and I am going to try it
Lesley

many thanks Lesley

mickicd · February 13, 2011

Chris H wrote: »

I wrote an article for Digital Photographer Magazine in the UK recently on High Dynamic Range Imaging, so thought I'd share it here.

I've written a further 3 articles for the magazine since this one, including interior shooting tips in the current issue. I'll post future articles in due course. To keep up to date you can follow me on Facebook.

Click for Article

Facebook page

Cheers

Chris

Your work is awesome! I have not done any HDR photography yet but am going to get my feet wet this week.

MileHighAko · February 13, 2011

Very much looking forward to the indoor photography article. Thanks for sharing.

Chris H · February 14, 2011

MileHighAko wrote: »

Very much looking forward to the indoor photography article. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, I'll be posting the interiors article at the beginning of March. Out of courtesy to the magazine I only post the articles once the issue they appeared in is superseded.

Upcoming articles are as follows:
March - Interior Shooting Tips
April - Big Feature on Architectural Photography (10 page spread)
May - Low light shooting Masterclass

Cheers

Chris

HDRoamer · February 14, 2011

Thank you Chris! Great article and I'm looking forward to the rest you have coming. HDR has been fun and interesting to learn and understand.

eoren1 · February 14, 2011

Hi Chris
Thanks for the article. I've gotten into HDR (again) in the past year and really enjoy taking these images. A couple of questions about your workflow that weren't mentioned in the article:
1. Do you do anything to the RAW files before importing into Photomatix? My current setup is to import into LR 3 and select all brackets, adjust WB so it is the same for all (I typically shoot in AutoWB so it can shift among the brackets) then select the lens correction and remove any sharpening. I also change the tone curve to linear.
2. You mention taking exposure 2 EVs apart. Have you found any benefit to smaller changes such as 1EV? I had previously been advised to shoot at 1EV brackets to minimize the chance for halos and other artifacts that can occur with HDRs.
3. What do you do to the images after Photomatix? I find I need to adjust the tone curve and add some additional contrast, often push blacks a bit and adjust sharpening.
Thanks
E

Chris H · February 15, 2011

eoren1 wrote: »

Hi Chris
Thanks for the article. I've gotten into HDR (again) in the past year and really enjoy taking these images. A couple of questions about your workflow that weren't mentioned in the article:
1. Do you do anything to the RAW files before importing into Photomatix? My current setup is to import into LR 3 and select all brackets, adjust WB so it is the same for all (I typically shoot in AutoWB so it can shift among the brackets) then select the lens correction and remove any sharpening. I also change the tone curve to linear.
2. You mention taking exposure 2 EVs apart. Have you found any benefit to smaller changes such as 1EV? I had previously been advised to shoot at 1EV brackets to minimize the chance for halos and other artifacts that can occur with HDRs.
3. What do you do to the images after Photomatix? I find I need to adjust the tone curve and add some additional contrast, often push blacks a bit and adjust sharpening.
Thanks
E

Eyal,

Thanks for your queries, using your number:

1. If I’m working on HDR I usually go into one of the RAW files and set the white balance as I like it, note the figure and then import RAW directly into Photomatix and set the white balance using the ‘RAW conversion settings’ dialogue box using the figure I noted. Though I’ve found that leaving it on ‘as shot’ works pretty well, I sometimes do this to produce a test image to see how the combined image might look. I didn’t go into it in the article but for architectural work I use exposure fusion as it gives more natural looking images without any colour casts. For this I set the white balance in RAW and convert to 16-bit tiffs with no sharpening, I then use the tiff files to create the exposure fusion, this eliminates any risk of the white balance being off. I do all my lens correction and sharpening in Photoshop later.

2. I would agree that using shots 1EV apart reduces the risk of artefacts and halos, I was really just pointing out that for very high contrast scenes taking say 10 shots increases the risk of camera movement (which contribute to artefacts) and costs you time in taking the shots and post processing. I’ve found that for most instances shots between 1 & 2EV apart work just fine, Photomatix is getting pretty good at dealing with halos. Though, as I tend to go for a more natural look to my photographs, halos are rarely an issue (they tend to become more apparent with the overcooked look).

3. I tend to use Photomatix to get the image as close as possible to the final shot, but it isn’t as powerful as Photoshop at fine tuning. I use Photoshop to make lens corrections, adjust levels, add a bit of contrast using curves, clone out any dust spots, tweak any colour casts if there are any remaining and add sharpening. Like you I prefer to push the shadows and highlights in Photoshop using more precise adjustment rather than Photomatix which can be a bit clumsy.

Cheers

Chris

eoren1 · February 15, 2011

Thanks Chris for the detailed responses. Really appreciate the look into your workflow.
E

chrisjohnson · February 15, 2011

Very good article. Is Photomatix easy to integrate with RAWs imported via Aperture?

Chris H · February 15, 2011

goldenballs wrote: »

Very good article. Is Photomatix easy to integrate with RAWs imported via Aperture?

Hi Chris, from what I understand it is pretty seemless. I don't use Aperture myself so can't comment in detail I'm afraid. The best thing to do is download the trial and give it a go.

Professional · February 16, 2011

I didn't read the article and i don't have the magazine, but i am sure you are doing great about it, i wish one day i can write articles, many people asking about my HDR, but it seems you people are doing better with HDR and explanation than me.

Good luck!

Jason Hermann · February 17, 2011

Great article and thanks for sharing!

Best,
Jay

Chris H · February 18, 2011

Jason Hermann wrote: »

Great article and thanks for sharing!

Best,
Jay

Thanks Jay, look forward to seeing the blog.

To anyone else reading this, please feel free to post the article in your blog, as long as you link to my website.

Cheers

Chris

Hntr · February 18, 2011

Great article Chris, I'm sure it will improve my excursions into HDR! Thanks for sharing.

HDR Masterclass

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